Disclosing Tariff Impacts: A Hostile and Political Act

[Swordsmyth]

I'm for individual independence. What you're calling "national independence" is a euphemism for bigger government and less freedom.

Bunk, globalism causes bigger government and less freedom.
Free trade causes globalism.

 

[Swordsmyth]

Trump called a man with hundreds of billions of dollars and yelled at him. I can't believe how far we have gone as a nation when the president of the United States can call someone with hundreds of billions of dollars and yell at them.

I bet he went home and cried on his huge pile of money.

Trump is even worse than Communist China.

Amazon has no way to calculate tariff costs, they were going lie and generate propaganda for the left and their useful idiots.

 

[Firestarter]

Upon hearing of Amazon’s plan, Trump went ballistic, calling Amazon’s plan a “hostile and political act.” According to an article in Aljazeera, Trump telephoned Amazon founder Jeff Bezos to express his displeasure. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt even pulled the Red card, pointing out that “Reuters recently wrote [that] Amazon partnered with a Chinese propaganda arm.”

More distraction stories... that orange clown sure is funnier than the demented one, but I'm afraid I'm not laughing!

Donald’s wife, Melania Trump, in a movie about her life has partnered with none other than Jeff Bezos (who will fund it).

Post in thread 'Bronfman, Clinton, Bezos and Facebook insider trading'

May 4, 2025

James Packer also hired former Scientology spokesman Tommy Davis (son of wealthy real estate investor William Davis) for Consolidated Press Holdings in 2016/17, in which position he helped run Packer’s partnership with filmmaker Brett Ratner in RatPac.

Donald’s nude model wife, Melania Trump, in a movie about her life has partnered with none other than Jeff Bezos (who will fund it).
The “behind-the-scenes look” at Melania’s life is directed by Brett Ratner, who in 2017 was accused of sexual harassment and misconduct: https://archive.is/L7ivE


Earlier in 2025, Ratner visited...

• Firestarter

Jeff Bezos and his fiancée Lauren Sanchez are close friends of Ivanka and her in-laws Josh Kushner and wife Karlie Kloss, but also of Huma Abedin: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/...os-lauren-sanchez-housewarming-party-nyc.html

 

[CCTelander]

Bunk, globalism causes bigger government and less freedom.
Free trade causes globalism.

.

Like forks cause obesity.

 

[Swordsmyth]

.

Like forks cause obesity.

No, like free unlimited candy to children causes obesity.

 

[acptulsa]

No, like free unlimited candy to children causes obesity.

Explain this analogy to me like I'm five, because it looks stupid as hell and I want to see if I'm right about that.

 

[CaptUSA]

Amazon has no way to calculate tariff costs...

Um...

You don't think that's a bigger issue??

 

[acptulsa]

Um...

You don't think that's a bigger issue??

I like these visible "likes". Saves one posting +1, +rep, +1776, etc. A nice addition that saves a lot of addition.

Of course it's a bigger issue. It requires companies to either overcharge themselves out of the market, or risk a miscalculation that could land them in Chapter 11. In that way, it's just another obstacle to small business that'll raise costs and prices like any other regulation does.

I thought the idea was to secure factory workers jobs, not lawyers.

 

[unknown]

 

[Working Poor]

I think amazon should be able to list the tariff rate on each package. I don't see a big deal we ought to know how much tariff we are and have been paying. We have been paying tariffs for years. I want to know how much tariff I am and, have been paying at the grocery store too.

 

[Working Poor]

I want to know how much tariff I am paying on an item they put the tax on every receipt why not the tariff too? I wanna know how much tariff we have been paying over the years past as well.

 

[Brian4Liberty]

‘This is a hostile and political act’: White House slams Amazon amid tariff standoff



Well, yeah; in the same sense that revealing how much the typical American in any income group pays in taxes is a hostile and political act against the political factions supporting the income tax ... or revealing how long it takes to get a building project approved in California is a hostile and political act against those who established the California building approval authority ... or ... or ... or ... (the list goes on and on).

I don't take any MSM story at face value, and I don't know that there is any truth to Amazon considering some kind of tariff disclosure on purchases. But just to entertain the thought...

The timing of this would indicate that it would be a "hostile and political" act in opposition to Trump. Has such disclosures been a long standing goal of Amazon? When lobbyists pushed Congress to remove country of origin labeling requirements, where did Amazon stand? Disclosing all taxes, tariffs and fees involved in the final product sold on Amazon would be a monumental and complex task. What would be the return on investment?

Politically, I like disclosure. But will it help or hinder Amazon in getting customers to press the "Buy Now" button?

Becoming overtly involved in politics is bad business. As an Amazon shareholder, I would be opposed to it. It doesn't help the business or business model at all. Simplicity is key to Amazon.

