It is odd to me that the tariff escalation is what set you off on this. Don't get me wrong, it warms my libertarian heart to see freedom from taxation lumped in with "our freedoms." But it's also where Trump is standing on firmest ground, as far as legitimate use of his power is concerned.
(Yeah, this power constitutionally belongs to Congress and should absolutely be reclaimed by Congress, but it's been used by many past presidents, including Trump the first time around, with nary a peep. There are some signs that his recent extremes may finally trigger needed change, either via Congress finding their gonads or SCOTUS invoking the nondelegation doctrine. But that said...)
They're taxes. They're allowed to be that high. I view taxes as infringement on freedom, I certainly wish more people understood them as such, but we're not talking about constitutional freedoms. There's not even a limiting principle like the way "excessive" limits fines. The government is allowed to jack up tax rates as high as they want.
I'm holding out to see what happens in the slightly longer term. A lot of what I've read recently has made me more sympathetic to the good that tariffs could in theory produce, specifically in regard to restoring domestic manufacturing and supply chains. I'm undeniably one of the winners from free trade, and I'm going to take an economic hit from this. But I've also learned so much more about the losers from free trade, and I think it's pretty reprehensible how we let offshoring drain our domestic industries, especially when the jobs were offshored to places that lack our worker protections. A lot of what we call "free trade" has just been an excuse to let us benefit from (sometimes literal) slave labor, at the expense of a once-thriving working class.
It's also pretty scary how we went from making things to making loans. I never really thought about it, but how does a service economy work if no one's actually making anything? It's because we're all just passing around dollars that originated as interest being charged on loans, and other such financial machinations. The value of things can go down, but it doesn't entirely vaporize the way the value of a fiat currency can. Plus, I write software for hedge funds. I'd rather be writing software for factories.
That said, I have no faith in Trump's competence, and I think his ego could keep him from escaping a wet paper bag, so I'm not holding my breath. But there are lots of things that are more important than money, so I'm not hitting the barricades over this quite yet.
I acknowledge that the tariffs are likely not unconstitutional, but they would still be a bad thing from a freedom perspective. Like if AOC became President and somehow was able to get 70% tax rates passed, that would also be constitutional but it wouldn't actually be good, right? Anyway, I will explain my stance on tariffs in another post soon.
100%!
Let us cooperate :)
It is odd to me that the tariff escalation is what set you off on this. Don't get me wrong, it warms my libertarian heart to see freedom from taxation lumped in with "our freedoms." But it's also where Trump is standing on firmest ground, as far as legitimate use of his power is concerned.
(Yeah, this power constitutionally belongs to Congress and should absolutely be reclaimed by Congress, but it's been used by many past presidents, including Trump the first time around, with nary a peep. There are some signs that his recent extremes may finally trigger needed change, either via Congress finding their gonads or SCOTUS invoking the nondelegation doctrine. But that said...)
They're taxes. They're allowed to be that high. I view taxes as infringement on freedom, I certainly wish more people understood them as such, but we're not talking about constitutional freedoms. There's not even a limiting principle like the way "excessive" limits fines. The government is allowed to jack up tax rates as high as they want.
I'm holding out to see what happens in the slightly longer term. A lot of what I've read recently has made me more sympathetic to the good that tariffs could in theory produce, specifically in regard to restoring domestic manufacturing and supply chains. I'm undeniably one of the winners from free trade, and I'm going to take an economic hit from this. But I've also learned so much more about the losers from free trade, and I think it's pretty reprehensible how we let offshoring drain our domestic industries, especially when the jobs were offshored to places that lack our worker protections. A lot of what we call "free trade" has just been an excuse to let us benefit from (sometimes literal) slave labor, at the expense of a once-thriving working class.
It's also pretty scary how we went from making things to making loans. I never really thought about it, but how does a service economy work if no one's actually making anything? It's because we're all just passing around dollars that originated as interest being charged on loans, and other such financial machinations. The value of things can go down, but it doesn't entirely vaporize the way the value of a fiat currency can. Plus, I write software for hedge funds. I'd rather be writing software for factories.
That said, I have no faith in Trump's competence, and I think his ego could keep him from escaping a wet paper bag, so I'm not holding my breath. But there are lots of things that are more important than money, so I'm not hitting the barricades over this quite yet.
I acknowledge that the tariffs are likely not unconstitutional, but they would still be a bad thing from a freedom perspective. Like if AOC became President and somehow was able to get 70% tax rates passed, that would also be constitutional but it wouldn't actually be good, right? Anyway, I will explain my stance on tariffs in another post soon.