Amazon originally posted the increase in price due to tariffs as a separate item - like sales tax.

The stable genius had a hissy fit, called Bezos and Amazon folded.

I think even the most die hard supporters of President Trump now realize that hey have been had and lied to and that import tariffs are not paid by the exporting country but by the importing country and the tariffs are then passed onto the consumer.

 

Yes they are doing great indeed, here translated from German:

Mercedes-Benz profits fall by more than half

Mercedes-Benz's profits plummeted by more than half in the first half of the year. The group's net income plummeted by 55.8 percent year-on-year, from approximately €6.1 billion to approximately €2.7 billion, the automaker announced. The Stuttgart-based company cited tariffs, lower sales figures, and expenditures for efficiency measures as reasons for this.

Looking ahead to the current fiscal year, Mercedes now expects group sales to be significantly below the previous year's level. The adjusted return on sales for the passenger car division is expected to be only between four and six percent in 2025. In the already weak previous year, it was 8.1 percent. Sales are also expected to be significantly lower.
MB ADR is down from $25 to $15 while market is up a lot.
Probably a good time to buy would be ah..around 2028?

 

The winners are the sellers that do not import goods. The losers are the importers and those who do not wish to purchase non-imported goods.

 

Agree about the sellers of domestic goods. Not so sure about the buyers of domestic goods because the sellers of those goods are going to increase their prices too - the tariff increase on imported goods prices means the sellers of domestic goods have more room to increase prices…..

 

Bingo ! They have more room, and they will use that room.

I remember during the supply shortages during the Covid days, the prices got jacked up. The prices never came down, despite all supply chain issues having been sorted out, since then.

 

Domestic car builders have huge input price increases because of higher cost aluminum and steel up 50%. There are other costs involved because of some re-shoring of production. All three domestic builders have mostly held prices in line until Canada and Mexico have a trade deal and they can pass on price increases. So far they have been absorbing the increases. GM announced that will cost them 5B in the second half of this year, Stellantis 1.7B and Ford 1.2B.
Eventually the consumer will be hit with these increases.

 

The people most affected by tariffs are the lower income people who struggle to make ends meet. Clothing, appliances, everyday goods that are mostly imported are hitting the poorest. The guy that buys a MB may not like the increase but he is not living on the margins. In the last three months over 30K jobs have been lost in manufacturing. Many US products cannot compete with higher input costs. Tariffs will slow down the world economy and affect us all to some degree.

 

That might have been true 75 years ago. Today it is hard to even think of anything that does not have some portion of the final product that is made from a foreign source or as you post "does not import goods".

Tariffs hurt everyone: the importer, the US based manufacturer who has a portion of the material necessary for production sourced from a foreign country and most of all the consumer who winds up paying more for the exact same product.

Paying more for the exact same product is the very definition and essence of inflation.

 

Tariffs have their time and place. However, the way tariffs are being used currently, is mostly as a punitive weapon.

Tariffs is the new term for what used to be referred to as "sanctions" in the past. Against everybody and everything, for whatever whim or idea that strikes the tariffer, at that particular moment. This in turn causes global uncertainty and lack of predictability. Even the "wins" from the tariff game, are not sustainable for the losing party.

 

100% correct.

Tariffs are the most regressive form taxation imaginable. Many Republicans do not believe in progressive taxation. Tariffs fit right into their tax philosophy.

The fact is that people with middle to lower class incomes, generally anyone making less than $75,000 a year will be hit hardest by tariffs: this class of people have very little to set aside and tend to spend most of their disposable income. That means almost of their income, which they spend, will be subject to increase prices because of tariffs.

A person making a $1 million a year does not spend all of his income. That person can put aside money. So in effect he is paying higher prices on only a portion of his income.

When wealthy pay a tax, (tariff) on only a portion of their income and middle to lower class pay a tax, (tariff) on all of their income, that is regressive taxation

 

It isn't just tariffs. There are huge job losses due to union wage demands/increases, automation and AI. One only needs to look at job losses in the fast food industry California to see the effect of the Democrat mandated 25% wage increase. The market won't support those higher prices. There is a large segment of people who avoid purchasing US products produced by "big labor" irrespective of price.

 

In the past 50/70 years very few tariffs have worked:

The last time was with Harley Davidson: Back in the 1980's Harley's clock was being cleaned by the Japanese. President Regan put in tariffs which gave Harley time to regroup. It worked! But the tariffs were targeted to achieve a specific goal and for a short period of time.

What Trump is doing now is contrary: First of all Trump has confused export tariffs, which are paid by the exporting company with importing tariffs which are paid by the importing country. Exporting tariffs were set up to protect American ingenuity or for defense purposes: for example if Intel or IBM came up with a new chip that helped American industry or for defense, then to protect that American industry and/or defense, if IBM or Intel wanted to sell that chip to a foreign country, IBM or Intel would have to pay an export tariff.

As you can imagine in a capitalistic economy, export tariffs are few and far between.

Import tariffs to remedy balance of trade make zero sense - something that 99.9% of economists know. It is amazing how Trump can always find some economist, Peter Navarro for example, to back up his hair brain ideas and plans.

99.9% of economist know that tariffs will increase prices to the consumer, without any offsetting benefit, something that the American public is finally starting to learn. Let's hope it is not to late and that either courts will find that Trump does not have the power to impose tariffs, especially for political reasons as in Brazil, or that he Trump will roll back tariffs before a recession or worse yet a depression set in.

 

Contra point and you have to be kidding!

I know of no one, can't think of anyone who "avoid purchasing US products produced by "big Labor"..." as you posted.

The exact opposite is true: Almost everyone I know, if given the choice to buy American or foreign will buy American ever if the price is modestly higher!

