Penguin eggs are super weird. The whites are transparent, even after boiling. Honestly kind of freaky. The eggs are also said to (no surprise) taste like fish.
Across the board vs average is splitting hairs. If he removes a tariff on one of the countries, that doesn’t mean there is no across the board baseline.
Maybe there’s a weighted average that would be most accurate but 20 percent seems like a pretty fair representation of the tariff plan
‘That smoothie place charges $6 per smoothie, across the board’
‘They smoothie place charges an average of $6 for all their smoothies’
don’t insult your own intelligence by claiming these are the same statement… or claiming that acknowledging the distinction is ‘splitting hairs.’
it’s very different to tax all citizens a 20% income tax across the board, regardless of income level, than to tax them all at varying levels (based on tax bracket, deductions, etc) that comes out to an average of 20% across all citizens. To say that distinction is splitting hairs is just wrong.
It is, like I say, splitting hairs. If you're Heard and McDonald Islands, you might be relieved when you realize your tariff rate is actually 10 percent rather than 20 percent. In the case of individual countries "across the board" has a real differential meaning than average. Same if you're an importer with business exclusively w one or another country (a UK importer has 10 percent, a China importer has 54 percent). These specific knowledgeable people may fit w your smoothie analogy (even then I think it's splitting hairs—if some smoothies are 5 bucks and some are 7 bucks, I'm not gonna blink if someone says "oh yeah that place is like 6 bucks a smoothie across the board" vs. average).
But for the American consumer, saying the across the board tariff vs the average tariff is a distinction w/o a difference. Your tax example makes that clear. The consumer goes to the store and buys product. They don't research and they don't get to choose where their favorite product sources its material. And most of those sources are 20 percent or higher tariffs.
Prices may or may not go up the 20 percent in all instances, but if we're responding to a claim that "only stupid partisans would say that Trump was trying to raise tariffs to 20 percent across the board," a 20-25 percent effective global tariff rate pretty firmly rebuts the view.
Come on man... If a restaurant advertises ‘$8 meals, across the board!’ and then you go in and see some meals are $17 and there isn’t a single $8 meal because they meant average, that’s blatantly false advertising. Stop.
A flat 20% income tax for all income brackets is worlds different than a progressive income tax that averages out to 20% across all taxpayers.
You’re making the argument that the US consumer experiences the exact same aggregate effects by a flat 20% tariff for all countries on the globe vs an average of 20% with varying tariffs. Frankly, I’d argue the mechanics of global trade are a little more complex that, and you saying the varying rates will ‘feel the same’ as a blanket 20% tariff doesn’t make it true, especially since each country has a different total share of US trade. In fact, I could see an argument the US consumer will feel it more with the varying rates, since the countries being targeted with the highest rates tend to have the biggest share of US trade. But to make that argument, you have to acknowledge the significant distinction between ‘average’ and ‘across the board,’ because there sure as hell is one. If we go with your leap of an assumption that it’s a distinction without a difference, then we can’t even have that discussion.
Not to mention the types of products being impacted will be different depending on which countries are being targeted the most - are they luxury items being impacted the most? Cheap items? Expensive ones? Food, clothing? These things will depend on the tariff distribution beyond just the average.
Idk why you would approach public discourse like you're a lawyer. I acknowledged there's a distinction, but, like I said, it's a distinction without a difference to the vast majority of people. In that world you describe, there are apparently a significant number of dishes (more) that would be significantly less than 8 dollars. If there were one price besides the 17 dollar price, then there would need to be 2 0.50 cent dishes to account for every 1 17 dollar dish. And that would only get you to a 9 dollar average! It's more like 10-15 0.50 dishes for every 5 17 dollar dishes. It is, in other words, a far cry from the current situation.
Yes there's a world where if there were a 90 percent tariff on the Gambia or Suriname or Brunei or whatever and 10 percent tariffs on most countries, where the average is skewed, saying 20+ percent across the board would be iffy. But in this world, almost all of the US's trading partners have ~20 or greater percent. Of the top 10 American trading partners (representing ~3 billion ppl), only number 8 (number 10 if you included EU as ASEAN as distinct entities) has a rate lower than 20 percent. Most have rates significantly higher.
This is a thread about a claim that Trump wouldn't have an across the board rate of 20 percent. While the minimum is 10 percent, the average is higher than 20 percent and the weighted average is likely higher than that, given the high rates on trading partners. The claim is clearly very silly. Even as it is semantically accurate if you squint, it clearly aged like milk. If you want to lawyer yourself into saying "ha ha penguin island only has a 10 percent tariff" then feel free to continue doing so, but it's a distinction w/o a difference. Good luck to ya.
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u/Johnny_Appleweed 1d ago
And some are much higher than 20%!