Comment by al_borland
17 hours ago
Tariffs are used all over the world for this exact reason, which is what is being attempted now. It will take time for it to pay off, more time than the current administration has, which is likely why business will drag their feet.
I think economic benefit goes beyond just having the lowest price. Having good jobs for people in the country means they have money to spend. If people make next to nothing, all they can afford is Temu quality. This is bad for the citizens, bad for US businesses, and bad for the environment. The only winner is China.
But there is a good jobs in the country. His brother has to travel 100 miles to work it.
Tariffs won't resolve this issue. Either the goods becomes too expensive to import and are made here or the aren't.
In the case that they're made here then some other good will no longer be produced (if you could magically make both then you would've in the first place). And so your citizens are worse off because they produce the same amount (or less) and pay more for it.
In the case that they're not made here then you just pay more in tariffs and are worse off.
The problem with global trade is that when you trade 10 apples for 10 bananas it doesn't need to be distributed to your citizens equally. So if you go from an economy producing 5 apples and 5 bananas where everybody gets one of each to one where 3 people get 8 apples and 10 bananas the other 2 get 2 apples the GDP still grew from 10 to 20 but people are worse off. Throwing in tariffs to get back to the 5 apples 5 bananas will cause a recession.
The better solution is to increase the top tax rate and redistribute 2 additional apples and bananas to the bottom 2 and then everybody is still better off.
I leave it as an exercise for the reader to figure out why Trump & Republicans want tariffs as opposed to a higher tax rate.
If you're building a new factory and the factory needs steel, they'll have to wait for the steel plant to be built before they can start construction. Trump has imposed tariffs on steel imports.