Don't overthink it. It's as commonsense as America First. Tariffs are protectionism, pure and simple. Any industry you want to build, put tariffs on the foreign competition, and the domestic industry, fueled by domestic workers, will grow in direct proportion to the tariffs.

If you really want to study it, look at the peanut industry and read about George Washington Carver's testimony to Congress. That case has a lot of info because GWC was famous already and was the first black doctor to testify before Congress iirc. Lots of info. Saved lots of American peanut farmers' livelihoods.

On the flip side look at the steel industry from the 60's to the 90's and it's easy to see how the US industry declined tremendously as protectionism was gradually withdrawn. And now we drown in cheap imported junk instead of washing machines from the 50's that are still working.

Tell them how Europe has tons of tariffs on food products, and that's why they have good food produced locally while we have standardized goo in your choice of artificial flavors and poisons.

Lots of countries use tariffs to protect their own industries and selectively grow some. The US is practically the only one that doesn't, and it's only because our supposedly elected leaders have sold us out.

It really isn't that complicated.

Tarrifs funded this nation and built strong industry.

If Ron Paul supports tarrifs so do I.

The best point of tariffs is they drive up domestic manufacturing

take furniture as an example. plenty of good furniture is manufactured in the ol' usa, but we buy a TON of imported cheap furniture because "it's cheaper". what these importers are doing is taking advantage of fewer regulations and much cheaper labor costs over seas that they can still afford to ship this crap here and sell it cheaper than companies in the USA. so by placing tariffs on imported goods, it "levels the playing field" for US manufacturers, so that the prices would end up being competitive. there is a good book by a guy named Pat Choate called Agents of Influence. it was written back in the 80's about how the japanese took over the electronics market in the US, specifically the television market, from US manufacturers. it also goes into how US officials have been selling us out for decades. and remember, this was written decades ago...

Tariffs in a total vacuum will increase domestic prices in the short to medium term. And in the long term it will stimulate local manufacturing of that product.

Combine with reduction in regulations; stimulate local manufacturing even more and potentially make the price cheaper.

Combine with increased gas & oil exploration & drilling leases; further stimulate local manufacturing, reduce overall individual expenses, increase individual disposable income.

Combine with reduction/elimination of income taxes; further stimulate local manufacturing, reduce overall individual expenses, increase individual disposable income.

Combine with deportation of 20 million illegal migrants: reduction in local demand lowers prices, reduction in social welfare spending means reduced tax burden, increased law enforcement availability, safer communities.

Doing all synergistically: increase local resource extraction (oil, gas, lumber, metals, minerals, agriculture), increase local manufacturing (all sectors), Increase job market, decrease unemployment, cheaper prices, greater individual disposable income, reduction in social welfare spending, reduced tax burden, safer communities.

Stickying this so we can compile all our redpills regarding Tarrifs, because it is indeed a very hot issue with the normies and frequently first line of attack against "Trump policies"

McKinley was assassinated.

It worked great for much of this nation's history. All that's required is to CUT GOVERNMENT SPENDING back to reasonable and Constitutional levels and adjust tariffs as needed so that trade in both directions works well (we're not trying to impoverish or destroy our trading partners, although we can certainly use higher tariffs to punish bad behavior) while generating sufficient income.

There are a multiple reasons why a leader might want to slap some tariffs on particular goods coming from various countries. In no particular order as to which are the most important/lucrative/effective/etc.

Option 1. Said country has a stronger production base and the country putting forth tariffs. This allows the country with the weaker production base to better compete. Does it cause the average consumer to have to pay more? Yes, it does, but the cost is generally fairly low and the outcome is keeping the home base economy in that particular sector from further dropping off.

Option 2: Said country has weaker worker protection, so the home country can better compete against the lower cost of production due to lower worker protections. Cost is same as option 1, as is the result. Depending on your political views, this can be good or bad. Some countries, such as China, have nearly no worker protection, so a tariff against that might even be seen as morally the best choice, even if consumers end up paying more.

Option 3: Said country manipulates their currency to achieve better pricing in flooding markets (typically with cheaper and lower quality goods). Does this increase the cost of to the consumer, yes, but usually bolsters the workforce as well. Again, this can be seen as a morally acceptable retaliation against country who manipulate their currency to get a leg up on the competition.

