Posted on 01/23/2018 7:13:40 PM PST by UMCRevMom@aol.com
In this case, it has the burden of taxes from being made and sold in the US, or of being imported, tariffed, and sold in the US.
Your “market price” is what you can pay for it in your market.
It’s very simple to understand. You aren’t in the Chinese market, are you? If you were, you’d have a minimum of a 25% tariff on the US good.
Help the thread out. Can you name any two countries in the world that have free trade?
You forgot to add the burden of taxes being paid by the manufacturer in South Korea or wherever the good originated.
The market is open competition of producers, each taking into account their total cost of production, including taxes, etc.
I should be able to choose between a washing machine made in the US with all of the associated costs and a washing machine made somewhere else with all of it's associated costs.
That's the basis of trade and what US companies, such as Boeing, expect when they export goods, and it's why our tax policy affects our global competitiveness.
A tariff is just an admission that we can't compete. The reason may be valid, such as illegal dumping, but in many cases it's just cheaper to produce certain goods elsewhere.
If your point about US taxes is correct why do only these two industries need the tariffs?
I would say a flat tariff should be put in place.
Is an income tax an admission that we can’t work?
A first world country cannot compete with a corrupt country with no labor/env laws and their peasants make 1/10 of what a person in the USA makes. So a tariff is appropriate and necessary to offset the social/military cost of de industrialization and the political impact of an idled underutilized workforce.
No, of course not. Just like I can't name an industry that doesn't need some regulation.
That doesn't mean I don't want the lightest government hand possible in both trade and regulation.
That's fine, but then expect a reciprocal tariff in every country where we sell goods. After all, those countries have their own income taxes, etc.
It's easy to set up walls so we don't trade outside our borders, but civilizations decided trade with others was a net positive right around the time we discovered fire.
The fact is, if you want to trade you have to compete, not hide behind a tariff. Another fact is you won't be competitive with every product in every market. The key is to find those areas where you have a trade advantage and exploit it.
I think the US has massive advantages and I want us to go kick ass in the global market, and it bothers me that so many seem so pessimistic about our ability to win.
Maybe not if we're talking about making socks.
Do you think we could compete designing and making airliners?
I am not a manufacturing jobs bigot. Somebody making mardi gras beads in LA is the same as someone working on an airplanes in WA. If they are self sufficient and paying taxes and creating wealth(tangible product) with their labor I make no distinction. It is all good. We want all of our manufacturing back. All of it.
We already do pay a tariff. The average tariff on our goods shipped to other countries is 8%. That is just the average. Our tariffs are < 1% average.
Of course they will, just like Boeing is trying to put Bombardier out of business, and every company has tried to put their competitors out of business since the dawn of man.
It's really pretty fundamental to capitalism.
I don't want to personalize this but I don't understand why you don't think we can compete in the world - corruption, communism and all.
We've done pretty well so far.
Right mojo, to buy or not to by is a choice. Paying income taxes on the sweat of your own labor is NOT a choice and punishable by fine and/or imprisonment. What you speak of is plain evil. Charging Americans an income tax at the same time letting 3rd world produced goods in duty free is Evil Evil Evil.
The artificiality you speak of is actually importing slave made goods duty free into a first world market like the USA. You have it backwards and upside down. The inflation cased by a tariff is more than made up for in the lowering of social welfare and other costs associated with destroyed communities and decaying industrial base. What that means is you take away a person means if survival. That is what free trade is doing to the average citizen.
I think tiny Singapore is the only place that has no duty on anything. I think Hong Kong has almost a duty free market. Other than those two I cannot think of any.
You can just pay the duty.
My dream would be to increase tariffs slowly, 2% per year until the trade deficit goes away. Then as a trade surplus accrue start to lower the tariff. use the tariff as the regulator.
OK, so at least we've established that the real purpose of the tariff is social engineering.
My point is if we as a society decide that we want a jobs program we should fund it with general taxesa rather than impose tariffs to only help favored industries.
By all means provide the welfare if you want but don't distort the market.
Before you reach the level you desire, the depression will kill all your delusional gains.
Or pay an inefficient US producer an artificial premium so they can create a jobs program.
Free Trade is an economic ideal. There no country which practices free trade and never has been. It is merely the the Optimum State according to Economic theory and almost all legitimate economists, no matter which school they belong to.
I don’t argue about what happened and whether it was the best. Certainly more people have a good life than any time in history.
Our government experienced its growth through the demands of major wars. It massively increased during the Civil War, then dropped back, WWI provoked another massive increase then with the Depression and WW2 a massive increase which has NOT dropped back upon victory. War grows the State.
People who are in favor of a tariff simply do not understand the economics of a tariff. It is a tax paid by American consumers.
Like all taxes it slows economic activity. We are free to impose such a tax but need to understand it’s impacts.
Resourses are moved by a tariff from MORE productive work to LESS productive works. It by the nature of it being a tax as well MUST slow the economy producing less wealth
Profits should be the guide of an economy not a decision made by Congress.
A tariff grows the State and shrinks the economy as has been noted in our early history it provided the funds for the federal government. As part of a carefully considered plan by the greatest economist of his day, Alexander Hamilton.
While there are negative economic effects there may be political reasons for enacting one which I suspect is the basis of Trump’s action.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.