Lots of comments along the lines that tarrifs were mostly passed down indirectly to consumers, who aren't entitled to refunds.

I definitely agree on principle, it sounds pretty tricky to see how proving "I paid $x more for groceries because of tarrifs" would work in practice.

Does anyone know of policy suggestions for how that could work?

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ranyume a day ago | parent | next [-]

You put the money on an investment pool and pay the citizens back in:

* Direct Cash (using some equation for impoverished households)

* Infrastructure

* Better life conditions

No other uses for this money. The returns and the uses of this money must be public.

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testing22321 a day ago | parent [-]

Excuse me, this is the Inited States we’re talking about.

You’re getting mighty close to socialism there citizen.

	▲	ranyume a day ago \| parent [-]
		I'm more of an anarchist myself, so I think it's a fair situational compromise!

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downrightmike a day ago | parent | prev [-]

Most everything was probably bought with credit/debit cards. The individual records exist. Just using your Amazon etc order history should be dead simple

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benrutter a day ago | parent | next [-]

I think the tricky bit is less proving you bought something, and more proving that the thing you bought cost more than it otherwise would.

As I understand it (which isn't a lot), if you paid a tariff on an overseas order you're theoretically due it back, although that might require taking the government to court, which is gonna cost more than the settlement for most people.

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9dev a day ago | parent | prev [-]

you would need to prove what part of the amounts you paid were due to tariffs, and which were ordinary price changes. All vendors would need to publish that information, and be honest about it. Don't see it coming.

	▲	crazygringo a day ago \| parent [-]
		The real thing is, price changes tend to be proportional to tariffs. If the tariff was $20, the consumer got charged $40 more. But not uniformly -- every price is different, there are other non-tariff price changes too, prices can increase before or after tariffs not exactly at the same time, etc. If companies want to try to refund customers and come up with their own formulas for that, that's great. But usually there isn't some objective right answer that can be imposed externally.