[hn_throwaway_99]

> This is assuming you are buying goods that are outside of the country. Most consumption weekly is things like food, drink, disposable items and not things like computer hardware which is refreshed every few years normally.

Trying really hard to refrain from a snarky response, because this analysis is 100% incorrect. First, where do you think a substantial portion of food, drink and disposable items in the US comes from?

More importantly, though, the entire economic rationale of import tariffs is to allow domestic producers to charge more. It doesn't matter if you just "buy American", because if the competition that American producers face is now 10% more expensive, these producers will raise prices. Or, if more charitably, foreign goods were making American-made products uncompetitive, American producers can now come in and make those goods, but only at the higher prices.

Again, the entire point of tariffs (at least from the perspective of "we want to bring production back to this country") is to raise the price of goods across the board so American producers can be competitive.

Also, you misunderstand how progressive taxes work. When you make more and go into "the higher income band", you're not taxed more on ALL your income, just the portion that is in the new band (at least in the US). Yes, there have been cases in the US e.g. with welfare where if people made above a certain amount their welfare was cut off, but those have all been highlighted as examples of poor tax policy that have largely been fixed.

[amarcheschi]

I was curious about this so i searched a bit. about 15% of food in us is imported, although the % is higher for groceries,seafood,fresh products https://www.fda.gov/food/importing-food-products-united-stat...

it's interesting also this document about total consumption that excludes from the count foreign sourced items (scroll to the last pragraph for a summary) https://www.commerce.gov/sites/default/files/migrated/report...

[dijksterhuis]

> When you make more and go into "the higher income band", you're not taxed more on ALL your income, just the portion that is in the new band (at least in the US).

applies in the UK too where GP is (source: my own repeat self assessments).

[SiliconSplash]

Yes I know. But often it is not worth going into the upper band at all unless you towards the top of that band. I am equating my own time, stress etc into this calculation and not just monetary amount.

[SiliconSplash]

> Trying really hard to refrain from a snarky response, because this analysis is 100% incorrect. First, where do you think a substantial portion of food, drink and disposable items in the US comes from?

I was talking about how a similar policy would affect me in the UK where far more food is domestically produced.

> More importantly, though, the entire economic rationale of import tariffs is to allow domestic producers to charge more. It doesn't matter if you just "buy American", because if the competition that American producers face is now 10% more expensive, these producers will raise prices. Or, if more charitably, foreign goods were making American-made products uncompetitive, American producers can now come in and make those goods, but only at the higher prices.

You can adjust your consumption much more easily than you can adjust your income tax. If you want to be in the lower band of progressive income tax.

> Also, you misunderstand how progressive taxes work. When you make more and go into "the higher income band", you're not taxed more on ALL your income, just the portion that is in the new band (at least in the US). Yes, there have been cases in the US e.g. with welfare where if people made above a certain amount their welfare was cut off, but those have all been highlighted as examples of poor tax policy that have largely been fixed.

I do already understand this. You don't understand what I was telling about how it affected my wages that month. Once I went over the band, the increase in tax was enough to make working the overtime not worth it, as I would maybe get a few hours of OT. It would only be worth it, if I was working lots of OT ... which I couldn't do because I was studying.

It also stops me from bothering to get a higher salaried job. I am at the highest pay before you go into the 50% band. So if go from £55,000 to 65,000, that £5000 of the extra £10000 will be taken by the taxman. A £65,000 job has a lot more expectations than a £45-55k job. The extra stress and hours that will be expected isn't worth the extra £5000 which over the year is an extra £415 month.

[hn_throwaway_99]

Dude, none of your economic analysis makes any sense. I mean, you say "A £65,000 job has a lot more expectations than a £45-55k job." Welcome to reality. Yes, the amount only above the band cutoff will be taxed at a higher rate. For you, it may not be worth it. And that's fine, lots of people are cool with lower stress for less money. But obviously for a lot of people it is worth it.

All you've done is describe the tradeoffs in whether working harder is worth the extra money to you.

[SiliconSplash]

Yes it does if you understand the context. We are comparing having similar tariffs with 0% income tax to the current situation which is income tax and some Tariffs.

If the income tax didn't exist at all, I would keep all of the £65,000 and it would be totally worth working those hours. The extra £13-16k a year would allow me to pay off my current apartment in 3-5 years, not 10-15 and then I could get a lower paying job anyway and work less sooner. So the trade off IMO would be totally worth it.