OK, some may think I’m getting into politics, but that is not my intention.
It strikes me that we are starting to get things that look like taxes, swim like taxes, and quack like taxes, but are not treated like they’re taxes. Tariffs are starting to seem that way. Another example that bothers me more and more as the contribution rate goes up is USF. What is that other than a tax on long distance phone service? That generates a slush fund for some unelected bureaucrats to dispense. Mostly to big telcos. Normally taxes are passed by Congress, and they take the heat for it at the next election. Normally Congress also decides how to spend the revenue. As long as tariffs are relatively small, you can view them as part of trade policy. Same with USF, if it wasn’t so big, you could overlook that it is essentially a tax that nobody voted for, used for corporate welfare. From: AF <af-boun...@af.afmug.com> On Behalf Of Lewis Bergman Sent: Wednesday, May 29, 2019 5:37 PM To: AnimalFarm Microwave Users Group <af@af.afmug.com> Subject: Re: [AFMUG] tariffs on servers I don't think there is much thought to how it works in the consumer level other than it is supposed to make the tariffed goods more expensive thereby making other options more competitive. In that respect, it is likely working. Changing global supply chain relationships doesn't move quickly though. Vietnam for instance has had trouble meeting the same standards as China. Seems hard to imagine but after a few decades of manufacturing for the US China has gotten pretty good at it. On Wed, May 29, 2019, 5:23 PM Jason McKemie <j.mcke...@veloxinetbroadband.com <mailto:j.mcke...@veloxinetbroadband.com> > wrote: One thing about the tariffs that is especially irritating to me is that if tariffs are imposed at, for example 30% on steel, then the domestic supplier just raises their prices by 29%. Is this the way that this is supposed to work? On Wed, May 29, 2019 at 3:18 PM Ken Hohhof <af...@kwisp.com <mailto:af...@kwisp.com> > wrote: I’m in the process of buying a couple Supermicro servers, and I’m told that due to tariffs, prices have already gone up around 10% and will be going up another 15% on or about June 1. Are others running into the same thing? It sounds like I need to place my order now. That’s not a trivial increase. We’ve also received tariff notifications from tower steel vendors, power supply vendors, cable vendors, and we saw Cambium increase prices a few months ago. Some of these like the steel and cable you just eat, but potentially everything we buy except bandwidth may be going up. I wonder if bandwidth suppliers will figure out a way to jack up prices claiming tariffs! -- AF mailing list AF@af.afmug.com <mailto:AF@af.afmug.com> http://af.afmug.com/mailman/listinfo/af_af.afmug.com -- AF mailing list AF@af.afmug.com <mailto:AF@af.afmug.com> http://af.afmug.com/mailman/listinfo/af_af.afmug.com
-- AF mailing list AF@af.afmug.com http://af.afmug.com/mailman/listinfo/af_af.afmug.com
