15% Tariff Hitting AirPods, Apple Watch, HomePod and More in the U.S. This Sunday

[Marshall73]

So the situation is as follows:

1. You get in power and want to put in place huge tax cuts for the wealthy (includes 45)
2. Cut taxes
3. Dammit, deficit starts to soar
4. Can't increase sales taxes as it will look bad, oh, tariffs
5. Impose huge tariffs which are collected by the treasury, blame china. Reality, extra cost is bourn by US companies and ultimately US citizens. But they are so dumb they think China paid it.
6. Winning!

They should start showing this in US schools again:

 

[spazzcat]

Dude, what in the world? A 120% tax rate increase?

Something doesn't seem right there, I'm deep into the bike community and I've never heard of this?

https://peopleforbikes.org/tariffs/

 

[Dave00]

Thanks for that. You're right.

Although this may sound disingenuous now, I'm ok with this. "Illegal" immigrants still pay taxes. If you get sick while visiting Canada or England they'll treat you and you don't owe a cent.

A friend of mine got very sick while visiting the UK a few years back. She went to the ER, was immediately treated, had surgery, and owed zero dollars. She's alive because of this policy.

Do we want immigrants to die just because they escaped the poverty and drug cartel violence from South America to come to America and start a better life for their families?

The thing that people miss about the "free" healthcare for immigrants is that we provide care for people, regardless of whether they're ever going to be able to pay for it. This is because we're not monsters. You don't have someone come into the ER with a GI bleed and say "Whelp, sucks to be you, too bad you don't have legal status." We take care of uninsured patients all the time, whether it's because they're undocumented immigrants (many of whom ARE insured BTW), homeless, or have a job that doesn't provide health insurance. As they often can't pay their bills, these are passed along to the rest of the system. It's a dumb way to run things, and it would be much easier and more efficient to have one payer responsible for all patients. Yes, Medicare and Medicaid pay at a lower rate than private insurance, but they do so without all the headaches involved with getting private insurance to actually pay the bill.

It would also help if people actually knew how much their insurance cost (both employee + employer), and realized that this is actually a regressive tax. If you make $20k/year and your insurance is $10k/year (many plans are much more), that's a 33% tax.

 

[sirozha]

Thanks for that. You're right.

Although this may sound disingenuous now, I'm ok with this. "Illegal" immigrants still pay taxes. If you get sick while visiting Canada or England they'll treat you and you don't owe a cent.

A friend of mine got very sick while visiting the UK a few years back. She went to the ER, was immediately treated, had surgery, and owed zero dollars. She's alive because of this policy.

Do we want immigrants to die just because they escaped the poverty and drug cartel violence from South America to come to America and start a better life for their families?

I don’t know about England, but in Canada you won’t get free medical care as a tourist. You will be charged for it full price. I spend summers in Canada. Emergency room visit is at least $750. Doctor’s visits are $150 to $200.

 

[Gasu E.]

Basic supply and demand model would disagree with your assertion...

Long post, sorry.
<...>
In reality, some of the tariffs will be absorbed by the supply chain as well. I see it every day. Plus, China has already responded by devaluating its currency. It's down at least 10% by now if not more. Factories look for ways to reduce cost. Retailers here are pushing pretty hard for it. Outside of China options are growing at a rapid pace. I personally know factories that have already set up operations in Vietnam, Malasia, etc.

But yes, consumers, Apple, and our economy will also be greatly impacted.

Originally I was going to post something like yours, but I thought about how much effort it would take, for so little payback, and punted. It's disappointing how few people have even the simplest grasp of basic economics. Good post. I hope someone actually learns something from it.

 

[gnasher729]

To be fair, our President and many of his supporters do the exact same thing, calling those who have concerns “weak”, “losers”, or “snowflakes”. I don’t see why you are amazed that the response to that behavior would be in kind.

