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But what if done in tandem with elimination of federal income tax?

Tariffs cannot replace income tax to fund the government. It's just not enough. Because the higher the tariffs, the higher consumer prices, and less the American people will purchase. Reduced purchasing will decrease the amount of income from tariffs the longer the tariffs remain in place.

You cannot tax the American people into prosperity, which is exactly what high tariffs seeks to accomplish. The same goes for excessive sales tax to compensate for low or no income tax. The burden falls predominantly on the poor and middle class while the wealthy proceed as usual. The result of this drastically reduced purchasing by the majority of Americans is fewer businesses able to remain in operation, and a self-reinforcing inflationary cycle.

High tariffs —> higher prices —> less purchasing —> fewer businesses —> less tariff revenue —> higher prices

This cycle will drive the United States into a depression, creating a multitude of social crisises similar to what we saw in the Great Depression. We could be looking at 20 or more years of abject poverty, and the destruction of the middle class as we dig ourselves deeper and deeper into economic dispair.

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Discussion

HoloKat 11mo ago 💬 1

The real solution is to drastically cut spending.

SLCW 11mo ago

I would argue that a combination of cutting wasteful spending, and an increase on income taxes for the wealthiest 3% and large corporations would be the best solution.

The super-rich are straight up not paying their fair share. And they are routinely the majority beneficiary of Republican tax cuts. They like to talk about cutting taxes, and regular people get the idea that they're going benefit. But I'm practice it's the wealthy and large corporations that receive 85%+ of the benefits while 90%+ of Americans are left with the scraps. It's this weird phenomenon of lower and middle class Americans identifying with the wealthy when it comes to their views on taxes. It's a self-sabotaging mindset that has greatly contributed to our current economic woes.

This isn't to give Democrats a pass because the Democratic establishment also plays these games with taxes for the benefit of the wealthy and the donors. But they're crimes in this area are slightly different than this frito-bandito the Republicans pull every time they're in power. We're basically being fucked from both sides, and the pro-sports-like tribalism has people more concerned with whose team is better than with the practical consequences of what both are doing.