Time to lighten up - Laughter is good medicine Part II

hunts_with_stick · 2026-01-07T05:15:59-0600

H20fwler said:
View attachment 87404

This is the truth

b116757 · 2026-01-07T07:28:08-0600

Bill said:
The point is that the countries that do produce the coffee and chocolate should accept what the US produces at the same tariff. Why should the US pay a 100% tariff to ship something to them and they pay nothing to send us their coffee?

The problem with progressive taxes on anything is it hurts the poor eventually. Put a tax on anyone making over a million dollars sounds great today. But in 50 or so years inflation will have made it so minimum wage earners are making a million $ a year. And you better believe politicians won’t change the law. Exaggerated I know. But the point is valid. Once they get it, they won’t give it back.

Absolutely agree with both of these points tariffs are only a stick for Trump to attempt to get countries to stop screwing the US with import tariffs or their own nothing to do with taxes that is merely a hopefully short term side effect. And remember when Obummer was in office and they were floating the idea of taxing the hell out of anyone making $150k or more I do. We had an extended family get together and the sheeple among them where so happy about that prospect let’s tax the hell out of those rich bastards they said. I asked my mother in-law age 89 what her starting teachers salary was $2000 a year what the reply so I did a little simple math and said you idoits are going to tax the hell out of your children and grand children.

Telemark · 2026-01-07T08:06:51-0600

H20fwler said:
Gross Domestic Product
It’s a gauge that tells you how good the economy is doing. 4.3 is a good/better number means the economy is turning around and going the right way.
During 2024 it was down to 2.1 which means bad inflation.
Higher the GDP more every American is getting for their dollar. COVID was a GDP killer, it’s a good barometer….we want to see it keep going up.
And tariffs protect our workers and products from other countries undercutting us. Many countries were charging us ridiculous tariffs while we were hardly charging them anything for goods.

Ah, 4.3% GDP growth?

Unfortunately most of that activity seems to be in tech, fuelled by massive spending on things like AI, which means it might be a bubble. The bottom two thirds of Americans by income are spending less, and spending on new industry is down. I wouldn't be surprised if we see a dip in Q1.

I'd like to see most of the Mexico and Canada tariffs go away, especially in the automotive industry. And I'd like to see tariffs on anything we don't produce go away. I think that would allow for growth in US manufacturing. That would make me a lot more confident about the future of the economy.

Telemark · 2026-01-07T08:36:40-0600

Bill said:
The point is that the countries that do produce the coffee and chocolate should accept what the US produces at the same tariff. Why should the US pay a 100% tariff to ship something to them and they pay nothing to send us their coffee?

That's not what is happening. If you look at Colombia, for example, we already had a free trade agreement. We didn't tariff their goods coming to us, and they didn't tariff our goods going to them. Now Trump has put a 10% tariff on Colombia. And then he's talking about giving everyone a $2000 tariff check, which would cause massive inflation. It's ridiculous.

If he wants to tariff the crap out of Chinese cars, or flat out ban the import of Chinese cars, I'm all for it. Punish the Chinese for their unfair practices while ensuring they have no market share in the US in order to promote American automotive manufacturing. I'm all for that. But taxing Colombian coffee only makes coffee more expensive for Americans.

Trump's approach tariffs is too ham-fisted. It should be much more nuanced if it's meant to help Americans.

jsasker007 · 2026-01-07T08:44:14-0600

Not sure why Cliff Clavin comes to mind. Hmmm

ksJoe · 2026-01-07T08:46:07-0600

Telemark said:
I fundamentally disagree with your entire attitude toward taxation in the United States. It is my opinion that taxes should be minimal. I also don't understand how you can possibly believe that tariffs or any other tax will encourage saving and working.

I agree taxes should be minimal. But taxes (at some level) are necessary, and IMO having everyone pay at least some is a fairer and healthier system than one where a large percent of the population pays nothing or negative rates.

Please reread my prior comment. I did not say tariffs encourage saving or working. I said that taxes discourage whatever they are applied to.

I'm reminded of my college economics professor. His position was that a "head tax" caused the least economic distortions (that's not his word, I forget exactly how he put it, it was nearly 30 years ago). But basically under a head tax everyone must pay a certain amount for the priviledge of living. Such a tax does not discourage work, investment, etc. I don't believe he was actually advocating for a head tax (neither would I). He was just illustrating the point that taxes discourage the behavior they're applied to and providing an illustration of a tax that would not produce an actionable discouragement.

jsasker007 · 2026-01-07T08:53:14-0600

Eliminate the 90% of government that isn't needed and we'd all be much better off. Properly applying the taxes would make sense but for some reason that's just a pipe dream. jmho

Telemark · 2026-01-07T09:09:33-0600

ksJoe said:
everyone must pay a certain amount for the priviledge of living.

Again, I think we have a fundamental difference of opinion regarding taxes.

I don't consider living a privilege. I consider it a fundamental human right, along with liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

Taxes are necessary to pay for services we receive, like military, police, fire department, libraries, postal service, etc. which are necessary for society.