I thought "Snowflake" was Donald Trump's nickname? Remember how he couldn't _stand_ the thought that there were more people at Obama's inauguration than it his? Recently, how childish he reacted when Denmark told him, no, Greenland is not for sale? There's a proper snowflake. Anything not fully supporting him is "fake news".

 

[peterdevries]

I'm amazed at folks on here with far left-leaning views that are not willing to have an honest discussion on this particular trade-war situation. Instead of having a civil discussion on the topic at hand and defending their views, they constantly keep falling back to degrading our President and putting down anyone that supports him. They use words like idiots, minions, morons, and if allowed, they'll use racist descriptors as well. It's obvious where the hate is and it's a shame it is being allowed here

This is definitely on both sides. There are enough people here with “left” ideas that clearly articulate their ideas in a civil way. Don’t act like the “left” is using this type of wording. The “right” are at least similarly bad.

 

[The-Real-Deal82]

So much hate my friends.
So much unreflective hate on Donald!
What’s the reason not producing things like AirPods or HomePod partly in the USA?
As a European I always loved made in USA. Fantastic quality and engineering. You felt the love us workforce had.
China products don’t have love, mostly cheap crap. I have tons of it, and tons already are in wasteland.

I can’t say I share the live for American made products and as an engineer I’ve never held them in high regard when it comes to quality. They are as good as most places I’m sure but if you had to judge based on the quality of say a road car then American cars are pretty crap. There’s a big reason why American cars have never sold well in Europe and that’s is because they are unreliable and poorly refined by comparison. Look at Chevrolet, Dodge, Chrysler and Cadillac as prime examples of dreadful cars that have failed in the European and Asian markets.

 

[ani4ani]

Removed

 

[mudflap]

I’m pretty sure you do owe when you visit those countries. I had to pay in Australia and AFAIK its the same for visitors to Canada and UK.

In mr friend's case while visiting the UK, it was an emergency, so it was completely free.

 

[Gasu E.]

The only low information crusaders are those who don't know China is cheating us

How exactly is China cheating you? If China was actually "stealing intellectual property"*, it wasn't your IP, so you aren't the one being cheated. If China was actually manipulating their currency*, they would be using their saved capital to lower the prices of your purchases-- in other words, the Chinese government is paying their money to subsidize your purchases, essentially giving YOU money. If they were making some US products harder to sell in China, it's true that reduces the profit potential of some US companies; but it hurts Chinese consumers a lot more than it hurts Americans. And they are obviously not stealing low-wage jobs from Americans; if those jobs weren't in China, they would be in Vietnam or Mexico.

So, be specific; how are you, personally, being cheated? It sounds to me as if China, if anything, is actually paying you money to buy their cheap goods.

 

[Jimmy Bubbles]

You mean Reagan. He championed outsourcing....which lead to the overseas exodus.

Touché. That was before my time. I’ll listen to wisdom though, I’m only an 80s baby here.

 

[Hieveryone]

How exactly is China cheating you? If China was actually "stealing intellectual property"*, it wasn't your IP, so you aren't the one being cheated. If China was actually manipulating their currency*, they would be using their saved capital to lower the prices of your purchases-- in other words, the Chinese government is paying their money to subsidize your purchases, essentially giving YOU money. If they were making some US products harder to sell in China, it's true that reduces the profit potential of some US companies; but it hurts Chinese consumers a lot more than it hurts Americans. And they are obviously not stealing low-wage jobs from Americans; if those jobs weren't in China, they would be in Vietnam or Mexico.

So, be specific; how are you, personally, being cheated? It sounds to me as if China, if anything, is actually paying you money to buy their cheap goods.

You don't need evidence because everybody knows it. Just look at Huawei phones, one look and you know EXACTLY what's going on.

 

[stylinexpat]

You don't need evidence because everybody knows it. Just look at Huawei phones, one look and you know EXACTLY what's going on.

