I think tariffs would only cause temporary inflation, driving most important production back to domestic & making imported goods fancy again.
I don't know much about it either, mostly just what I absorb from the people around me. I'm curious to see where this all goes.
Tariffs would balance the equation of more money in your pay from no income tax.
The price of everything just went up but my income tax just disappeared.
It's complex. I believe it's often a fairer tax because it's based on consumtion rather than earnings which can be distorted via good accounting. It definitely has better incentives than income tax.
It also penalises low income earners since their increased prices aren't offset. Think really poor people, waitresses, the homeless & retirees.
If you think about it, it's a clever way to tax the asset rich & income poor boomers. You'd also get the soon to be rich Bitcoiners who haven't connected to the circular economy.
💯 if a tax has to exist, the fairest of them is a consumption tax. I think some sort of sales tax in addition to tariffs would be necessary to minimize inflation, but it would end up being the same pain, just a different flavor for lower income people. Eliminating income tax double-penalizes the poor, in a weird way , because that tax acts as an involuntary saving account to cash out on once/year. So instead of repairing a failing vehicle, they'd be paying noticably higher prices with nominally higher wages. (Not that I don't support the idea, these bandaids have to come off at some point.) The real concern would be that income tax comes back under some other future administration & the sales tax doesn't go away. Because that's how the feds roll 😅
