Tariffs will raise $700 billion a year in revenue

See my post above to Az.

Short term sting.

The consumer will soon have more disposable income at large due to increases in domestic production--increases in buying power, velocity of money, supply of money, and confidence in the future.

And your business, like mine, will benefit from that.

...or I guess we can continue the Democrat (and est pub) plan--continue spending ourselves into ruin, floating bubble economy with debt spending, continue undermining the value of our dollar, continue shipping our wealth overseas for the luxury of buying cheap Chinese crap...

...until the inevitable nuclear crash...

There's always that option--that same down bound trajectory we've ridden for 25 years now...

 

Your thinking like an isolationist. When has that worked in US history? Answer is never. And it won't work this time, and isn't working. The GDP in the US from manufacturing has been shrinking for years, and will likely to continue to shrink. There are several reasons why.

First is the fact we're a more global economy now than ever before. We may be the biggest consumers, but can a company that manufacturers a good used around the world compete being the lowest price in America due to tariffs, but not the price leader anyplace else in the globe? Economy of scale. Like drone manufacturing, which occurs 90% in China, makes it difficult for a US company to compete. We can tariff the crap out of the Chinese produce until the American manufacturer can compete here on price, but that's still going to hit the consumer's wallet in the US. And the Chinese will still have a significant advantage over parts and, resources, and supply chain because of their global advantage.

There's also limits to what the US can produce. Do we have the rare elements or the right environment? Take coffee, for example. The only places on US territory that coffee can grow is in Puerto Rico and Hawaii. The climate on the Continental 48 just isn't good for growing coffee. We can't tariff ourselves enough to change our climate fast enough to change this.

William McKinley thought like you in the 1890s. His tariffs were a major cause of the Panic of 1893. When the Great Depression hit in the 1920's around the globe, our politicians again thought we could take advantage and raised tariffs again. Google October 1929 and see how that one turned out!

 

Even if that's all true, which I don't feel like getting into, it doesn't change the fact that tariffs are ultimately a tax on a consumer. Which is what you questioned.

 

The funny part of this: the same people that argue "You don't need cheap Chinese goods" will then turn around and try to claim that the people opposing this look down on the people buying those cheap Chinese goods from Walmart, seemingly without any sense of irony.

Once again, it is an argument arising from resentments, not really facts.

 

Yeah, that isn't how any of this works. If you cut down competition, the disposable income goes down. And producers buy products too, forcing them to have higher costs but allowing them to increase their prices due to lower competition, lowering the purchasing power of end consumers. We don't have tons of idle labor sitting here (in fact, we have spent most of the last decade in a labor shortage).

Haha, and here is the "cheap Chinese crap" comment right after saying that the liberals look down on the people buying those products from Walmart. Definitely four fingers pointed straight back to you on that accusation.

Meanwhile, in reality, not your feelings, the stock market has massively increased and individual wealth and real income are way up.

 

Winning.


"Trump gets tariffs; Americans get price hikes"


Throughout the spring, big retailers and consumer product makers warned that levies on imported goods would squeeze their operations, forcing them to choose between lower earnings and passing on higher costs to customers.

In the case of Procter & Gamble (NYSE:PG) and others, it is both of those things.

On Tuesday, the packaging giant, which makes household basics spanning from Bounty paper towel to Tide detergent, issued a sour outlook for 2025 and sent a message to big retailers like Walmart (NYSE:WMT) that it would have to raise prices on some U.S. goods from next week.


https://www.investing.com/news/stoc...ets-tariffs-americans-get-price-hikes-4158219

 

Trump's new "deal" with Europe is expected to cause the average household to spend 1.8% more according to the Yale Budget Lab. That doesn't seem like a lot, but that's just products coming from EU countries.

Expected areas to be hit hardest are European automobiles and furniture. Ikea imports almost all of their goods from Europe or Asia. Ikea is often a low price leader, but expect prices to rise 15% in the US. Is there really a large competitor for Ikea that produces things domestically?

 

Rightys supporting tax increases. Bizarre times.

 

Made in America but at Made in China prices.

When the party of small
government can reconcile that formula, call me.

 

To make it at China prices you gotta make it at China wages, so all you have to do is pay workers way less. Problem solved.

 

Not really. But whatever it takes to justify throwing an estimated 11.8 million off Medicaid for $4.5 trillion in tax cuts for the rich...

... while adding $3.5 trillion to the debt.