Hacker News Reader

Hacker News

Comment by onlyrealcuzzo | Hacker News Reader

Parent Full thread

onlyrealcuzzo

This has nothing to do with enemies.

How does anyone not see what is happening.

They want to replace income tax (progressive) with tariffs (regressive).

View on HN

The problem with this is that it would at most replace a fraction of income taxes.

My theory is that it's just another lever that's being pulled to centralize power in the executive. The president can pick winners and losers because the power to levy tariffs is surgical, and so individual companies can be targeted if they don't fall in line with the dictator's whims.

Imagine Apple facing 1000% tariffs unless they take down content that's critical of the president. It's not outside the realm of possibility.

>The problem with this is that it would at most replace a fraction of income taxes.

Yeah, but it isn't like they're unaware of this. They're looting the country. If the money gained from the tariffs wont offset the tax cuts, well that must mean we need to cut further, privatize further...

> Imagine Apple facing 1000% tariffs unless they take down content that's critical of the president. It's not outside the realm of possibility.

It's totally not. And the funny thing is nobody will speak up.

There plan that passed the house is to reduce income tax on households that make over $360000 annually. So we're shifting that burden to consumers who spend a much larger percentage of their income on the goods subject to tariffs? And why tariff our good allies instead of enemies?

So they're adding massive cuts for the very wealthy and pushing that tax burden onto the middle and lower class.

Classy.

It's been the standard, incrementally implemented policy of both parties since the 1980s. The Republicans have been worse about it, but the Democrats hands are far from clean here.

Higher trade value with friends then enemies (except China which is already tariffed)

Would tariffs affect higher-income folks (imported goods) vs low-income (local food/shelter/clothing)?

Wonder if there's a non-partisan/non-biased website that could give a clear picture

You don't need a non biased website to tell you that. Goods costing %25 more affects the low income folks way more.

Think about it this way, eggs go from $3 to $10. Someone with high income is barely affected. If you make min wage at $7 an hour its a huge burden.

But eggs aren't imported, are they?

I was also wondering about people who buy things but don't pay taxes.

This helps explain where we're at and where we're headed (Gary's Economics) - https://youtu.be/TflnQb9E6lw?si=3zz9ty4RCew4VzVI

Reply on news.ycombinator.com