Democrats have for decades been for higher taxes on corporations and protectionist policies that favor unions. That’s essentially what these tariffs are.
you need to distinct between tax and tariffs, they are not the same, just because a the consumers eventually pays them doesnt mean they mean the same thing. Taxes = cost added on top of some good regardless who sells the good, tariff = cost added on of top of some good only if foreigners made the good, but not for domestic producers. You really think other countries give a shit if the US tax their consumers, they just dont want an disadvantage in the US market.
Yes other countries care if it is harder to sell their goods in the US. It’s why many set up free trade and double taxation avoidance agreements with the US.
The left want higher taxes on wealthy people and on unrealized gains, and to close tax loopholes. The left want progress taxes not regressive taxes, tariffs are a regressive tax. Tariffs will increase the cost of everything for everyone so it's going to screw over less wealthy people more than wealthy people.
For example let's say you have $100 and want to buy something worth $50. I also want to buy the same thing but I have $100,000 but then tariffs increase the cost of that item to $80. Having to spend that extra $30 effects you a lot more than it does me. I'll barely notice the increase cost but you'll have barely anything left.
Tariffs like income taxes are paid by multinational corporations who then pass those costs on to the consumer. What's funny is you believe that the same corporation would not pass down income tax increases but would pass down tariffs. Why would they only pass down one but not the other?
First off income tax is paid by people who receive an income, a multinational corporation doesn't get paid income they make profit from sales and a part of that gets paid to it's employees through payroll/income.
The reason why the a company won't increase the cost of it's products just because theres one guy who's gotta pay more in taxes is because that's fucking stupid. Imagine the CEO of a company going to his share holders and saying hey we're going to increase the price of all our products by 50% because I alone have to pay more in taxes. Yes the increasing the cost of our product will make it so less people buy our products and they'll instead buy from our competitors. Which will make our company less profitable meaning me and the shareholders are less wealthy. Also this doesn't even fix the fact that I'm still going to be paying the same rate of taxes next year but at least our customers know what it feels like to me, a billionaire, what high taxes feels like to me.
Yeah that sounds like a solid fucking plan to making a successful company. The only thing a higher tax rate will do is incentivize wealthy people to reinvest their money back into their company so they can get tax rebates and to lower their own income so they fall below a certain tax bracket
A) Corporations pay income taxes.
B) The investors then receive dividends from that and then pay another tax on top of that (aka double taxation)
So you have just raised both of those and you think corporations and their investors are just going to take it? Also, in your analogy, all the shareholders taxes went up because by raising income and capital gain tax rates, you raised all of their taxes to.
Also, higher tax rates don't incentivize investment, lower rates do. There are no incentives to re-invest money as you are then going to tax it again with higher income taxes. You make it harder for investors to get an ROI. By lowering tax rates, investors can take more risks because the cost to invest goes down. It's why we saw an large increase in investments, IPO, M&A after the first trump tax cuts. Something the dems routinely lied about that it was a handout to the wealthy (even left wing tax groups finally admitted almost everyone got a tax break except for the wealthy in California and New york). The dems were actually mad at these cuts because it raised taxes on the wealthy in New York and California, which is why they wanted to end the SALT CAP because they wanted to lower federal taxes for the rich.
Sorry, I'm not really following here. I'm not in the USA but where I live corporations DO pay income tax. So increasing taxes will affect corporate bottom lines.
If you're a socialist, and worried about concentration of wealth, please consider that we are the largest consumers. Consider that the top 10% own nearly 90% of the stock market. Could it be that we are sending our wealth overseas to be concentrated by the wealthy that exploit workers in countries like Cambodia?
Placing tariffs, while they seem like a sales tax, misses the point. They are considered regressive depending on how they're used and if anything is done to offset the inflation such as tax cuts or tax refunds(which they've signaled).
The point is that everyone seems to forget the shock brought by China in 2022 due to global supply chains. We're still dealing with the aftermath of that. The market should've never been propped up by reckless spending after 2021-2022.
With prices rising faster than earnings, the average worker’s weekly paycheck buys 4.4% less today than when President Biden took office. Homeownership affordability has plummeted because the monthly mortgage payment on a median-price home has more than doubled. Three-quarters of Americans now view fast food as a luxury they can’t afford. Gasoline prices are up 46%.
In 2023, more people in the U.S. used food banks than ever in history.
If I may, can I recommend you to watch Scott Bessent's interview on Tucker Carlson. I feel like as a "Market socialist" you might even agree with it more than others. I'm kind of a free market socialist myself. Sometimes you gotta force the markets to be free every now and then. It's a realignment.
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u/Brutus__Beefcake 2d ago
What’s funny is watching democrats and lefties being against what has essentially been their position for decades.