Sort of like Apple's Siri or Google's Gmail ? The list does go on

 

[Hieveryone]

Sort of like Apple's Siri or Google's Gmail ? The list does go on

Neither pose a threat to national security, and both enhance our economy

 

[stylinexpat]

Neither pose a threat to national security, and both enhance our economy

Every country has something that it sees as a risk to its national security Others could also argue that Google and Siri along with the NSA pose a national security risk to their country as well

 

[Hieveryone]

Every country has something that it sees as a risk to its national security Others could also argue that Google and Siri along with the NSA pose a national security risk to their country as well

Nothing beats China

 

[stylinexpat]

Nothing beats China

I bet you had the US had 1.5 billion people that it needed to keep an eye on it would probably be doing similar things

US has about 1/4 the population and they got: 1) NSA 2)Gmail and Yahoo reading your emails,3)Siri and Ok Google’s microphone pretty much 24/7 all ears, 4) There are other things as well.

I realize that China is communist and probably not the best example on earth for when it comes to privacy and freedom of speech but asides from that we all know that every country has its positives and negatives. China by no means is perfect not an angel but neither is the US either. At the end of the day it really depends on what matters most to you. There are many things I prefer the US over China with/at but vice versa also applies

 

[yadmonkey]

Here's a simple truth that should piss off both sides: If Obama had decided to pose a similar tariff on Chinese goods, most of his followers would have defended it and most of those defending Trump now would have opposed it.

 

[Bryan Bowler]

This is definitely on both sides. There are enough people here with “left” ideas that clearly articulate their ideas in a civil way. Don’t act like the “left” is using this type of wording. The “right” are at least similarly bad.

Well, fair enough. I can see where you're coming from and I agree with you. Perhaps what I should have said and what I'm really getting at here is amongst some people there seems to be a lack of civility. You are absolutely correct that there are many that articulate their views and do so in a respectful manner. I guess the outliers are what bothers me.

 

[peterdevries]

Well, fair enough. I can see where you're coming from and I agree with you. Perhaps what I should have said and what I'm really getting at here is amongst some people there seems to be a lack of civility. You are absolutely correct that there are many that articulate their views and do so in a respectful manner. I guess the outliers are what bothers me.

Yep, what this whole discussion lacks is civility, respect and facts (and proper, real research). But we won’t get that here in a discussion forum where everyone can hide behind an anonymous nickname.

Too many people here are just regurgitating sound bites that probably belong on twitter, where sane people can ignore them.

 

[weckart]

I don’t know about England, but in Canada you won’t get free medical care as a tourist. You will be charged for it full price. I spend summers in Canada. Emergency room visit is at least $750. Doctor’s visits are $150 to $200.

I think reciprocity is the key here. Many countries have mutual agreements as to the extent of medical care for their citizens visiting each other's country. Since the US seems to be more or less bent on fully private medical care, there is little scope for its benefitting from any such mutual agreements. Mostly these agreements cover emergency care, which tends to be the most expensive cost you are likely to incur abroad.

https://www.nhs.uk/using-the-nhs/he...lling-outside-the-european-economic-area-eea/

Canada is not on the list, so even UK citizens would need full insurance there. Luckily, travel insurance is dirt cheap if you don't have pre-existing conditions.

 

[TroyBoy30]

great news! make the playing field equal for all

 

[brinary001]

President is doing a fantastic job

I think reading this comment made me autistic, that's how ridiculous it is.

 

[AppleHaterLover]

So the situation is as follows:

1. You get in power and want to put in place huge tax cuts for the wealthy (includes 45)
2. Cut taxes
3. Dammit, deficit starts to soar
4. Can't increase sales taxes as it will look bad, oh, tariffs
5. Impose huge tariffs which are collected by the treasury, blame china. Reality, extra cost is bourn by US companies and ultimately US citizens. But they are so dumb they think China paid it.
6. Winning!

They should start showing this in US schools again:

The idea with these tariffs is not to cover the deficit. It's to discourage imports -from China-.

15% seems high, but some countries charge as much as 60% on imported goods such as this and nobody bats an eye.