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 <[email protected]>
On Behalf Of Lewis Bergman
Sent: Wednesday, May 29, 2019 5:37 PM
To: AnimalFarm Microwave Users Group <[email protected]>
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.
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?
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!
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