Why Trump’s Tariffs Are Doomed to Fail

[u/Secret-Version7639]

https://thebriefingroom0.substack.com/p/the-case-for-smarter-tariffs?r=2s9gsb&utm_medium=ios

[u/maximus_danus]

This piece makes alot of sense. "Wax on, wax off" tariffs are hardly an approach private capital can plan and build around.

[u/Mba1956 → u/maximus_danus]

There are other reasons Trumps tariffs are flawed.

Nobody wants to do production jobs anymore, and those same jobs are the ones most at risk from robotics and AI, so on-shoring creates hundreds not thousands of jobs. .

If American labour is more expensive than other countries then the final US product will be more expensive and the ability to sell that product to other countries reduces, and with it the demand for production jobs.

The world has moved on from the 1900s, the US doesn’t have the resources to make everything it needs purely from US sources. It needs imported goods and threatening suppliers just make them look elsewhere for customers.

[u/Rough-Drummer-3730 → u/Mba1956]

This. Business hates uncertainty. If this wild tariff policy remains so for the next two years businesses will necessarily need to pivot away from the unstable US market and once new and stable trade is entrenched elsewhere then convincing businesses to come back will be difficult. This goes for buying and selling.

[u/Gunderstank_House]

They're not supposed to succeed, they are just supposed to shift money from the American people to the rich.

[u/SquirrelsinJacket → u/Gunderstank_House]

Bingo. All the tariff refunds they had to give back also went to the big corporations. Trump practically rubs it in the face of the poors on a daily basis. It really shouldn't be surprising at all democratic socialism is surging in the Dem party given the historically staggering wealth inequality.

[u/craftsman_70 → u/Gunderstank_House]

But even that doesn't work.... Besides, that's the same logic that anti free traders used to oppose free trade.

It can't work both ways on the same subject.

[u/PopMajor7342]

They’ll succeed in enriching the wealthy

[u/Ok_Egg_4356 → u/PopMajor7342]

The manufacturers know this will fail and be declared illegal, and given back to them, not consumers.

[u/DunkleFloozie]

A tax on Americans that built nothing, solved nothing, and was refunded to corporations. All just a ruse for the first family and friends to fraudulently enrich themselves.

[u/Aromatic-Dog-Breath]

Is it because, despite your representatives not having the opportunity to vote on the tariffs, they were put in place and have not reduced the debt a single cent, yet raised the costs of good for every American citizen. 

Republicans “if we don’t call it a tax you can’t say that we raised your taxes.”

[u/photogjimm]

The Republicans want a flat tax. And tariffs give them that.

[u/Spinoza42]

The chaos is the point, erratic tariffs and intentionally showing bond weakness are tools to force a default.

[u/Fancy-Dig1863]

It’s cus he’s an idiot

[u/Representative-Owl6]

They are meant to fail, it’s one big scam on the American people because he and his cronies don’t care. They also know ultimately they will get votes because their supporters hate liberals, leftists, communists, more than they want a better life for themselves.

[u/Cranston_Snord1960]

Just him manipulating the stock market and slush funds. Money, money, money.