Higher tariffs go into effect Thursday

Both you and I know that would never happen because they wouldn't be stupid enough to try something like that. Tariffs are a tool for specific uses, they are not a Swiss Army knife

 

If this is free money with no negative consequences then why not just slap 500% tariffs on everyone? Let's really ramp this up!

 

Wowsers !! That appears to be about $100 billion collected in tax, since April, from US businesses and/or consumers!!

Now do the recently legislated $4.5 trillion tax cut for rich Americans.

Which is bigger? You feel conned yet?

 

We need to increase tariffs as to force companies to manufacture their products in the US. This will obviously create more jobs and will push up wages in our country.

Far too many manufacturing jobs have been moving out of this country since the 1970’s and that pace has accelerated significantly since the 2000’s. That is a fact and I believe we can all agree that the US has become far too dependent on foreign suppliers. Trump is doing something about it and kudos to him for doing so.

 

Why do we have tariffs on goods that we can't produce even if we wanted to? You and everyone else knows that Trump is just throwing stuff against the wall.

It's also silly to think that the US will become a manufacturing juggernaut when Americans are already complaining about prices. You think iPhones are expensive now? Wait until you see one that's completely made in the US.

Heck, even no name phones built in the US are $2k
Liberty Phone – Purism

Also, where do you think these Made in America companies get their raw materials from? Other countries.

 

The Smoot-Hawley tariffs didn't create the Great Depression. But they made a very bad situation even worse. From the link:

The Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act did not cause the Great Depression. However, it did worsen conditions during that time. The Act increased tariffs, which further stressed struggling nations—including those in debt to the U.S.—and caused other nations to retaliate by imposing their own tariffs. As a result, international trade decreased significantly.
​

If you want an example of tariffs being part of reason the country went into recession, you have to go back a little further to the Panic of 1893. Not the sole reason of the then biggest depression in the history of the US, but a big one. Higher prices caused major slow downs and caused construction to come to all but a halt. Newly built railroads what was used to carry goods across the country also saw massive supply shortages that hurt their business, and the US had financed a lot of RR construction.

As for Trump's tariffs, inflation is already rising, and likely will continue to rise. The Jobs report also indicates the economy is slowing down. Combined, these are huge alarm bells for stagflation, which up until the 1970s, economists believed could never happen. Things probably won't be as bad as the 1970s, but if inflation is above 3% and the economy does slow down, this will be the worst economic conditions that didn't happen during a global pandemic since the 1970s.

Last, tariffs don't protect or even create more jobs than they lose. There are a lot of people working in import/export jobs that will lose their jobs as international trade continues to drop. And while costs go up for everything, American manufacturing can't afford to hire those who lose jobs on an equal basis. An example of this was during Trump's first term, and the tariffs he put on washing machines. Costs when up, and it was estimated the cost of every new onshore job in the industry cost over $800,000.

 

Yeah, but to be honest, if Trump said the opposite you'd be here posting about why that was a good idea.

Lower costs for consumers, specialization of labor, ability to shed our illegal labor force, etc.

 

Socialists never learn. Welfare jobs HURT America. Can I get a CATO, LOL???

https://www.cato.org/policy-analysi...ic-costs-of-protectionism-during-the-gatt-era

 

We are at full employment. You could make over $30 per hour if you work at Costco right now.

https://www.reuters.com/business/re...pay-most-us-store-workers-over-30-2025-01-31/

No, that is an opinion.

Nope, I enjoy lower prices. You have the option of paying higher prices if you want. Why do you want to take away other people's choices?

Manufacturing data has been very weak this year compared to prior years and is showing no signs of turning around.

United States ISM Manufacturing PMI

 

Trump admin expects tariffs to bring in $50 billion per month. That amounts to about $380 per US household per month, or about $4500 per household per year. Even if only half of that is passed to consumers in the form of higher prices, it's still a massive tax increase.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2025/08/07/trump-tariffs-revenue/

The new taxes on imports are expected to bring in at least $50 billion every month, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told Fox Business Thursday morning.

 

Again, most people will be getting a tax cut. You seem to repeatedly ignore that part.