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Because we live in a relatively free country where the government doesn't choose what software we buy or use.
by tchaffee 6y ago
Because we live in a relatively free country where the government doesn't choose what software we buy or use.
- busymom0 6y agoWhen it comes to national security, similar to Huawei, this can all be done.
- zerowangtwo 6y agoBut should it?
- billfruit 6y agoSuch naivety on display here, I am alarmed for HN. National security isn't blanket grounds for doing anything. There are limits to president's and executives and even legislatures authority. Arbitrarily nothing can be done in our system. Unless US government probably demonstrates to the public that this measure is required, such a ban cannot be condoned.
- Udik 6y agoThey can do just anything, once they convinced you it's "because national security". And it seems that people are very easily convinced.
- chillacy 6y agoThis is sort of similar to tarrifs no? The government selectively (through lobbyists and deals) picks which types of things are taxed (sometimes to unprofitability). Other things are banned entirely. Not saying Kinder Eggs would be missed as much as Tik Tok, but this is historically something the government does.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- tchaffee 6y agoHow do you plan on taxing something that is free?
- eru 6y agoWhat's the problem with that? Obviously, an ad volarem tax (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ad_valorem_tax https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ad_valorem_tax) that is a tax that is proportional to the market value of a transaction like VAT wouldn't do anything. But there are other kinds of taxes. Eg fuel taxes in many countries are usually per litre, not per dollar of petrol. See eg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuel_tax#Tax_rates https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuel_tax#Tax_rates Carbon taxes proposals are also usually imagined to apply per kg of carbon emitted. Exactly because there's no prior price of carbon emissions.
- zepearl 6y agoI think that you're still one level more abstract than what is happening here. Tariffs are set for classes/types of goods/materials/etc... and Kinder Eggs were banned because they didn't comply to a regulation (small dangerous foreign objects contained in the product - maybe other similar products had to be banned as well but those ones didn't reach the headlines). In this case the decision applies to a very specific company/product and that decision is not based on a rule/regulation/etc..., I think => on one hand it doesn't have any impact on other similar companies/products, on the other hand it scares me that a single person is able to enforce on-the-fly these kind of decisions.
- eru 6y agoYes, it's similar to tariffs. Tariffs are a bad idea, and so is this ban.