After years of mingling in various circles, I've seen all kinds of unbelievable things, but this latest news still shocked me—a proposal to abolish income tax and fund the entire national budget solely through tariffs! 🤯

My first reaction? It's as incredible as suddenly hearing that a certain blockchain is going to abandon gas fees and instead rely only on cross-chain transaction fees to keep running.

So what's the real game plan here?

The core logic is simple: workers would take home their entire salary, not a single cent deducted for income tax; the national treasury? It would rely entirely on import tariffs to fill the gap. Sounds great—like trading with zero fees, but the platform jacks up withdrawal costs instead.

But reality isn't so pretty—current tariff revenue is nowhere near the same level as income tax. To truly replace it? Tariffs would have to skyrocket several times over. The result is obvious: from Southeast Asian electronics to South American agricultural products, from European machinery to Asian daily necessities, everything would get so expensive you'd start questioning reality. Put simply, it's just shifting tax collection from income to consumption—different approach, same result.

Why do I think this move is doomed?

**First, inflation.**
Why do you think the Fed goes to so much trouble to cut rates? If tariffs soar, import costs immediately spike and get passed straight to retail, sending the CPI out of control in no time. Wage growth for ordinary people would never keep up with price increases, and real purchasing power would quietly be eaten away—just another way to fleece the masses.

**Now, let's talk about trade retaliation.**
If you unilaterally raise tariff barriers by a huge margin, do you think other economies will just sit by? European and Asian trade partners will definitely retaliate, and then globally...