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You’re calling Trump “economically illiterate,” but what you’re saying will happen is exactly the motivation of Trump’s policy. He just thinks it’s a good thing
by rayiner 2y ago
You’re calling Trump “economically illiterate,” but what you’re saying will happen is exactly the motivation of Trump’s policy. He just thinks it’s a good thing rather than a bad thing.
Trump’s bet is that the upsides will be borne disproportionately by his base, while the downsides will be borne disproportionately by Democrats’ laptop-class base. It’s not irrational to think that will be the result.
- selimthegrim 2y agoTrump also thinks imports subtract from GDP.
- Workaccount2 2y agoI was just talking last night about how ironically the things Trump is doing fall not to far from what Bernie bros have dreamed of. Heavy tariffs and no income tax is pretty much the conservative version of liberal hand outs.
- tzs 2y agoWhat do they expect to happen if the heavy tariffs either move the manufacturing of those products to the US or make the imports expensive enough that consumers switch to domestic manufacturers? That tanks the revenue from the tariffs, which would make them an ineffective replacement for income tax.
- apawloski 2y agoHow will adding a tax to every single consumer good benefit his base?
- rayiner 2y agoBecause the taxes will encourage shifting production to the U.S.
- apawloski 2y agoHow much do production workers get paid in China? How will our production goods be affordable at American labor rates? This strategy just makes everything more expensive - nothing cheaper.
- rtkwe 2y agoExactly and even if it does work to reshore factories (which will take years and we'll just ignore the question of where all the workers for these factories will come from, and that the goods needed for making those factories are also being tariffed) they'll only be competitive in a protected market so they're only really producing for the US market which will be stunted because costs would have inflated through the roof!
- apawloski 2y agoNot to mention these are blanket tariffs, not protecting specific American industries. So anything that's not feasibly produced here will be more expensive anyway. Yes everybody, we are taxing all of your groceries - but all of those American coffee and banana farms (!) will be protected.
- xyzzyz 2y agoSorry, who is saying that this will make things cheaper? I haven’t seen Trump or Vance argue this.
- apawloski 2y agoI mean, a large point of their campaign was that price increases were a major national concern, right? Can we agree that they repeatedly made that point? I recall many lawn signs to that effect. So given that, I would have assumed that this administration would focus on making things more affordable. Instead, I'm seeing people try to explain to me that, actually, raising the prices across the board is a good thing! To put it plainly, it seems like the administration raising prices is, in fact, not a good thing for Americans. And I don't see how American labor can produce things that are more affordable than what we can buy now. So it seems like a net negative, because ultimately they are choosing to make everything more expensive for consumers.
- ImJamal 2y agoTrump did decent in the rust belt. Many of them have lost their good paying manufacturing jobs. If, and this is a big if, we can bring back manufacturing in the US they can get their jobs back.
- apawloski 2y agoWhat is the time scale we are talking about when we talk about this change?
- ImJamal 2y agoGM announced they are going to hire some temporary workers and expand overtime for existing workers before the end of this month. I'm sure there are more companies, but that is all I've seen so far.
- RankingMember 2y agoIf I'm company leadership, I'm not doing anything but trying to limit damage while this guy's in office. His tariffs can turn on a dime- his petulance is business poison.
- _DeadFred_ 2y agoWhat plan has Trump put in place to built the infrastructure needed for this? What funding available to businesses? Oh none you say.
- griffzhowl 2y agoI don't think it's his base that will benefit. More the owners of factories, mines, oil wells, etc.
- rtkwe 2y ago> You’re calling Trump “economically illiterate,” I mean he's gone bankrupt 6 times including managing to bankrupt a casino a business where on average people give you money to get less money in return... He also confuses simple economic terms like equating trade deficits with tariffs.