Not to be a Debby Downer but... this idea that “manufacturing would return to the US” is a flawed one. Especially if you think the cost of the item being made here would be cheaper because of it having “no tariff.”

Let’s take Hot Wheels (the toy cars) for example. The price point for a regular Hot Wheel car has hovered at $1 for almost 30 years. If you suddenly tariff this item: 1. The price would greatly be effected 2. If you expect that same item to suddenly be manufactured in America you have to wait for the manufacturing plant to be built at a tremendous cost. 3. That new plant and the cost of the raw materials and labor cost gets baked into each and every one of those toy cars that will no longer be sold for $.99. The true cost to the consumer would be closer to the “tariffed” version of the car whatever that would be.

To think, “it’ll be wonderful,” manufacturing will just magically come back to the US is a foolish one. The reason manufacturing left the US in the first place is because of our demand for cheaper goods. Our labor costs/rents/leases/machinery skyrocketed forcing companies to find cheaper manufacturing elsewhere.

This isn’t the solution you think it’s going to be. Even if you took away the tariffs so the US could compete on an international level the US isn’t going to start making Hot Wheels in Arizona for example because it would be insanely cost prohibitive to do so. This goes for every other item you can think of that would be made here. The reason a basic Hot Wheels car is so cheap is because slave labor usually is much cheaper. Coupled by the fact that the machinery used in manufacturing the toy cars was paid off decades ago. Plus, the raw material is dirt cheap in places like China... again helped by “slave labor” costs.

Bring everything you need to manufacture a basic Hot Wheel car to the US and that toy car would cost at minimum $5 to purchase. Fun fact the basic Hot Wheel car has never been mass produced in the US for a reason... production costs.

So, as great as tariffs sound to you and me, it doesn’t necessarily translate to “all goods” making sense to being manufactured in the US without a tripling of costs passed onto the consumer.

Another fun fact, most of our goods made in other countries are typically subsidized heavily by those governments. Baskin Robbins (31 Flavors) ice cream sold to the consumer in the US is actually manufactured in Canada. Because it’s cheaper to import ice cream into the US due to subsidies from the Canadian government. US labor and manufacturing couldn’t keep Baskin Robbins competitive in the US market anymore so they relocated production to Canada. The tariff catch-22 here would force Baskin Robbins into bankruptcy. Good bye to all the ice cream shops around the country if all of a sudden you force Baskin Robbins to choose, continue importing at a tariffed cost or build a manufacturing plant in the US and pass that “new” production cost onto the consumer. The real loser here would be the consumer.

The scary prospect of tariffs is how many goods will suddenly vanish from store shelves never to be replaced - or - they will exist just tremendously more expensive, especially if it’s stamped “Made in the USA.”

Tariffs are truly an inflationary tax on the consumer in so many ways.

This idea that “manufacturing would return to the US” is a flawed one. Especially if you think the cost of the item being made here would be cheaper because of it having “no tariff.”

Let’s take Hot Wheels (the toy cars) for example. The price point for a regular Hot Wheel car has hovered at $1 for almost 30 years. If you suddenly tariff this item: 1. The price would greatly be effected 2. If you expect that same item to suddenly be manufactured in America you have to wait for the manufacturing plant to be built at a tremendous cost. 3. That new plant and the cost of the raw materials and labor cost gets baked into each and every one of those toy cars that will no longer be sold for $.99. The true cost to the consumer would be closer to the “tariffed” version of the car whatever that would be.

To think, “it’ll be wonderful,” manufacturing will just magically come back to the US is a foolish one. The reason manufacturing left the US in the first place is because of our demand for cheaper goods. Our labor costs/rents/leases/machinery skyrocketed forcing companies to find cheaper manufacturing elsewhere.

This isn’t the solution you think it’s going to be. Even if you took away the tariffs so the US could compete on an international level the US isn’t going to start making Hot Wheels in Arizona for example because it would be insanely cost prohibitive to do so. This goes for every other item you can think of that would be made here. The reason a basic Hot Wheels car is so cheap is because slave labor usually is much cheaper. Coupled by the fact that the machinery used in manufacturing the toy cars was paid off decades ago. Plus, the raw material is dirt cheap in places like China... again helped by “slave labor” costs.

Bring everything you need to manufacture a basic Hot Wheel car to the US and that toy car would cost at minimum $5 to purchase. Fun fact the basic Hot Wheel car has never been mass produced in the US for a reason... production costs.

So, as great as tariffs sound to you and me, it doesn’t necessarily translate to “all goods” making sense to being manufactured in the US without a tripling of costs passed onto the consumer.

Another fun fact, most of our goods made in other countries are typically subsidized heavily by those governments. Baskin Robbins (31 Flavors) ice cream sold to the consumer in the US is actually manufactured in Canada. Because it’s cheaper to import ice cream into the US due to subsidies from the Canadian government. US labor and manufacturing couldn’t keep Baskin Robbins competitive in the US market anymore so they relocated production to Canada. The tariff catch-22 here would force Baskin Robbins into bankruptcy. Good bye to all the ice cream shops around the country if all of a sudden you force Baskin Robbins to choose, continue importing at a tariffed cost or build a manufacturing plant in the US and pass that “new” production cost onto the consumer. The real loser here would be the consumer.

The scary prospect of tariffs is how many goods will suddenly vanish from store shelves never to be replaced - or - they will exist just tremendously more expensive, especially if it’s stamped “Made in the USA.”

Tariffs are truly an inflationary tax on the consumer in so many ways.