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346 points Kye | 1 comments | | HN request time: 0.201s | 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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hippo22 ◴[] No.45017119[source]
Do you think that cigarette taxes should be repealed then?
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zymhan ◴[] No.45017189[source]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whataboutism
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zahlman ◴[] No.45017334[source]
This is not whataboutism. The argument described in GGP would apply the same way to GP's case. Cigarette taxes are a sales/consumption tax (specifically one aimed at discouraging consumption, but cigarettes are addictive) and they are necessarily, inherently regressive, for the simple reason that people with orders of magnitude more income and wealth cannot feasibly spend proportionately more on cigarettes.
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zymhan ◴[] No.45021918[source]
It's bringing up an entirely unrelated topic as some sort of "gotcha". Cigarette taxes were not part of the GGP's comment. I.e. a red herring

> The communication intent is often to distract from the content of a topic (red herring). The goal may also be to question the justification for criticism and the legitimacy, integrity, and fairness of the critic, which can take on the character of discrediting the criticism, which may or may not be justified.

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1. zahlman ◴[] No.45026307[source]
> It's bringing up an entirely unrelated topic as some sort of "gotcha"

Expecting people to be consistent, and treat similar situations similarly, is not a "gotcha". Challenges like this are raised exactly to hold people to their own standards and question whether they are really okay with the consequences of what they just said.

The topic described is not at all "entirely unrelated". There is a clear natural category which encompasses both tariffs and cigarette taxes.