Derek Guy is a writer who writes about menswear for many publications and has a large (1M+) follower base on “X.” Yesterday he looked at tariffs and the impact they have on the price of men’s suits. The thread is at this link.
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Some years ago, I paid about $500 for a new clothes washer. When it started giving trouble, when it was about a dozen years old, and after TFG imposed a protectionist tariff on Korean washers, I priced a new machine: over $800.
If all imported goods were tariffed heavily, I would expect similar inflation. The difference is that, unlike the washer tariff for the benefit of Whirlpool, there are a large variety of goods that simply are not made in the US anymore, like clothes and consumer electronics.
TFG talked a lot of drivel, like the tariffs would be paid by the exporting countries…just like the wall would be paid for by Mexico, but made a good point: if his tariffs were so terrible, why didn’t the new crowd repeal them?
Steve
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Heh, because in the past, and certainly in the last admin, it has been the Dems that have supported tariffs and the reps that supported free trade.
The prior admin gave them what they wanted - plus enough rope they they then used to tie him in knots. Win-win for them.
Now in some cases, like unfair pricing, tariffs can be used to bring parity but when one is bragging about all the money they made off tariffs, that can only come from consumers paying those higher fees.
Sort of like cigarette taxes.
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A protectionist argument can be made for “jobs” when imported goods compete with US made, like Whirlpool washers. But the “jobs” argument is a non-starter when nearly 100% of a product category is imported. Then, the tariff is nothing but a money grab, as TFG bragged. The gaslighting starts with who actually pays the tariff.
Steve
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It is worth repeating that tariffs are taxes. A specific kind of tax, but a tax nonetheless and one that is imposed on US companies that import goods from another country, NOT on the importing country itself.
There is no way that these costs would not be passed on to the US consumer unless the importing company ate the tax/tariff costs.
What is intercst’s phrase? The amount of “ignorance, innumeracy, and illiteracy” in the US is stunning.
Pete
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That is where the gaslighting starts. One person argues the tax will be paid by the exporting country, that has been “ripping us off”. The other person says it’s a “national sales tax” that USians will pay.
The better question is, what would the money be used for? Past practice in Michigan was for increased taxes on Proles to be used to cover the cost of tax cuts for the “JCs”.
Steve
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