Please be open to feedback and constructive criticism from others, and consider their suggestions and advice when making decisions or forming opinions.
- Manlobbi
Personal Finance Topics / Macroeconomic Trends and Risks❤
No. of Recommendations: 1
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/eu-defends-digital-...
Without specifying any government, Trump threatened export restrictions on US advanced technology and semiconductors and higher tariffs in retaliation for nations’ digital services taxes that hit American companies. His post on social media late Monday said that the measures “are all designed to harm, or discriminate against, American Technology.”
Trump has long railed against EU tech and antitrust regulation over US tech giants including Alphabet Inc.’s Google, Apple Inc. and Meta Platforms Inc. The US has also recently pushed the European Commission to water down its AI Code of Practice.
No. of Recommendations: 0
As suggested elsewhere, the objective seems to be to turn the clock back to 1912: when much of Federal revenue came from tariffs, and there was no income tax. If that is the case, we can look forward to tariffs being continually stepped up, until revenue is sufficient to replace the income tax.
Steve
No. of Recommendations: 0
tariffs being continually stepped up, until revenue is sufficient to replace the income tax.
Income tax collected is WAY in excess of any amount reasonably collectible via tariffs. Spankee is FAR TOO STUPID to comprehend that fact.
No. of Recommendations: 0
No. of Recommendations: 11
As suggested elsewhere, the objective seems to be to turn the clock back to 1912: when much of Federal revenue came from tariffs, and there was no income tax. If that is the case, we can look forward to tariffs being continually stepped up, until revenue is sufficient to replace the income tax.
Not to overstate the obvious, but there is no way.
In 1912 there were hardly any paved roads, and certainly no Federally funded roads. There was no NASA, no weather satellites, no CIA or FBI. We had a spit of a standing army or navy, and certainly no Air Force (or Space Force). No missiles to build and maintain. There was no regulation of food or drugs, no Federal flood insurance, no funded science research, no disability or Medicaid, no veterans hospitals, no missile defense or nuclear programsj.
There was, of course, no FAA, no FCC, and no assistance for public transit. Headstart didn’t exist, and there were no pollution control programs or rules. Heck, the IRS didn’t exist.
You want to fund it all with sales taxes (*I’m sorry: tariffs). You’re gonna see humongous increases in the price of everything except wheat and soybeans. We’re really good at wheat and soybeans. Also social media, which is already free, but maybe there’s a way to make a dime off of it? (Sure, just threaten to close it down because of “[insert faux] EMERGENCY!” But allow it to continue if they just give you 20% of the vig.
Yeah, there are lots of movies about this, mostly with fat guys in fedora hats.
No. of Recommendations: 0
You want to fund it all with sales taxes (*I’m sorry: tariffs). Since you bring up sales taxes, recall when Mick Huckabee was running for POTUS, the centerpiece of his policy proposal was to completely replace the income tax with the "fair tax", a national sales tax. And that was without the draconian cuts that Trump is proposing. As offered before, Trump is the most interventionist POTUS since FDR. How much would the government reduce spending, if it did nothing but unwind everything FDR enacted? You could make a case that, if the citizens of a state refuse to tax themselves for roads, or schools, or adequate police, why does funding those activities automatically become the Federal government's problem? The local news here in metro Detroit is constantly talking about things being done with Federal grant money.
Millions in Federal Funding Available to Michigan Communities and Organizations Exploring Infrastructure Projects
Since 2021, Michigan has secured more than $13 billion in federal funding to enhance roads, bridges, public transit, water infrastructure and broadband access. https://www.michigan.gov/whitmer/issues/michigan-i...Steve
No. of Recommendations: 17
You could make a case that, if the citizens of a state refuse to tax themselves for roads, or schools, or adequate police, why does funding those activities automatically become the Federal government's problem?
It doesn’t “automatically” (see: Mississippi), but we have learned that when there are large infrastructure projects which the private market can’t/won’t fund, we are still better off doing them and taxing everyone because we all benefit.
I’m tired of listing them, but Interstates move freight. Airlines move people. Satellites connect merchants and banks. Fewer sick people = more customers. Crummy drugs = more dead people. NASA accelerated microchips, not just astronauts. Canals, railroads, highways, dams, TVA and all the rest make all of us better off. If you say “Sorry Mississippi no roads - and they say yes - well, you’re going to have less steel and poultry and corn and catfish. Let Michigan infrastructure deteriorate and the price of lumber and cars and cereal and stuff goes up.
