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346 points Kye | 2 comments | | HN request time: 0.001s | source
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cheema33 ◴[] No.45016963[source]
This needs to be repeated. Tariffs are a tax on ordinary citizens. Unlike regular taxes, tariffs are not progressive and therefore benefit the wealthy.

These are the sort of things the poor and middle class voted for. To make the rich, richer. And then turn around and complain that rich are getting richer and they are getting poorer.

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colechristensen ◴[] No.45017192[source]
I think it's quite the opposite. Tariffs are flat taxes on corporations AND can't be avoided with the tax shenanigans all big corporations use and many small ones can't. Implementation and motivation details aside I'm in favor of small tariffs for all but the most equal trade partners.

Corporate taxes have the problem of small business paying much more proportionally than large ones and a flat tax on businesses that rely on cheap foreign labor and goods is deserved.

Trump doesn't get to define all of my opinions by me needing to oppose exactly everything he's done.

The problem with the current political situation is the establishment in both parties w were too cowardly or useless to address real problems which are now actually being addressed by objectively stupid fascists.

And that is the lesson to everyone, get stuff done or get replaced by awful people doing awful things.

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mlyle ◴[] No.45017231[source]
In the long run, tariffs basically all fall on the consumer because producer and distributor behavior is near infinitely elastic. Econ 101 predicts that the party who is less able to adjust behavior in reaction to the tax pays most of the tax.

In the short run, this isn't true: firms have goods they need to move.

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1. zahlman ◴[] No.45017290[source]
This model predicts much higher prices overall than actually observed, especially on the goods deemed most essential (like food). There are many reasons that companies cannot simply charge "what the market will bear".
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2. mlyle ◴[] No.45017991[source]
You’re mixing up two different questions. "What the market will bear" is a monopoly pricing story.

Food is messy because it's a commodity with a whole lot of substitution-- consumers have a high elasticity as a result.

We are talking about elasticity's prediction for the share producers and consumers each pay when there is a cost structure or tax change. Incidence theory is well validated and fits observed evidence remarkably well, including in 2019 studies of the effects of the 2018 trade war.