4 ms·
Yes, blanket tariffs are retarded. However, the point of the tariffs is that it is a national priority to develop a domestic industry. It is, of course, argua
by terminalshort 11mo ago
Yes, blanket tariffs are retarded. However, the point of the tariffs is that it is a national priority to develop a domestic industry. It is, of course, arguable that this national priority makes sense, but the fact that it makes your hobbies much more expensive is not at all relevant.
The Trump trade policy makes no sense and has been horribly executed on op of that, but I think that in the long run moving away from a policy of "as much cheap stuff for consumers as possible no matter the externalizes" will be a good thing.
- alistairSH 11mo agoin the long run moving away from a policy of "as much cheap stuff for consumers as possible no matter the externalizes" will be a good thing. That strikes me as something akin to the broken window fallacy. Tariffs are absolutely market-distorting and absolutely lead to higher prices. We absolutely should be leveraging lower cost of labor overseas to build cheap stuff. If there is concern about other externalities (pollution, slave labor, etc) then address those directly with sanctions, targeted tariffs, or something else. I've yet to see a good argument that overconsumption is bad (in a general economic sense). If we're overspending (not saving, or over-leveraging) then address that directly (not via tariffs). If it's a pollution argument, then address that directly. Etc.
- rangestransform 11mo agoThe problem is when the US has to fight a conventional war and can’t make cheap robotic warfighters on the scale of the China aligned bloc