I think you are unique, one of a kind, in not willing to buy American because of "Big Labor"!

 

I don't know where you get your "facts". Per capita income in the US was less than $75,000 for 2025. Anyone making $75,000 per year is not lower class. It's about as average as it gets. They pay almost nothing in US income taxes. My '24 six figure income was considerably more than $75k and my income tax was about 4% without itemizing deductions. If I wanted to itemize it would have been less tax but taken more time.

Progressive tax rates is discrimination based not only on income, but how that income is spent. Those that spend in accordance with government incentives receive tax deductions. Those that don't, don't. I believe that for taxation everyone should be treated equally by instituting a flat tax percentage with no deductions.

 

You bought a German car and not a comparable US car produced by the UAW.
Did you buy a US made cell phone? computer? medication? liquor? sugar?
I posit that you chose imports over US made items even though there are US made brands available.
Look at yourself in a mirror.

 

Foreign sellers that do not import goods are irrelevant to the conversation; they neither win nor lose if not part of the US economy.

Even those who only wish to purchase non-imported goods ultimately lose. Protectionism reduces competition and therefore stunts product advancement and ingenuity.

And after a period of time of reduced competition, if/when tariffs are reduced or eliminated by a future administration and more advanced products enter the US marketplace, domestic manufacturers will suffer greatly.

As stated by others: Everyone loses.

 

Not the least bit surprised that you are in favor of a flat tax! The good news is that you are not making that decision.

If you had bothered to read my post you will have noted, contrary to your post "Anyone making $75,000 per year is not lower class.".

To refresh your memory here is what I posted:

 

Stop embarrassing yourself:

• What American car is comparable to a Mercedes? Not a Cadillac nor a Lincoln
• I have an iPhone. What is the comparable American made smart phone?
• My computers are Dell. My tablet an iPad.
• Medications are what the doctor prescribes. When I go to the pharmacy I give him my prescription and the pharmacist fills it. I do not ask "what country" it was made in. I do ask for generic if available.
• I do not drink alcoholic beverages. Many years ago I did and loved The Glenlivet. Never found an American equivalent

Again, your posts and/or questions only embarrass yourself. Refrain yourself from the need to respond to every post

 

100% agreement.

If you look at other posts by ua549 they border and often cross into racist rants. If my memory is correct he has posted proudly about his private hospital that only treats those who can pay (he has asserted medical care is for those who can pay) and others similar posts and the post above against progressive taxation.

ua549 should be ignored..

My business career was importing woolen textiles from Italy to be manufactured in coats, jackets, pants and skirts in the US all by US companies employing US workers My woolen fabrics were subject to US custom duties - a tariff. The duties were originally to protect the US domestic wool manufacturers. There is a world wide market for wool. But in the US, because of the duties, woolen fabrics made here were 30% to 40% higher than the world market. Instead of using that 30%/40% cushion to make modernization of the woolen mills here in the US, the manufacturers took that cushion as profits. Once free trade agreements came into place, with no duty on the fabrics I imported from Italy, do you know what happened to the American wool mills. Within 3 years mills like JP Stevens, Eastland Woolens, manufacturers who had been in business for nearly 100 years all declared bankruptcy and closed!. Hundred of thousands of people lost there jobs!

That is why I posted above over the past 50/70 years the only effective tariff (duty) I can remember that worked was the one for Harley. But that tariff was not a blanked tariff with no end date, but a targeted tariff for a limited period of time

In an interconnected world tariffs do not work. Tariffs result in the consumer paying more after tariffs for the exact same product as before the tariffs. Everyone, especially the consumer, loses with tariffs.

 

Completion is stymied when a company like Boeing is subjected to 44M more aluminum cost because of 50% tariffs on just one input that Airbus does not pay. This is one item for one company. Extrapolate this through all US manufacturing. Trump said it was all about creating more US manufacturing jobs. He was not truthful. It was about generating more revenue to offset the tax cut for the top 1%. His policies will most probably not succeed. In the meantime, America has lost the goodwill of most of the world trading nations.Your closest ally and largest export market, Canada, now has a frigid relationship with the US. This was the closest relationship of any two nations for over 100 years. The two economies were so integrated as to be one. We shared a language, many customs among similar people. Now border crossings from Canada are down 30%. We were your largest source of foreign tourists, 20M border crossings annually.

 

What you posted seems pretty obvious to anyone with even a high school education.

I have no idea where Trump gets his ideas from: Certainly not The University of Pennsylvania Wharton:

Oh I forgot: He asked and was found Peter Navarro!

Peter Navarro proves that there is an exception to very rule!

Enough: I suggest we should get back to the topic of this thread!

 

He’ll hath no fury like a country losing its sugar daddy…
Canada has been ripping off the US for decades.

 

Take a look at the J D Power ratings. Lincoln ranks ahead of Mercedes in the Full-Sized Luxury rankings; Mercedes isn't in the top 20 in the Mid-Sized Luxury rankings; and Tesla is ahead of Mercedes in the Small-Sized Luxury rankings.

I got a US made Purism high security cell phone for a sensitive consulting gig a couple of years ago. It has a high security Linux based OS.
I avoid Chinese/Taiwanese products such as Dell, iPhone and iPad.
The US is equally guilty of putting backdoors in electronics for espionage purposes. Nvidia H2O chip comes to mind.

You don't have much of a choice when it comes to some pharmaceuticals. However, there are 2 brands of aspirin that are made in the USA - Rite Aid and Equate.
When I have a choice between brands of a given medication, I choose a Swiss brand such as Roche or Novartis to avoid Chinese made drugs.

 

do a little research on the subject.

 

Good lord you realize this was originally meant to be a fun post intended for people to comment and share about a product we all enjoy? If this gets this political, I may bow gracefully out.