Re: An Experiment: A Literal Political Thread
Four incremental pieces of information that we need to include as part of a controlled scientific experiment.
1) a tax on yacht value over $30,000 on yachts is not the same as a tax on auto value over $30,000, since most yachts cost far more than luxury autos ("what is the average purchase price of yacht in 1991 vs luxury car?")
2) It is relatively easy to go to another country to buy a yacht and sail it here. It is not nearly so easy to go overseas to buy a car and then ship it here. ("how much does it cost to ship a car from Europe vs sail a yacht from Europe?")
3) Most US yacht builders nearly went out of business in the early 1990s; automakers, not so much. (former was cited in NY Times article).
4) what proportion of US automaker sales were affected by tax compared to what proportion of US yachtmaker sales were affected by the tax (how much did US Automakers also sell overseas vs how much did US yachtmakers sell overseas?)
It was never presented as "all or none" but as "relative proportion." The tax impacted yachts far more heavily than cars on a relative basis because the amount of the purchase price subject to tax on the yachts was much higher than the amount of the purchase price subject to tax on the cars. (e.g, if average yacht is $100,000 and average luxury car is $50,000, then the former has a tax 3.5 times greater than the latter; not quite apples to apples when parsing out the effect of the tax relative to the effect of the recession).
Originally posted by 5mn_Major
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1) a tax on yacht value over $30,000 on yachts is not the same as a tax on auto value over $30,000, since most yachts cost far more than luxury autos ("what is the average purchase price of yacht in 1991 vs luxury car?")
2) It is relatively easy to go to another country to buy a yacht and sail it here. It is not nearly so easy to go overseas to buy a car and then ship it here. ("how much does it cost to ship a car from Europe vs sail a yacht from Europe?")
3) Most US yacht builders nearly went out of business in the early 1990s; automakers, not so much. (former was cited in NY Times article).
4) what proportion of US automaker sales were affected by tax compared to what proportion of US yachtmaker sales were affected by the tax (how much did US Automakers also sell overseas vs how much did US yachtmakers sell overseas?)
It was never presented as "all or none" but as "relative proportion." The tax impacted yachts far more heavily than cars on a relative basis because the amount of the purchase price subject to tax on the yachts was much higher than the amount of the purchase price subject to tax on the cars. (e.g, if average yacht is $100,000 and average luxury car is $50,000, then the former has a tax 3.5 times greater than the latter; not quite apples to apples when parsing out the effect of the tax relative to the effect of the recession).
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