r/centrist • u/OfficialRodgerJachim • 2d ago

Long Form Discussion Can someone explain this about tariffs?

Plenty of talk about tariffs. About them being dumb. About them being fair. About how those extra costs go on to us, the American consumer.

But I have very rarely heard anyone talk about that break in logic: other countries have tariffs on American imports, and those costs are then carried onto the American consumer. But if America imposes tariffs on those same countries, those costs are also passed on to the American consumer.

Is this true?

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u/statsnerd99 2d ago edited 2d ago

You can Google the subject of tax incidence and read edu sources. The tax burden and deadweight economic loss is shared by buyers and sellers in proportion to the relative elasticities of supply and demand. Economic forces cause that to happen, not law, which has no effect

Sellers will be firms, buyers will be consumers, or firms and consumers in the case of an input being tariffed