Apple got an estimated $2.2 billion tariff refund last quarter. Amazon got $600 million. Nike got $300 million. But American consumers who paid higher prices as President Donald Trump’s tariffs filtered through the economy are getting almost nothing back.
WE PAID THE TARRIFS AND WE PAID FOR THE REFUNDS
I keep hearing that, but I don’t think it’s true. Companies did pay money to the government, and now that money is being refunded to the companies.
The consumers get screwed, of course, but I think it’s a single screwing, not a double one. Unless someone can show me something where companies are getting money they didn’t pay out in the first place.
Edit: downvote but not tell me how you think we paid twice? Nice.
Are you saying prices didn’t go up?
No. Dork. That is the money we paid.
We paid it once in higher prices. Not twice like claimed that I replied to.
@fyzzlefry @daychilde Prices have gone up under President Trump, but not because of his policies. Food, electricity, & gas prices were already rising due to Biden-era inflation, supply chain issues, & massive government spending. Trump’s tariffs & deregulation are designed to bring prices down long-term by boosting domestic production & cutting costs. The left blames Trump for inflation that started before he took office.
This is the dumbest thing I’ve read. You owe me that chunk of my life back. How dare you.
I can’t believe it. A comment so stupid that simply reading it has made me even stupider.
Removed by mod
Not worth the effort.
You are crazy if you believe this bullshit 😆
The wording I would say is correct more than it is wrong.
Companies did pay tariffs directly, and because of this I would say nearly all increased consumer pricing for effected goods, so indirectly people paid for those tariffs.
With the refunds going out, while ideally it would be a simple refund, the cost is performing the refunds (in man hours and potential transaction fees) which is the additional cost to taxpayers.
I would also say the number of companies deciding to send those refunds on to consumers is extremely low, they’re just keeping the refund.
So it is definitely not regular people being “double dipped”, which is what the original line may imply, but yeah, it’s seemingly been used as a way for companies to make extra profit from people at the taxpayers expense.
This wording? The wording I replied to:
People absolutely paid for the tariffs in increased pricing.
The ovehead of the refunds would be insignificant.
The companies don’t have to send any money to consumers to cancel us paying twice, because we paid once in high prices. If they hold on to the refunds, we will have still only paid once… with higher prices.
So basically, what I said you don’t even disagree with. And yet I got downvotes. Lemmy is quite irritating. People seem to prefer emotions over facts.
The revenue created by the tariffs was used as justification for legislation like the One Bill Ugly Bill as well. The double dip is that after everything, consumers have both less cash now and the growth of the federal deficit was accelerated even further. That, at the end of the day, is taxpayer money which will have to fill in that gap unless we find a way to magically disappear all our debt.
Great points.
Not what I replied to, which AS A REMINDER was:
So again, you are another person replying that has not addressed the point I actually made to the comment to which I replied.