Tariffs are at the center of former President Donald Trump’s economic plan. He wants to put across-the-board 60% tariffs on everything from China and 10%-20% on everything else from the rest of the world. It’s an extreme trade policy that he wants to use to generate revenue to cut taxes. But how would they work?

  • le cat@lemm.ee
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    2 months ago

    everyone with two brain cells knows it’s terrible for people who buy things while not wealthy.

    • yesman@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      What makes you think it’s good for the wealthy? This article is from the WSJ, not the Jacobin.

      Spoiler: tariffs are bad for everyone. Regular people won’t feel the pain immediately, but if your the kind of capitalist that imports goods, especially from factories you’ve moved to Asia, the pain starts on day one.

      Look at the bright side, implementing Trump’s tariffs would cause two unprecedented events:

      1. it’d be a steak through the heart of the neoliberal economic hegemony
      2. economists as a group might finally make a prediction that came true.
  • undergroundoverground@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    Lol, Republicans tried this before under bush, right about the time his brother was running for reelection in florida. Bush whacked huge tariffs on a number of things coming into the US from the EU

    The EU “florida hey? Nice oranges you guys have out there. Wouldn’t it be a shame if someone was to, oh I dunno, put astronomical tarrifs on those delicious oranges, right in the run up to the florida governor election?”

    It cut to the heart of the cronyism in the US political system. Not that anyone else has less or more. We all have it to one extent or another. Its just, imagine if it was your country’s exact flavour of it laid bare and made public like that.

    The Republicans were very embarrassed have hated the EU ever since.

    Who knows, maybe this time it’ll work.

    • oxjoxOP
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      2 months ago

      And yet here we have an unbiased explanation about tariffs, how they would be worse for everyday Americans under Trump, and how Biden continued Trump’s previous tariffs.

  • Suavevillain@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    The thing about tons of right-wingers, they usually only care about the economy and Trump’s plan is objectively worse on every aspect.

  • oxjoxOP
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    2 months ago

    I’ve been a little surprised by the commentary around Trump’s planned tariffs, with some “economists” saying they can’t explain why he would impose them. It’s like everyone has forgotten why tariffs exist at all. That’s not to say it’s a good thing or a bad thing but I’m disheartened that we’re not taking this opportunity to educate ourselves. It feels to me like people are playing stupid just to make Trump look bad.

    I would suggest that if you’re following some organization who’s only intent on bashing Trump’s import tax and not bothering to explain what a tariff does, that you stop following that organization as a reputable news source.

    I say this as someone who’s shocked that any American would ever consider Trump as president (then or now) and as someone who is fed up with the bullshit that fills our media and social feeds. We are all getting dumber.

    Edit: So far, these comments are doing a decent job enforcing what I’m seeing. People don’t care about facts, only their own bullshit. Please don’t vote or comment on this post unless you’ve watched the video. That’s what we should be here for.

    • Sanctus@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      Port Piraeus was a long time ago, tariffs are a way to raise funds for the government, especially preincome tax days. Then 1789 came along and the government got tired of being a beggar, but couldn’t impose taxes, so they imposed the Tariff Act of 1789. 60% tariffs would make Chinese products inviable on any market. The 10-20 on everything else will effectively eliminate the middle class. Idk whose playing stupid, the reason Trump looks bad on this is because it is bad.