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Comment by AdamN | Hacker News Reader

Ironically I was mildly in favor of tariffs from the left pov. Reduced consumption and getting more taxes to help pay down the debt.

Consumption was likely mildly reduced (and still is with the 15% tax) but now we have more inflation coming our way when those billions start flowing and our debt just keeps going up.

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Such a regressive tax to get behind.

Now if tariffs had only been applied to, I don't know, yachts, private jets…

From 1991-1993 there was a luxury tax on yachts, private jets...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luxury_tax#United_States

Rich people consume a lot more, so a consumption tax would be ideal if you eased other tax categories like income tax and/or capital gains. It's easy to administer and would boost investment across the economy IMO.

"Rich people consume a lot more…"

Working class often live paycheck to paycheck. Unless rich are also living paycheck to paycheck I'm not sure I the two really compare.

That's of course the idea behind a progressive tax: it scales to what an individual "can afford".

I wouldn't ease any taxes - we simply can't afford lower taxes. Debt is nearly $40T (125% of GDP)!

Well, government spending could go down along with that too. Obviously, that ain't happening with Republicans (see: the OBBB and failed DOGE project) but in theory you could do major reform and craft coherent policy while not triple dipping tax-wise. I think you could implement quite a high consumption tax model and be okay -- you'd have the added benefit of very simple collection and enforcement since it's all at the tail end.

I'd go for a more progressive tax if it was on offer. But there is so much debt that I'm pretty worried that taxes are simply unsustainably low.

Note that it's less than 15%, only what the importer pays, so less than a VAT would be

> Ironically I was mildly in favor of tariffs from the left pov.

The ironic part is not that you were mildly in favor from the left, the ironic part is that they came from the right.

Pre-Trump, the right was very anti-tariff and only a portion of the left was pro tariff, the Bernie Sanders type.

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