Quote:
Originally Posted by Maleg
Interesting argument.
Realistically, the US never imposed reciprocal tariffs because we like our citizens to be able to buy cheap goods. John Q Public US resident benefits directly by not paying high import taxes on every thing he buys. Low tariffs fuel the consumer economy.
US manufacturing moved overseas to avoid regulatory impacts and higher labor costs. But we still have affordable goods because we don't tax the bejesus out of everything that imports to us from everywhere we exported manufacturing. We don't really care about a trade deficit as long as we can buy cheap goods and stretch our dollar further.
Now we'll add a layer of new taxes universally across the board instead of targeting individual sectors that need strategic help to compete globally. How will that work out? It's a regressive tax. It will work out badly for the center of the bell curve, which will reflect in a sea change in 2026.  |
Do you not understand that the strength of a country does not rely on how cheap something is for the consumer? Why do we need to buy cheap things? Because we can't afford to pay more because we LOST OUR MANUFACTURING JOBS! We have a gig economy, where Uber drivers can only afford a $350 television from Walmart made in China. What is that drive instead worked a $75/hour manufacturing foreman job making televisions? Well, that's not possible, because TVs made in the US would: (1) have to compete with TVs made in China with no tariff and cheap labor, and (2) can't sell in China because US televisions get tariffed to raise their price relative to TVs made in China.
In the meantime, if we cannot get televisions it's a national security risk to not have any TVs made in the USA, which is 100% the case right now. This is proven out by the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) letter to Defense Secretary Austin in September 2024. See for yourself here -->
https://selectcommitteeontheccp.hous...anies%2C%20BOE