Just as Elon Musk being involved in politics has been bad for Tesla, Bezos getting more involved in politics would be bad for Amazon.

 

[Swordsmyth]

Um...

You don't think that's a bigger issue??

No.
It's the nature of the market, not only does Amazon not have access to the books of all the sellers in the supply chain, but they can't tell when a supplier lowers it's price to absorb the tariff cost etc.

They had no business making up tariff costs to give propaganda talking points to the left and useful idiots.

 

[acptulsa]

No.
It's the nature of the market, not only does Amazon not have access to the books of all the sellers in the supply chain, but they can't tell when a supplier lowers it's price to absorb the tariff cost etc.

Blah blah blah.

If you were to go on to say why you answered the question no, instead of talking about something completely different, people might have faith that you actually understood the question well enough that your answer means something.

 

[Invisible Man]

Our system is democratic capitalism.

You voluntarily participate in it.

You don't get to voluntarily cooperate with other nations.

That's the system our founders created. The president controls foreign policy and the states vote for president.

We don't have a headless government.

Your right to voluntary exchange ends at our borders.

Even given your premise of favoring statism, I don't see why anything you say here gives you an excuse for supporting bad policies like raising tariffs.

 

[Madison320]

I don't know where you ever heard that. Corporations don't exist without the state/government. The free-market/private-enterprise analog would have every stockholder fully liable for the actions of the corporation. People harmed by the actions of the corporation could come after the homes and private property of stockholders to compensate them (which would make individual stockholders a lot more cognizant of what their corporations were doing that could be held legally liable for). Besides which, they're effectively tax-collection agents for the government: first, taxing the corporation customers (via prices charged by the corporation) for profits of the corporation en-whole; and then taxing the corporation customers (via prices charged by the corporation) for the dividends the stockholders receive from the corporation.

To be consistent wouldn't you also have to end personal bankruptcy laws?

 

[Madison320]

Don't be silly. Republicans are never the hypocrites.

Until their guy gets into office.

I'm not sure which is worse. Republicans who promise freedom and then reverse course once they get elected, or democrats who promise authoritarianism and deliver it when they get elected.

 

[nikcers]

Even given your premise of favoring statism, I don't see why anything you say here gives you an excuse for supporting bad policies like raising tariffs.

Another word for statism is totalitarianism.

Do you really believe national defense the primary reason for forming a government as stated in our declaration of independence it is to secure rights that include life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.

You think we are totalitarian because we don't want to fund a hostile foreign government that seeks to rob us of our liberty within 2 decades?

 

[spudea]

Getting stuff cheaply doesn't destroy an economy.

Saying that we are "dependent" on those cheap goods is just another way of saying that we benefit from them economically, and ceasing to get them would remove those benefits. Of course we could still get by without those benefits, but we stand to gain nothing by having our own government intervene and try to push us to forego them via tariffs.

All of you who are supporting tariffs are supporting something that makes us worse off, under all circumstances, irrespective of what any other foreign governments do.

That's like buying Nike shoes and deluding yourself into thinking you have no responsibility for their child slave labor sweatshops. If all you care about is getting the cheapest goods no matter what, I bet you would have been pro slavery in the 1800s, they give us cheap food and benefit the white man....

You think you are taking the pro liberty position when all it takes is a few million slaves living under a brutal, exploitive communist dictatorship to get you the cheap goods you love. You are either willfully ignorant or worse if you think that system is perfectly fine.

 

[Brian4Liberty]

I think amazon should be able to list the tariff rate on each package. I don't see a big deal we ought to know how much tariff we are and have been paying. We have been paying tariffs for years. I want to know how much tariff I am and, have been paying at the grocery store too.

Amazon should be free to itemize anything they want on the price. But once again, does it help or hinder sales? How much does it cost to implement and maintain?

I want to know how much tariff I am paying on an item they put the tax on every receipt why not the tariff too? I wanna know how much tariff we have been paying over the years past as well.

This is a very interesting and relevant topic. There are plenty of people who currently want to regulate what is displayed to customers in terms of price. In competitive industries, there are often complaints when a competitor lists a certain price, but when you go to check-out, there are a bunch of add-ons, so that "advertised" price was not really true. Kind of a false advertising situation.

AirBnB recently dropped all itemized fees and only displays a single price, with taxes added at check-out.

And there is a huge uproar in the ticketing industry. Want two tickets to Taylor Swift? Ok, buy them for $100 each. That should be $200 total. But when you get to final check-out, the total cost is $375 after all of the added taxes, charges, fees, etc. Consumers are outraged about it, and demanding a regulatory "solution". No doubt it will just make the situation worse. Ticketing is for the most part a monopoly, so competition will not solve the problem. And regulatory solutions will probably be counter-productive too.