Note: while option 1 might be morally right from one country’s standpoint, it is often seen as morally wrong from the opposite country’s standpoint. Neutral parties will see it less as a moral issue and more as a protectionist issue. Whereas 2 and 3 have one side that is morally right and one side that is morally wrong.

Option 4: Tariffs can be used as a sort of sanction against countries that are behaving badly. As with Options 2 and 3, this is usually a retaliation against something the original country has done wrong. Let’s say Mexico and their lax approach to stopping illegal border crossings into the US.

Option 5: Tariffs can also be used as a bargaining chip. Let’s say that you are New Zealand and you see that Australia is getting too buddy buddy with China, you might say to Australia, “We’re gonna slap a tariff on your imported goods because you are dealing with countries that we view as hostile” and then Australia now has less incentive to deal with China in a way that would negatively effect New Zealand. One could argue that Options 4 and 5 are essentially the same, but generally one is more of a threat against direct action (or inaction in the Mexico example) whereas Option 5 is more about a general approach toward other countries and who they actively trade with.

Option 6: Trade war. This isn’t so much different than any of the above so much as it is more drastic. Options 1-5 rarely see tariffs reach into the high double digits, but trade wars can see tariffs hitting into the triple digits. This is basically the last step before a full on trade embargo. You hit them so hard with tariffs that they essentially can’t trade with you any longer.

Option 7: Raising funds. Let’s say that you wanted to bring in more money for the government and you didn’t want the average citizen to have to pay. Do you raise the tax rates? You can, but what if you didn’t have to? What if, instead, you could raise tariffs on luxury imports? That’s certainly one approach. Let’s say the average laptop costs 1,500, if you slapped a 10% tariff on the importing of laptops, the cost becomes 1,650. You are hoping that most people who can afford the 1,500 can also afford 1,650. Let’s change this to yachts instead (yes, I know, there are multiple layers to acquiring yachts and importing them is just one example, but that’s the example we will use). Say Billy, pie to the face, Gates decides that he really likes that yacht he saw when he was hanging out with Epstein. Well, said yacht might cost as much as 5 million dollars. Raise the tariffs on yacht imports and bam, you just $500,000 from one transaction alone and that’s just with a 10% tariff. This tariff isn’t likely to harm the economy because Bill “I’d like to vax the whole of Africa with my poison syringe” Gates will buy the yacht even if tariffed to a high extent. Yes, there are ways he can try to get around the tariff, but that’s why you get the experts in to tell you when and where to cap your tariffs.

Note: Tariffs can also be levied as a combination of different Options. You might find that China is better at producing a certain good, manipulating their currency so said good is cheaper, pushing their workers in slave like conditions, and being an all-around bad actor.

Option 8: the retaliation tariff. One might levy a tariff on another country because that country decided to slap you with a tariff. This could be a tariff on the same exact good or a different good.

Pros: Good negotiating tool Can raise lots of funding Can get other countries to stop their bad actions Can protect jobs at home Can force countries to rethink their shady economic dealings with others

Cons: Can drive countries away from wanting to trade with you Can cost consumer extra money Can result in retaliation (such as tariffs or trade wars)

Proper use of tariffs can prove to be an effective measure at combatting bad actors, protecting production at home, drive fairer negotiations, etc. improper usage can tank the economy and reputation of a country.

TLDR: there are numerous reasons for tariffs, including protecting your production base, combatting manipulative countries, negotiating with foreign governments that might not have your best interests in mind, punishing foreign governments for shady practices, retaliating against foreign tariffs, and starting trade wars and more.

Trump has repeatedly said the he’ll match tariffs, which is hardly punitive. If a country won’t buy from us, why should we buy from them? We’ve been supplied with cheap crap for decades. Are we better off as a nation? Do any of these goods have value? We use to inherit valuable goods, tools, furniture, even clothes from our grandparents. Not anymore, it’s all useless, disposable crab.

“Anyone? Anyone?” - FBDO

So, absolutely the best deterrence we have against retaliatory action from trading partners is that we have the nukes, and we are basically The Shield for Europe and other partners. That helps for the stuff imported from or created through supply chains that mostly involve Europe and others. The problem is that the majority of what we import does not come from someone under our protection, but someone who we actively monitor and surround with military bases and regularly engage in trade wars with. And crucially, we are far from the only country who relies upon China for imports, otherwise tariffs from just us would be providing a lot more pressure.

However, it is possible that we could force European and Commonwealth countries to also adopt the same tariffs, again because we have the biggest guns. Russia’s “aggression” actually makes that scenario more likely, and in that case, we’d have a much better outcome.

