If they wish to incentivize purchasing of domestic manufactured goods then surely they would welcome this? Consumers could see at a glance if they where buying American, or paying a penalty to buy foreign. I don't get the WH response.
Amazon Rules Out Displaying Tariff Impact After White House Attack
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Re: Amazon Rules Out Displaying Tariff Impact After White House Attack
#72If they wish to incentivize purchasing of domestic manufactured goods then surely they would welcome this? Consumers could see at a glance if they where buying American, or paying a penalty to buy foreign. I don't get the WH response.
It makes Trump look bad, and that dude is fragile. If Amazon were marking "made in America" WH would be all for it.
Re: Amazon Rules Out Displaying Tariff Impact After White House Attack
#73Whenever I visit the US I get annoyed that the prices listed on the store shelves aren't actually what I pay; in Europe all prices are VAT-inclusive, but in the US none of the prices include sales tax, they're all broken out separately at checkout. I found this unreasonable and confusing until one day I read a conservative argument that this is actually a good thing, because it stops the government from increasing sa…
He is correct too. Compare tax rates in the European continent to the USA. US taxes are much lower. Some states, like New Hampshire, have 0 sales tax. So if you buy something that costs a dollar, you actually pay a dollar. Not 1.06 like in Pennnsylvania, or a whopping 1.27 like in Hungary.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1f/EU_VAT_T...
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8b/Sales_ta...
Re: Amazon Rules Out Displaying Tariff Impact After White House Attack
#74Politics aside, how could they decide not to show it? If something cost $50 yesterday and now suddenly it's $75 or $100 with no explanation wouldn't that make more people think it's inflation which in turn has its own set of negative impacts? No one is just going to blindly forget a massive price hike on a wide range of things. All this does is allow businesses to raise their prices arbitrarily and blame tarrifs on t…
That’s why it can’t be “politics aside”: a politician decidedly unilaterally to make one of the largest tax hikes in American history. There just isn’t a way to talk about that without recognizing that it was a political act made for political reasons.
I think you’re right about the cover this provides for businesses, too, which makes it interesting from a political standpoint. The president clearly recognizes that the tariffs are a political liability if voters are allowed to see the unblended costs but if the costs are hidden, that gives carte blanche to every business to raise prices now knowing that consumers will assume it’s tariff-related like all of the other price increases they’re seeing.
Re: Amazon Rules Out Displaying Tariff Impact After White House Attack
#75[dupe] More discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43831027
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43832588
Re: Amazon Rules Out Displaying Tariff Impact After White House Attack
#76There is no regulation or legislation that is telling Amazon they can/can't or should/shouldn't post this information. Amazon appears to be responding to the wishes of the President out of fealty or fear. The threat of a negative response by the President is enough to change the behavior of the company.
Pretty much I consider data on aws as compromised from now on.
There's a reason the EU is suddenly a lot more eager to migrate away from the US cloud providers.
Re: Amazon Rules Out Displaying Tariff Impact After White House Attack
#77Now we need a browser extension that DOES show the tariff impact on purchases. Inquiring minds want to know.
Re: Amazon Rules Out Displaying Tariff Impact After White House Attack
#78Whenever I visit the US I get annoyed that the prices listed on the store shelves aren't actually what I pay; in Europe all prices are VAT-inclusive, but in the US none of the prices include sales tax, they're all broken out separately at checkout. I found this unreasonable and confusing until one day I read a conservative argument that this is actually a good thing, because it stops the government from increasing sa…
He is correct too. Compare tax rates in the European continent to the USA. US taxes are much lower. Some states, like New Hampshire, have 0 sales tax. So if you buy something that costs a dollar, you actually pay a dollar. Not 1.06 like in Pennnsylvania, or a whopping 1.27 like in Hungary. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1f/EU_VAT_T... https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8b/Sales_ta...
States with a low sales tax tend to have high property taxes.
Apparently the New Hampshire median home price is 487K. With a property tax of 1.89% that's 9.2K/yr or $767 per month.
EU property taxes are a fraction of that: https://taxfoundation.org/data/all/eu/real-property-taxes-eu...
Overall, Europeans do pay higher taxes but Americans really overlook how much property tax they pay, and how this closes the gap significantly.
Re: Amazon Rules Out Displaying Tariff Impact After White House Attack
#794d chess. Amazon won no matter what. either WH says nothing and the values are shown. WH says something in outrage (like they did) and amazon backs down.. but its such big news that the awareness has been heightened. Now even the most rabid MAGAhead knows that this is going to cost them at the hip pocket, and knows that the WH knew, and used their power to shut amazon up. JB won this round.
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Re: Amazon Rules Out Displaying Tariff Impact After White House Attack
#80Whenever I visit the US I get annoyed that the prices listed on the store shelves aren't actually what I pay; in Europe all prices are VAT-inclusive, but in the US none of the prices include sales tax, they're all broken out separately at checkout. I found this unreasonable and confusing until one day I read a conservative argument that this is actually a good thing, because it stops the government from increasing sa…
> found this unreasonable and confusing until one day I read a conservative argument that this is actually a good thing, because it stops the government from increasing sales tax too much. It constantly reminds residents of how much extra they're paying for sales tax and encourages voting for politicians who will reduce sales tax if it's too high. Okay, it's a reasonable argument, I wasn't super against it anymore It…
The question is not whether the person can see the vat. It's whether they are actively confronted with it. I actually found the argument extremely convincing as a euro person. Now I would like to see separate VAT here too.