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I've often seen the statistic where the US Government at point was almost entirely funded by tariffs (and that this was to justify removing the income tax), but

I've often seen the statistic where the US Government at point was almost entirely funded by tariffs (and that this was to justify removing the income tax), but this seems to be misleading as from what I remember, at that time the Government was also much less powerful and didn't have as much of an active role providing services to citizens so I doubt tariffs would be able to supplement what other plans the Trump admin has. Any info on this?

JumpCrisscross 1y ago
> often seen the statistic where the US Government at point was almost entirely funded by tariffs Most old societies were. It’s easy to tax at a limited number of ports. And we didn’t understand comparative advantgae because we didn’t need to; most societies were—most of the time—Malthusian/zero real growth. (You’d also go to war more often. Industrial warfare and nukes sort of birthed the modern trade war.)