But regardless, I do think people need to understand that without the American government forcing our globalist companies to just swallow the hit, there will absolutely be price turbulence. Tax cuts and rebates can help mitigate that, there’s lots of levers to pull. Don’t expect a switch to be flipped and suddenly the economy is great in February. It is possible for tariffs to help in the long run, but there will be a stretch when it doesn’t feel good. Most battles that are worth something are like that - basic narrative design.

Our initial condition right now is globalism--we rely on trade with a lot of countries to import goods. Does anyone believe we'll be able to ramp up manufacturing in the next four years to be significantly less reliant on the import of goods? Prices will go up in the short term because companies will pass the costs on to the consumer in the beginning.

The biggest problems we're up against is human capital and specific countries manipulating their currency.

I am for tariffs. However, we need to cut government spending to decrease inflation. We need to reduce our debt.

It's hard for me to wrap my head around the fact that Americans want to work manufacturing jobs for the prices companies want to pay. Companies want to improve their bottom line so why not manufacture overseas where expenses are much lower even after you factor in logistics? I think we can do better in terms of energy, but producing goods is something I see other countries having the upper hand because of much lower wages. I think people should earn a fair wage and I know that's subjective but if consumers care most about price it's hard for made in the USA to compete.

Not how tariffs work if done correctly. China has low labor costs. But so do several other countries. So that makes China eat most of the tariff costs. Otherwise customers will shift countries. For some things, there is a spin up time in the other country, but they are hungry for the business. And once it leaves China, it is not likely to return. When you look at tariffs, you have to look at the much larger picture of actions and reactions. If done correctly, there is very little impact on inflation. And that will be more than offset by the domestic moves that Trump is making.

Ppl around me are assuming tariffs will increase the price of imports/goods that we cannot afford anymore. Sounds like bullshit to me, many countries that ripped us off on trade deals, just aren’t gonna get their free lunches anymore. Trump said many countries are hugely reliant on us for many things, like military assistance. Taking that away alone will make them desperate to make better trade deals.

I'm in no way an expert on the economy or anything in relation to it. I'll freely admit that.

So it really confuses me when people seem to be all over the map when it comes to what they think will be happening with tarrifs.

On one hand, the idea seems to be making it more expensive to buy goods from other countries rather than manufacture them ourselves in the US.

And then we'll get quotes like this where it seems that countries will be lowering the prices of goods we buy from them. Which negates the reasoning of moving manufacturing back to the US because it would be cheaper than importing.

So, yeah, I think learning more about the basics here is pretty important.

Just to get it out of the way, I think we need to acknowledge the fact that tarrifs are going to raise prices for a large percentage of consumer goods, if not the majority of them. And that we, the buyers, will be footing that price increases. Companies aren't going to be losing money out of the goodness of their hearts over this.

Basically the idea of tarrifs seems to be to force manufacturing to the US by making it more expensive to import goods than it is to produce them here. There is just no way around the fact that we, the consumer are going to be the ones most impacted by this.

It's not just a case of US based companies moving their manufacturing back to the US, though. There are just so many goods that are mostly only available from foreign companies with few, if any, US companies manufacturing them. The biggest example of this would be electronics. Which, unfortunately, is also one of the biggest categories of things we consistently buy.

And some of the main reasons why companies moved their manufacturing out of the country in the first place hasn't changed, either. And two of those reasons are A) corporate profits, which should be self explanatory and B) the Walmart mentality of the average US shopper. They want the largest amount of goods for the lowest amount of money. They are not at all interested in paying for quality, and they're not interested in paying more for an item just to keep manufacturing in the US. And they're certainly not interested in ensuring that a US based citizen is making a living wage while producing those goods versuses literal slave labor being used by so many foreign countries.

Quite frankly, I think that if President Trump keeps to his promises concerning tarrifs it means that we've pretty much seen the end of cheap consumer goods. And I don't think that's a bad thing, necessarily. We have become such a wasteful society where it's cheaper to throw a broken item away and buy a new one than it is to repair it. This goes for everything from toasters to cars. Certainly the environmentalists should be rejoicing over these tarrifs because they'll most likely usher in a new era of "reduce, reuse, recycle", because it will once again become common for things to become more expensive to replace than it is to repair.

