←back to thread

346 points Kye | 1 comments | | HN request time: 0s | source
Show context
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.

replies(15): >>45017021 #>>45017119 #>>45017155 #>>45017184 #>>45017192 #>>45017207 #>>45017218 #>>45017227 #>>45017262 #>>45017286 #>>45017339 #>>45017362 #>>45017446 #>>45017576 #>>45018312 #
cuuupid ◴[] No.45017446[source]
Everyone has been repeating this for months but inflation remains relatively normal so prices are not rising. Maybe it's a delayed effect that we won't see until later in the year, but at this point it is a theory and far from a fact, not something that needs to be repeated.

We have already observed that the opposite does not hold - in 2017 we slashed corporate income tax by 14% across the board, roughly the same as the tariffs but with far more surface area, and yet prices did not react and the benefits were not passed along to the consumer.

All we _know_ right now is that this is going to negatively impact economic growth by hitting corporations, the same way slashing corporate income tax positively impacted economic growth by benefitting corporations.

replies(2): >>45017513 #>>45017808 #
1. marcosdumay ◴[] No.45017808[source]
Tariffs don't inherently cause inflation.

The noise about inflation is very likely propaganda trying to focus people on something that the government can control. (Yet, it looks like the US government is giving up on controlling it.)

Instead, tariffs have complex effects on the real economy. Universal tariffs do cause the concentration of wealth the GP was talking about (but it's way worse than the GP's claim) and deindustrialization. Inflation may or may not happen, it's not a given.