this post was submitted on 17 Mar 2025
1032 points (99.0% liked)

Leopards Ate My Face

5538 readers
2482 users here now

Rules:

Also feel free to check out !leopardsatemyface@lemm.ee (also active).

Icon credit C. BrΓΌck on Wikimedia Commons.

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] Jesus_666@lemmy.world -5 points 12 hours ago (2 children)

I would've made you pay him. Every tariff is a tax but not every tax is a tariff. Of course your actual point still stands.

[–] SacralPlexus@lemmy.world 4 points 6 hours ago (1 children)
[–] Jesus_666@lemmy.world 0 points 4 hours ago

According to Merriam-Webster, "income tax" is a synonym of "value-added tax" and "property tax". And it can be, depending on context, but few people would argue that they are always synonymous. It's the same with "tariff" and "tax". Whether or not they are synonymous depends on context.

[–] null_dot@lemmy.dbzer0.com 21 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

That's not what a synonym is.

[–] Jesus_666@lemmy.world 3 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

My point exactly. The bet was about whether "tariff" and "tax" are synonymous. They aren't synonymous if they describe different things, even if one of those things is a subset of the other. (This is complicated a bit by the fact that synonymity is context-dependent so in some contexts they can be synonymous. I'm assuming a general context.)

To give a different example, every iPhone is a smartphone but not every smartphone is an iPhone. The two terms aren't synonymous except in specific contexts like when discussing the inventory of an Apple store.

In a general context, I would argue that the bet is lost – tariffs are taxes but taxes encompass more than just tariffs. The definition of synonymity is not fulfilled.

The actual point of the bet, namely to illustrate that tariffs are paid by people in the country that raised them (because they are taxes on imported goods and services), remains valid.

[–] null_dot@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 33 minutes ago

thesauris.com, merriam-webster, and collins all disagree with you.

They aren't synonymous if they describe different things

This is clearly false. Obviously the degree of difference determines whether terms are synonymous. You're correct that not all taxes are tariffs. Apparently however that doesn't mean they're not synonyms.

Additionally one term being a subset of the other evidently does not preclude being a synonym.

If you have a bet, and every dictionary says that you're wrong, then you should just graciously pay up.