Tariffs are not a new concept and have been used historically to build economies. Top China analysts in the Obama administration credited its economic rise to protective tariffs and high barriers to entry for any foreign companies to sell in country.

I’m probably a bit older than most lemmy users and remember when tariffs were a major talking point for democrats as a positive thing to protect American jobs. Hell, growing up in the Midwest, all my dad and his buddies that worked union jobs had to vote democrat because of their aggressive tariff policy to protect their jobs.

So what if trump is right about tariffs and it reinvigorates the American economy? Will people find another reason to credit the success to? Will it be the end of blue collar voting for the democrats?

Edit: Markets are rebounding hard, I bought low, glad Lemmy is full of pseudo intellectual economic morons. How is Lemmy going to cope now?

  • actionjbone@sh.itjust.works
    0·
    2 months ago

    He is not.

    A tariff is a tax that increases the price of imported goods.

    Tariffs are used to push people toward domestic alternatives to imported goods.

    However, today, there are no domestic alternatives to most important goods.

    So, all it’s doing is increasing the burden on the average person.

    Companies are not going to invest in domestic production. They are going to spend that money lobbying to have tarriffs removed. Because guess what? Once tariffs go away, consumer prices are not going to go back to what they used to be. Instead, megacorps are going to pocket the difference as profit.

    • spacecadet@lemm.eeOP
      0·
      2 months ago

      companies are not going to invest in domestic production

      $1.1 trillion already committed to building in US. Not sure what you are talking about

  • TheDoctorDonna@lemmy.world
    0·
    2 months ago

    Most people who aren’t right-wing nut jobs know how to admit when they’re wrong about something and how to be happy for something that actually is a positive for the majority of people who aren’t already rich, regardless of how that result was achieved.

    Tariffs are normal, they encourage a strong local economy that doesn’t get screwed over by a dominant economy that decides to use the trade relationship against the local economy, but they haven’t been “aggressive” since the last time they were used as an act of war and ended up causing a depression.