Posted on 02/19/2016 6:56:22 AM PST by Kaslin
Did you check this link out?
Duty Calculator - Country Guides
It looks like German puts the 19% VAT tax on most all imports, plus other duties on other items. That assesses imports with a tax domestic German companies incur as value is added in the manufacturing process. I guess we could calculate labor and environmental costs our domestic producers have which are not incurred in cheap labor nations and call it a Comparable Labor and Environmental Tax, the CLE tax on imports, then we wouldn't have any tariffs on imports, just as Germany doesn't.
I think most or all the EU assess the VAT on imports from outside the EU. Someone really needs to put all these trade disadvantages the US must deal with in a form people could grasp. Or maybe they don't want it so people understand what's really going on.
The federal income tax was also a gift of trade protection. Republicans agreed to support the 16th Amendment in return for democrat support of the Payne Aldrich tariff they so desperately wanted. Trade protection has consistently screwed the economy, the taxpayer, and the consumer. Yet conservatives on this thread demand more of it. Go figure.
“This nation would be far better off financially producing most of its own goods and services and having a true, high employment rate, and several hundred billion annually less spent on poverty programs.”
So the more we pay for the goods we want, the better off we will be?
“America is dying. It’s time for people to wake up before it’s too late.”
That maybe true but PJB’s cure only makes things worse.
“The cost of the goods doesn’t change because if the companies OUTSIDE the US have to pay the tariff fee, they are just as well off to build the product here.”
BS. The only way tariffs would work in keeping high wage jobs within the US would be if the tariffs were sufficiently high enough to increase the price of goods made outside the US to where they would cost more than the price of goods made in the US.
Of course, then the unions use the high prices of overseas goods to justify more wage increases. Then we would have to raise the tariffs again. Then the wages again. Rinse, repeat.
PJB’s solution is nothing less than the theft of the hard earned income of the average american.
So, the more unemployment we have, and the more spent on anti-poverty programs (already a trillion plus annually), the better off we are?
And "free" traders think the one-sided deals provide cheaper products to consumers?
Are you blaming cheap products for increases in welfare?
The raise the price on IMPORTED goods.
Would a tariff on imported commodities raise the price of domestic commodities?
Stop equating Chinese businesses with American. We absolutely want to raise the price of Chinese goods through punitive tariffs. Raise costs to consumers? You bet, that's the whole point, genius.
No one is forcing you to buy those products. You can always buy from your countrymen....but a guy like doesn't really have one, do you?
Just a little island...wafting through Life in a pristine little bubble, always keen to find the next scam, the next hustle...Loyal to no one, and none to you.
Isn't that it, bunky? You just don't fit. Never did. All those people around ya...objects. Inscrutable. Why don't they leave you alone, so you can search the world for a cheaper pair of shoes? If only they would let you live, all by your lonesome. But of course you require them to stand an Army up to defend your isolation. You require them to erect and maintain a system of property to keep you in Splendid Isolation. And a system of education so you can obtain all these values and insights. And of course property rights so you - individually, personally - can mine the ore (no one else of course, just you), smelt the steel, and build the car...that someone else invented.
Yup, you're all alone: Just Economic Unit No. 136. No connection to anyone, anything...except when you need to eat, sleep, breed...then we all gotta pitch in to create the infrastructure around you to achieve this wondrous goal of your Splendid Life.
You know, since we all don't meet your expectations along these lines, you could move where the Stuff is Cheep: China or Mexico or Bangladesh.
I'm sure they'll take you in with open arms.
OK...Fine...We’ll just go on as we have been...Business (or lack of) as usual...
When there are no jobs in this country except low paid, uninsured service jobs, we can see how far down it’s gone...Then, those will disappear when no one has anything to pay for their service...Everyone will be on the government dole, just like Bernie wants...
Oh wait...There won’t be any government dole then because there are no longer any taxpayers for the government to steal from...
Why would it???
I understand your economic theory here. But, it lacks one thing, perspective of what other countries do.
If all countries were roughly the same with a multitude of economic variables, free trade works great. But, I want to hear you address the realities within this theory.
For instance, some countries have a combination of advantages that aren’t considered. Tell me your plan on dealing with : nations who have large state subsidies to industry, large pools of relative slave laborers that nobody can compete with, state sponsored R&D targeting manufacturing and high technology industry, tariffs on US good that are imported.
I’m not being facetious, What are the options to deal with these problems. I mean if there is no serious answers, then it seems reasonable to Trump it. And his plan is to negotiate using the leverage of doing what they are doing to get this problem rectified.
“So, the more unemployment we have, and the more spent on anti-poverty programs (already a trillion plus annually), the better off we are?”
Every time a state or municipality has implemented rules requiring able bodied welfare recipients to work for their welfare checks or attend mandatory job training, the welfare rate has gone done. Why? Because many already have jobs. Having to report to specific places for training means they can’t go to their regular jobs. Then they don’t show up for training or to work.
How about we clean up the welfare roles before we try to use that to justify tariffs?
Wrong...Please read...
http://americastradepolicy.com/did-the-smoot-hawley-tariff-cause-the-great-depression/#.VseAhuaLXFl
The big problem with Smoot-Hawley Tariff Bill was that US export income was pretty close in value to US import value...When we raised to tariff on imported goods, the foreign countries also raised theirs...It served no purpose...
Today, our export income is 6 times lower than US import value...
“When there are no jobs in this country except low paid, uninsured service jobs, we can see how far down it’s gone...Then, those will disappear when no one has anything to pay for their service..”
About 150 years ago, almost 80% of the population worked on farms. By your reckoning, we should be starving now because we didn’t do anything to save those great paying farm jobs.
Yes..........
Man, are you lost....*LOL*
I was specifically responding to an earlier post that dealt with the driving forces of Germany’s immediate post-WWII recovery.
But since you brought up the VAT, it is essentially a multi-level sales or excise tax - not a tariff. The VAT applies to all goods sold in Germany, regardless of where they are produced. The same is true for sales taxes in the U.S. If you buy a Japanese-built Lexus in Georgia, for example, you will pay the same state and local sales taxes as you would if you bought a U.S.-built vehicle. If we adopted a VAT, which many here on FR advocate, our VAT would undoubtedly apply to imported goods as well as domestically manufactured goods.
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