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> Today, a tariff is quite literally the same thing as taxing Americans Assuming Americans cannot change their spending habits. I'd rather assume that most Ame

> Today, a tariff is quite literally the same thing as taxing Americans Assuming Americans cannot change their spending habits. I'd rather assume that most Americans are smart enough to make choices to their advantage, though. Why do Americans not drive more EVs from BYD? Because the Biden administration put a 100% tariff on Chinese EVs. Nobody accused Biden of unduly taxing Americans, only of making BYD unaffordable.

A_D_E_P_T 2y ago
The latest tariffs apply to steel and aluminum, which are the most basic of industrial inputs. Have you seen how much aluminum the US produces? > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_aluminium_production https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_aluminium... It's roughly on par with Iceland and a little bit less than Saudi Arabia. There's no way to meet the demands of industry with domestic aluminum production. What's more, US production and processing of aluminum focuses on "high-end" aerospace grades that are not always suitable for things like household appliances & can be far more expensive than foreign alternatives. Now let's do steel: > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_steel_production https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_steel_pro... Not so bad, but only 8% of China's production and 4.25% of global production. Again, no way to meet domestic demand with entirely domestic steel. Further, US steel is in the opposite position described above: Most US steel grades come from very old mills and are "low-end." A lot of tool steels, automotive steels, and specialty steels are simply not made in the US, and must be imported. What's interesting is that the most high-end steels come from Japan and Germany. (Also, increasingly, China.) What happened, to simplify things a little bit, is that their steel mills were bombed into oblivion during WWII, so, after the war, they built new and much more modern mills. Whereas the US kept using its far older pre-war mills. Over time this developed into a durable advantage on the high-end. As for BYD -- a 100% tariff is practically a de facto import ban. Try a 100% tariff on everything, or on steel and aluminum, and see what happens. It'll make periods of normal inflation seem like a Golden Age.

A_D_E_P_T 2y ago

The latest tariffs apply to steel and aluminum, which are the most basic of industrial inputs. Have you seen how much aluminum the US produces? > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_aluminium_production https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_aluminium... It's roughly on par with Iceland and a little bit less than Saudi Arabia. There's no way to meet the demands of industry with domestic aluminum production. What's more, US production and processing of aluminum focuses on "high-end" aerospace grades that are not always suitable for things like household appliances & can be far more expensive than foreign alternatives. Now let's do steel: > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_steel_production https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_steel_pro... Not so bad, but only 8% of China's production and 4.25% of global production. Again, no way to meet domestic demand with entirely domestic steel. Further, US steel is in the opposite position described above: Most US steel grades come from very old mills and are "low-end." A lot of tool steels, automotive steels, and specialty steels are simply not made in the US, and must be imported. What's interesting is that the most high-end steels come from Japan and Germany. (Also, increasingly, China.) What happened, to simplify things a little bit, is that their steel mills were bombed into oblivion during WWII, so, after the war, they built new and much more modern mills. Whereas the US kept using its far older pre-war mills. Over time this developed into a durable advantage on the high-end. As for BYD -- a 100% tariff is practically a de facto import ban. Try a 100% tariff on everything, or on steel and aluminum, and see what happens. It'll make periods of normal inflation seem like a Golden Age.