Daniel Marans
@dmarans
I think the answer to Joe's question is that lots of people chafe at both kinds of pain -- disruption caused by tariffs and higher taxes -- provided their partisan lens allows for it. But maybe we would all be more open to sacrifice for long-term goals if we had a common sense of nationhood and trust in our leaders -- both very remote right now.
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Señor Doggo
@fubuloubu
What the fuck does "diminishing the purchasing power of the rich" mean?
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shazow
@shazow.eth
I assume printing more money and allocating it to the not-rich through whatever means.
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Daniel Marans
@dmarans
He's talking about higher taxes. The claim he's making is that Trump loyalists appear to buy the line that higher prices are worth it to allegedly save U.S. manufacturing, but those some people would cry bloody murder if politicians raised taxes on the wealthy for the sake of some long-term cause.
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Señor Doggo
@fubuloubu
I find it supremely ironic that the folks who spend all their time complaining how the rich find loopholes to *legally* evade taxes and off-shore their money (albeit less legally), are the same ones advocating for *increasing* the complexity of tax law as if there exists no level of tax burden that wouldn't make them just leave Conversely, tariffs are pretty nice because they mostly affect corporations (who are run by "the rich") in the long term, and will bolster domestic wages for the working class (aka "the not rich") after the short-term pain of price increases makes it's way through the market and consumer spending habits
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Daniel Marans
@dmarans
A lot of “ifs” in there but I take your point.
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Señor Doggo
@fubuloubu
Heavy tariffs haven't been tried in over a century, but worked well last time (catapulted the US into our greatest era), and it is absolutely true that complicated tax code is useful for tax loopholes, and more taxes just get avoided where tariffs cannot be
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shazow
@shazow.eth
I think almost anyone would be onboard with "simpler more effective taxes that uplift the least wealthy" if that's all it is. My personal contention with tariffs: 1. Without more welfare, they don't uplift the least wealthy. Most things get more expensive and people in positions of power are more able to set the terms, so it could make inequality worse. 2. Hostility toward trading partners, a lot of wars in the past started with trade wars. The premise of "globalization" was that interdependence makes it more difficult to start wars, there is a high cost to disentangling (which we will be now paying). 3. Once all the externalities of tariffs are patched up, I'm not sure they are actually simpler or more effective. Disclaimer: I'm Canadian, so apply salt to my perspective.
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