While Musk is trying to get AfD elected in Germany, Trump is now threatening to put tariffs on all of Europe.

They really do not get how much hurt Europe could cause for them. Tesla, Amazon, Facebook — they are all here!

EU politicians should begin talking about the wonders of putting levies on their energy use, and how we support better working conditions and increased wages.

When Elon, Bezos, and Zuck support a fool, who wants to hurt European economy, remind them it is a two-way street!

@randahl

If we are cutting income tax and offsetting that with tarrifs I am all for it. Taxes need to be levied somewhere and any taxes we can move off income tax and apply more towards taxing expenses the better.

That said I doubt Trump will execute things well, he rarely does.

@freemo I remember his last trade war. We put a considerable tariff on Harley Davidson motorbikes, etc.

I do not recall them winning anything.

@randahl You mean a European tariff on USA goods? Yea I expect that to be the case. We tax incoming foreign goods, they tax from us. Import/export tax is pretty common to go both ways. Just another way to collect money and superior to income tax IMO.

@freemo yes. It's called a trade war and everybody loses.

The problem for the US is that they piss everybody off while the EU has only one adversary (plus bootlickers like orban to a certain degree).
@randahl

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@fedops

No more so than everyone looses with taxes in general. I mean sure you hear people make the argument "everybody looses" and taxes are theft all the time. But the reality is, we need taxes to function and tariffs are a better way to get them than income tax.

Oh and by the way 28% of all goods entering the EU are taxed under a tariff... hardly the whole "only one advisory" and "its a trade war"...

@randahl

@freemo we pay quite a bit more taxes than you and I'm totally ok with that. It finances things that help social equality.

Tariffs are not the same thing as taxes. They can be used to combat unfair price dumping, like with Chinese EVs.

But they can also be used to unfairly favor companies that don't want or cannot compete. The problem is they disincentivise investments into production improvements. Meaning the moment they are lifted the companies are worse off than before.
@randahl

@fedops

tariffs can be used for a lot of things, unfair practices are one, just like taxes they can and should be used proportionally to discourage undesired behavior, such as buying foreign goods over local.

Since tariffs should never be lifted I dont see much relevance in discussing the effects of lifting them.

Like taxes tarrifs can of course be used to target things unfairly. The assumption with any tool is that it in order for it to benefit society it must be used properly, and that means not using it to target the wrong sorts of companies or resources.

@randahl

@fedops

Also assuming you mean the EU, then no you arent taxed "quite a bit more". I have lived in both the EU and the USA at the highest tax bracket, and the tax were about the same. Yes europe is a bit higher, but not by very much.

@randahl

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