Quote:
Originally Posted by MarchHare
Yeah, if you're actually able to decipher anything from that verbal diarrhea, you realize that Trump apparently actually believes that putting duties and tariffs on the importing of foreign products is a tax on the origin nation, not a tax on American businesses doing the importing (which will then either go out of business or pass the increased costs on to their customers by raising prices on everything).
If you're a pro-business/anti-regulation conservative, how could you possible support Trump with what he's saying?
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This is a massive oversimplification, it depends on a lot of factors.
For starters, the price of a product in a market economy is primarily decided by supply and demand, not costs. If you tax a product that's in competition with non-taxed products, it's quite unlikely that the tax will all go into the prices. Likewise if you tax a product where the product is going to sell less at a higher price point, it's likely that the seller will eat some or even all of that tax.
If you put a tax on a product where an equivalent American alternative exists, consumers are unlikely to end up paying that, at least not in full, because they can buy American.
In non-essential products people can just not buy that product and use their money on something else.
Of course if you tax something where no alternatives exist, and it's essential like energy, then taxes are likely to just go straight into consumer prices. But in most situations, things are complicated and dependent on a whole bunch of factors.