Comment by myrmidon
7 days ago
Do you honestly believe that there are significant numbers of US citizens lining up to take up low-margin manufacturing work as is currently done in China or elsewhere?
Chinese manufacturing workers live on a $25k/y income ($15k without adjusting for purchasing parity!). Do you beliefe that raising prices on goods by 30%ish is enough to make those jobs attractive to US citizens?
What sectors would you suggest primarily sourcing domestic manufacturing workers from, and would you agree that just doing that is going to lead to further cost increase for the average consumer?
In my view, the current tariff approach is a rather naive attempt at improving national self-sufficiency at the cost of the average citizen, and the administrations explicit statements and goals make this pretty clear-- shifting government income from taxes to tariffs is a very obvious losing move for the vast majority of people that spend most of their income.
US economy right now is heavily biased towards providing services and high-tech goods because that is the most valuable use of its citizens according to market dynamics. Managing the economy in a "I know better than the market way" certainly did not work out for the soviets...
Sometimes I feel that people construct elaborate theories of how Trumps policies will end up beneficial for the average citizen, despite clear, explicit descriptions of how that is not the goal and historical precedent of acting directly against working-class interests (i.e. raising estate tax exemptions above literal 1%er-thresholds).
So you are okay with exploiting people for labour, often in inhumane conditions just so you can buy some unnecessary junk for cheaper?
> US economy right now is heavily biased towards providing services and high-tech goods because that is the most valuable use of its citizens according to market dynamics
So basically geared for upper class / banking industry? US has some of the highest wealth inequality of the developed world.
But by far the most important aspect is military. Manufacturing capability is extremely important for military. US may be the most advanced, but a $10m rocket will not beat 10,000 $1000 drones.
https://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/05/business/worldbusiness/05... https://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/26/business/ieconomy-apples-... https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/national-media-release/dhs-crac...
> So you are okay with exploiting people for labour, often in inhumane conditions just so you can buy some unnecessary junk for cheaper?
Do you think that better wages and working conditions in underdeveloped countries are a goal (or even just side-effect) of Trumps policies? How is that achieved?
> Manufacturing capability is extremely important for military. US may be the most advanced, but a $10m rocket will not beat 10,000 $1000 drones.
I don't see a coordinated effort to expand the domestic arms industry that is pushing for those tariffs.
If your narrative is that tariffs are driven by military strategy, then you have to show how those military-industrial concerns drove political decisionmaking- because all I see right now is the president preferring tariffs over taxes for ideological reasons...
> Do you think that better wages and working conditions in underdeveloped countries are a goal (or even just side-effect) of Trumps policies? How is that achieved?
No. It will make labour in US competitive where you have labour laws. Consumers will pay the fair market price for products rather than relying on abusing labour in poor countries.
> I don't see a coordinated effort to expand the domestic arms industry that is pushing for those tariffs.
It's not about creating military industry. It's about creating a manufacturing industry which can be converted into war effort if needed. It's also about self reliance. It's also about creating meaningful jobs that actually create something (as opposed to the wall street where you have upper class just extracting wealth from the working man).
I agree with you. The middle class is going to take all of the blunts. The rich people more or less are not impacted.