Whiny little Commie bitch TV interviewer: “So just bottom line, Mr. Secretary, do you acknowledge that these tariffs are a tax on American consumers?”
SecTreas Scott Bessent: “No, I don’t. You’re quoting Goldman Sachs… I made a good career of trading against Goldman Sachs.”
we all know how tariffs work. Sure the consumer pays more if they want foreign goods. This also suppresses the demand for foreign goods so the foreign companies face decreased sales and thus decreased revenue.
Nick Frietas on his podcast Making the Argument with Nick Frietas explained how tariffs are used. It was well worth listening to.
All taxes are ultimately paid by consumers, human beings. There’s a pretty conservative economics columnist, https://www.timworstall.com/, who has written a lot on the study of “Tax Incidence”, being the study of who actually pays a tax. Often the targeted payer winds up not paying at all or paying a smaller proportion than intended.
There are know instances of targeted payers actually profiting from tax increases aimed at them, including me. I’m a landlord, the target of property taxes. Every time the local council jacks up those taxes I go to my tenants and tell them so sorry, gotta raise your rent, tax increase dontcha know. I usually raise it by 125% of the increase.
Tariffs are taxes and those taxes are not likely to hit their target very well. They are likely going to be split, as all are, between the US consumer and the foreign consumer. Will the foreign consumer pay them all? No chance, zero.
Here’s the real question. Whoever pays, will congress lower other taxes in the amount of whatever tariff income they get? We all know the answer to that – only if Trump holds a political gun to their heads.
All forms of government revenue collection are taxes. Every fee, corporate tax, every regulation that has costs for compliance, every tariff, and all the tax schemes, all eventually paid by the individuals buying products.