Trump tariffs impact supply chains Apple developed to reduce its China dependency
- Thread starter Eric
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It's worth considering what T's insane fixation on tariffs is based on - not simply the crazy idea that it would be neat to turn back the clock where tariffs, not taxes, were the source of federal revenue.
The key factor is than in contrast to our taxation system, which is at least mildly progressive (meaning the tax burden is moved somewhat away from the poor to those that can afford it - and we are very far from - say - the European standard) tariffs are by their nature strongly regressive.
So big picture: decimate the tax revenue with his trillions of tax cuts favoring the rich, replace some of the tax revenue lost with strongly regressive tariffs.
Not to mention that wielding tariffs is the ideal tool to exercise authoritarian/dictatorial powers by fine tuning them as favors vs sanctions in exchange for whatever you want.
The key factor is than in contrast to our taxation system, which is at least mildly progressive (meaning the tax burden is moved somewhat away from the poor to those that can afford it - and we are very far from - say - the European standard) tariffs are by their nature strongly regressive.
So big picture: decimate the tax revenue with his trillions of tax cuts favoring the rich, replace some of the tax revenue lost with strongly regressive tariffs.
Not to mention that wielding tariffs is the ideal tool to exercise authoritarian/dictatorial powers by fine tuning them as favors vs sanctions in exchange for whatever you want.
Just want to say that "tariff" is just a fancy word for import tax. So it is a tax (which is indiscriminate) which will burden the poor a lot more than the rich.
Vincent Hannah
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Trump’s endgame is a full authoritarian takeover of the United States. This is much easier to achieve with a populace that is too poor to fight back.
The destruction of the world economy is purposeful and premeditated as a necessary precondition to him never relinquishing power.
Phase 2 will be the mass deportations where they pull anyone with brown skin out of Burger Kings in the middle of the day and throw them in vans to be disappeared. Beyond the unforgivable human cost, that will finish off the American economy, especially in blue cities.
The destruction of the world economy is purposeful and premeditated as a necessary precondition to him never relinquishing power.
Phase 2 will be the mass deportations where they pull anyone with brown skin out of Burger Kings in the middle of the day and throw them in vans to be disappeared. Beyond the unforgivable human cost, that will finish off the American economy, especially in blue cities.
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But it's still a taxation system, only instead of passing them as laws with approval from both houses of congress it's done on the whim of a corrupt businessman who changes his mind 3 times before breakfast.
He's put zero thought into this and not even the most seasoned economists can see an end game that doesn't lead us all down the path of being totally screwed, while at the same time alienating our closest allies.
The only dictators involved here have been excluded from his tariffs. This statement is totally backwards.
Vincent Hannah
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He’s put tremendous thought into this. See above.
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I believe you are missing my point, sorry if I wasn't clear.
Yes, of course it's a taxation system, as quarkysg already said above, tariffs = import taxes. And your point of the corrupt and mindless changes is exactly what my final point highlights.
The dictator wannabe Trump is very much involved here. How is my statement backwards?
I think maybe @Eric misread 'exercise' as 'exorcise'?
This is such a clusterfuck. The tariffs are supposed to even out the trade balance (at least in theory), but I have no idea what the authors of this policy were smoking. It's like Trump and his team believe that the companies can build extremely complex domestic production in a month or two. And the thing is, why bother? If I were a CEO of a large company, I'd probably just pull my belt tighter and hope to endure the orange menace.
I would be careful about ascribing planning and thought to Trump. This isn’t to suggest that he isn’t extremely dangerous but he is mostly instinctive. He has power so he uses power to hurt people to gain more power. There are people on his administration who are of slightly higher intelligence (eg the project 2025 formulators) but competence isn’t amongst the traits shared by even them.
In other words, the damage being inflicted is horrifying and long term and their end goal is indeed a fascist state, I don’t disagree with that. But much of their success is due to the inaction and cowardice by otherwise opposed institutional forces (with some of those being in slight sympathy). This has a very similar parallels to the rise of Nazism in 1920-30s Germany and Nazi Germany’s early non-military success on the world stage pre-WW2. It wasn’t particularly brilliant politicking or diplomacy, but it worked because the forces that should’ve arrayed against them either couldn’t or wouldn’t believe what was happening, wouldn’t unify, and wouldn’t form a coherent plan that dealt with the realities they were facing. Thankfully these assholes are actually stupider than Nazis but they are still incredibly dangerous because of the amount of power they have been allowed to accrue and how little appetite there has been to stop them in those that wield such power. (I should add that this isn’t universal, the courts are holding for now, various civil and legal groups and even some AGs are suing, but the courts won’t hold forever as Trump will make further appointments again not competent ones, but they don’t need to be. And even for now the courts are not enough by themselves to stop this.)
Just as we shouldn’t underestimate how dangerous they are in their willingness to exercise power, we should be careful not to overestimate their competence or intelligence. As someone once described Trump, he isn’t playing 5D chess nor is he even playing checkers, he’s flipping the board and eating the pieces and saying what are you going to do about it? Sadly overtime we built a political system from our media to our elections to our government that didn’t require intelligence to destroy it, simply the will to do so. Americans will never live down, if we survive at all as a nation, that it was this level of stupidity that hopefully only nearly ended us.
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CNN:
On Wednesday, Trump unveiled an additional 34% tariffs on all Chinese goods imported into the US, in a move poised to cause a major reset of relations and worsen trade tension between the world’s two largest economies.
“This practice of the US is not in line with international trade rules, seriously undermines China’s legitimate rights and interests, and is a typical unilateral bullying practice,” China’s State Council Tariff Commission said in a statement announcing its retaliatory tariffs
China imposes 34% reciprocal tariffs on imports of US goods in retaliation for Trump’s trade war
China said on Friday it will impose reciprocal 34% tariffs on all imports from the United States from April 10, making good on a promise to strike back after US President Donald Trump escalated a global trade war.On Wednesday, Trump unveiled an additional 34% tariffs on all Chinese goods imported into the US, in a move poised to cause a major reset of relations and worsen trade tension between the world’s two largest economies.
“This practice of the US is not in line with international trade rules, seriously undermines China’s legitimate rights and interests, and is a typical unilateral bullying practice,” China’s State Council Tariff Commission said in a statement announcing its retaliatory tariffs
What's more, they have apparently restricted export of additional rare minerals to the US (https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202504/1331466.shtml — btw, what's with people not providing original sources anymore?)
Andropov
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Exactly. Why would any company invest in moving production to the US given how likely it is for the tariffs to be removed in the medium term? And with retaliatory tariffs from other countries in place, it's not like US-produced items can be shipped somewhere else in the event of reduced domestic demand. You'd be paying for both high tariffs and high cost of labor.