Posted on 04/03/2025 11:38:40 AM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
Every fiber of my economic being cries out against tariffs. If they are so good, why doesn’t each state in the US have one against the products of all of the other 49? That is, Ohio could “protect” its industries against the incursions from Arizona. This is obviously silly. One of the important reasons America is so prosperous is that we have a gigantic, internal, free trade area.
Donald Trump supports them on the ground that the McKinley administration was prosperous, and relied upon tariffs. But this is to commit the post hoc ergo propter hoc logical fallacy: that since A precedes B, A must be the cause of B. No, America did indeed become rich during this epoch, but that was in spite of tariffs, not due to their benign influence. If you are looking for a historical episode to shed light on this matter, the Smoot-Hawley Tariff of 1930 will do far better: it greatly worsened an already bad recession, plunging our economy into a deep depression.
Our President also claims that the US is victimized by a negative balance of trade: we buy more from Canada and other countries than they purchase from us. However, I have a horrid balance of trade with McDonald’s and Wal-Mart. I acquire several hundreds of dollars’ worth of their products every year, and neither has yet seen fit to reciprocate with any of my economic services (hint, hint!). On the other hand, I have a very strong positive balance of trade with my employer, Loyola University New Orleans. They pay me a decent salary; apart from a few lunches in their cafeteria, my expenditures to them fill their coffers to a zero degree. Should anyone worry about this sort of thing? Of course not. Ditto for international trade. If Country A...
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If the tariffs are so awful, why the hell are the DemonRATS screaming for the Euro Peons and other third world crappers being allowed to use them against America?
He speaks as if the world is a nice place, people are wonderful and everybody is fair.
They aren’t.
The other countries are not concerned with the welfare of Americans.
They are barely concerned with the welfare of their own people.
They are out for blood and treasure.
Ours..................
Tariffs aren’t awful because all the other countries are obviously using them - so why not us?
And the author is an idiot: “why doesn’t each state in the US have one against the products of all of the other 49? “
The answer to that is that it’s constitutionally prohibited for the states to regulate interstate commerce - it belongs to the federal govt. Idiot.
I don’t disagree that income tax is worse.
Because the United States is evil, that’s why.
Teh United States is just filled with White Christian Nationalist.
We know that because they elected Trump!
Silly!
Because we're one nation with labor mobility between states. Duh.
You can't have "free trade" without equalization of wages, taxes, and regulations between countries.
Democracies make a choice about what mix best suits them: to allow "free trade" just allows businesses to evade taxes and lower wages.
A tight labor market and tariffs force businesses to make capital investments to raise labor productivity, which is why the US economy did so well between 1945 and 1975.
If they are so good, why doesn’t each state in the US have one against the products of all of the other 49?
***********
Apparently, the writer has never heard of the Commerce Clause.
Cuts in income tax and vast simplification of the tax code need to be immediate, implemented at same time as tariff increases.
Confiscating part of anyone’s self-sufficiency is absolutely immoral and is essentially legal theft.
Taxing their spending is not.
The income tax is worse because I have no choice: if tariffs push up the price of imports I can choose not to buy and save or pay down debt. Income tax, however, is simply taken from me with every paycheck.
I am sure that he has, but he does not assume that his readers have.
Which is probably a good assumption considering the quality of a college education these days.
The income tax is far, far worse - it makes the government diametrically opposed to the citizenry, and even incentivizes selling out the citizenry for profit.
The author suffers from “socialism”.
The states are aligned by a common agreement.
Constitution
We are not in a trade-comminity with any other nation (world-wide socialist pact).
If tariffs are so bad, why the hell does every other country on the PLANET charge us tariffs?!?!
It works for those countries, it’ll work for us as well...
Very true.
First eliminate corporate taxes for all companies owned in the US. Corporations don't have income, people do. Corporations do not pay taxes they collect them.
If we must have income taxes the taxes rate should be the same for everyone.
What is taxable and what is not taxable should be simple and clear to anyone with a high school education. So if they want it to get complicated they had better improve the education given to the masses.
The tax lawyer should be an endangered species.
Since the tax code is a system of campaign fund raising for congress a side effect of eliminating or simplifying the income tax might be more honest congressmen and more honest elections. (wishful thinking).
Or ask the reverse question: If tariffs are so bad why does other countries use them?
How did China go from like 18th in GDP to second with huge (or in FREEP lingo HUGH and SERRIOUS) tariffs?
The author’s silly argument makes sense ONLY if the Income Tax is eliminated, otherwise we have a huge new tax (tariffs - which importers will pay and pass on to consumers) and still have the income tax.
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