There are times when 2+2=5, and infrastructure is one of them. Take it away, and you’re lucky if 2+2=3. See: Africa, Haiti, etc.
No, you can’t “make a case” for it, at least not with me.
No. of Recommendations: 0
we are still better off doing them and taxing everyone because we all benefit.
Except the Federal government doesn't tax everyone to pay for it. The government adds more to the pile of debt.
Micro scale example: the (L&Ses) in Lansing have underfunded road maintenance, for years, to help cover more tax cuts for "JCs". The citizens of the township I live in, voted to tax themselves to help with road maintenance, even though the township is not really responsible for any of the roads, because no-one else was getting it done. What would most states do, if they couldn't fob the funding for beneficial programs off on the Federal government?
Steve
No. of Recommendations: 0
Not to overstate the obvious, but there is no way.
In 1912 there were hardly any paved roads, and certainly no Federally funded roads.
Yup, Goofy,
We have $37 trillion in debt, and our economy is becoming less stable each day.
TPTB are not even remotely making anything workable. Sheerly maroonic.
No. of Recommendations: 0
Except the Federal government doesn't tax everyone to pay for it. The government adds more to the pile of debt.
Steve,
The lower the debt-to-real-GDP ratio, the better. The higher the debt-to-real GDP ratio, the less stable our economy becomes.
How much debt only matters depending on the ratio. This is why all of us believe in wise cost/benefit analysis by the federal government economists. Know about them or not. Musk walked away from Doge, saying it was hard to see where to cut. Those economists spend our money very wisely.
Implementing synergistic economic policies, the debt can go a lot higher for decades as the ratio declines.
Dream on if you think we are dealing from any position of reality right now.
No. of Recommendations: 1
if the citizens of a state refuse to tax themselves for roads, or schools, or adequate police, why does funding those activities automatically become the Federal government's problem?
If the problems were LIMITED TO THAT STATE/COUNTY/CITY, then the above claim MIGHT make a vague sort of sense. But, it is "national" issue when things need to be able to almost anywhere quickly and readily, with few problems. With a patchwork of essentially unpassable roadways and more, that threatens the everyone in the nation, not just those who live where "they don't want to pay". Yet, guess what? If THEY get attacked or need help, they want FEDERAL HELP AND BAILOUT NOW !! So the federal govt taxes them as everyone else gets taxed. In other words, insurance spreading the cost of national risks to all citizens. If the people don't like it, nothing stops them from leaving the US and moving to where they do NOT have to pay for those costs. Where would that be? Good question. MAGA stays in the US because they are TOO AFRAID to go anywhere else. Which is why the wealthy do NOT have their own country--with no taxes, etc. Can they afford it? NO !! Why ?? Because the wealth REQUIRE a massive base from which they can take assets and give to themselves. If they do NOT have that base (which would NOT exist in "their own country"), they would have to pay for EVERYTHING out of their own pockets. They would go broke VERY quickly. Thus, the wealthy are the definition of Welfare Queens. Always have been. Always will be.
No. of Recommendations: 0
The use of superlatives is danerous. While of little us to USians, the tax structure of Monaco seems to attract nearly as many of the wealthy as its enviable weather.
Jeff
No. of Recommendations: 1
In 1912 there were hardly any paved roads, and certainly no Federally funded roads. Ever take a close look at a 1912 vintage car? Or ride in one? I have ridden in models ranging from a Model T, to a Pierce Arrow. You don't want to go far in one, or fast. You don't want to be in one in bad weather, because they lack things like a heater, or windshield wipers, or side curtains, or, in some cases, doors. If you wanted distance, speed, and comfort, you took the train.
Fun with numbers (from Wiki)
The US Interstate highway system is 48,890 miles long. The US numbered highway system, "US Highway" and "US Route", totals another 157,724 miles, but those roads are primarily built and maintained by state and local governments, since establishment of the system in 1926.
US railroad trackage peaked in 1916, at about 254,000 miles, before the railroads started losing volume to the growing road system.
But this is all a sideshow. TPTB want to get rid of the income tax, so they will continue to float schemes to get them there.
Just for fun: Steve takes a ride in a 36 Cadillac. Consider the fitful way the windshield wipers operate, and imagine being in a frog strangler with wipers like that. Of course, you wouldn't have fitful vacuum wipers in 1912, because you wouldn't have wipers at all.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AcXBVn11tPQSteve