I know that most people here think that after the initial transitioning phase of getting the manufacturing industry back up and running in the US (which who knows how long it will take to do so) that we will once again have inexpensive goods. I think that this will only happen with some drastic changes to our culture concerning corporate profits. Because like I said before, companies aren't going to be sacrificing their profits out of goodwill towards man. If you go back to look at when the US still had a healthy manufacturing industry, take a look at what the average income ratio was between a company's lowest paid employee and the company's president and other high ranking employees. The average in the 1950s and 60s was something like the bigwigs making 7x the salary of the common worker. Today, the average is around 200× more.

There is simply no way that we can move manufacturing back to the US, have US citizens in those manufacturing jobs making a living wage, and companies keep making these types of profits. Not without us, the consumers, paying a hell of a lot more for goods than we currently are.

And for those that think the solution is to pay US citizens as little as possible to work those manufacturing jobs, I'll point out that this is why we have such a problem with companies hiring foreigners to come over to work these types of jobs. So that just opens up an entirely new can of worms there concerning foreign workers and illegal immigrants.

Any way we look at it, none of this is going to be easy, or fast. I think it's extremely important that people realize and accept this up front rather than having unrealistic expectations and then becoming angry and disillusioned when reality doesn't match their fantasy.

The main thing I'm concerned with is the impression people seem to have that all of this is going to happen quick enough that prices are going to fall significantly while President Trump is still in office. I just don't see that happening within the next four years. Especially in areas where the US doesn't have a strong history of producing certain goods, such as electronics and we'll have to build those companies up from the bottom.

I hear a lot of people down-talking tariffs, a few of whom I wouldn't have expected to hear it from being Trump fanatics.

But in the end, I'm thinking with tariffs deployed, other things will also be put into play to balance everything out.

Shoot, many of us now can't afford many things. I'm fine with things getting a little worse to get better. Either way, if Trump is true in his intention, he'll minimize the impact as much as possible.

For you youngins that don't know WHY VW buses were registered as "station wagons" instead of vans...and why they ship Ford Transits in from Turkey with REALLY CHEAP seats so it's a "station wagon" or passenger vehicle and not a commercial van per se when it arrives in port...AND then they rip out the seats and ship them back to Turkey in a container for rinse and repeat (Imagine how many other jacked up things like this take place on a daily basis globally...such waste!)

AND...Why Mercedes builds their "Alabama Trash Cans" in Alabama...AND BMW...AND Toyota trucks AND your precious Nissins...and now Kias etc...

I present to you, The Chicken Tax, a 25% Tariff, STILL IN PLACE TODAY, on ALL imported commercial trucks.

By building them here, and sending the money overseas, they effectively do a Chicken Tax Reacharound...

Essentially, the Germans were going to put a tariff on our frozen chickens going to Germany, so we said, "Oh yeah? Well we're putting a 25% Tariff on your pickups and vans"...and it's still going on to this day.

The more you know...an sheit...

u/#sassypopcorn

PEOPLE WHO BUILD THINGS...Want to see tariffs in the worst way. Cheap imports, especially from China, have absolutely KILLED many small businesses in the past 2 decades with ultra cheap EVERYTHING.

This includes things like woodenware (spoons, cutting boards, decorative items for the home etc) that are SO CHEAP that small mom & pop American producers can't even compete.

Combine that with dollar stores, amazon and the population's perception of "what things should cost" - and the entire landscape is completely f'd up. Little guys can't even get going...and if they do, it's really, really tough.

This is only ONE reason why many of us want to see tariffs in place, because low cost of goods has really interrupted the grass roots level of businesses in this country.

I only touched on a few items, but it goes much further and wider than that...Things have gotten WAY too competitive and part of the problem is "consumer perception" about what it really takes to produce something. Not only that, but people are really disconnected from the realities of where ANYTHING comes from and what it takes to get it to them...and regulations...and taxes...and insurance...and shipping...and non-contributing zeros that produce nothing cannot relate.

Wanna know why US car manufactureres struggle ot flat out dont enter european and asian markets? Tariffs on our goods. They have severe tariffs, we don't. They can sell their vehicles here and compete with domeatic brands, but they dont compete on their home turf. Trump will use tariffs as a bargaining chip to let US goods compete by either getting the euros or asians to reduce or drop their tariffs.

This is a very good article on the subject, that goes pretty deep into the economic impact (deeper than most critics I've seen): https://treeofwoe.substack.com/p/the-physiocratic-platform-tariffs