• Why the Import Tariff Is Madness

    From Joseph Pereira@1:124/5016 to All on Tue Sep 9 06:37:34 2025

    Trump's strategy is to impose import tariffs to bring production back to the US.

    But...

    One of the most important import tariffs is the 50% tariff on steel and aluminum.

    So everything made (or to be made) of steel and aluminum in the US is therefore much more expensive than made elsewhere.

    So, only US residents might find buying American products in the US interesting, but in any case, they will pay more than consumers elsewhere for the same product containing steel and/or aluminum.

    The rest of the world, however, has fewer and fewer reasons to buy American products.

    But why don't they "see" this in the US?

    That has to do with political power. This whole setup is very interesting for the super-rich in the US. Those who helped Trump ascend to the throne with a great deal of money and who are now receiving enormous tax cuts in return, while Trump's 40 million "fanatical" American followers are eagerly, but unknowingly, coughing up the extra costs. They believe his bullshit that their taxes will go down in the future... We know they might only do this because they'll earn even less in the future. But those 40 million people continue to believe Trump's nonsense. Simply because they started believing it, and they'll only realize they've been duped when the bailiff shows up. And even then, like Trump, they might blame someone else for their misfortune.

    And Trump? Trump is doing nothing different than what he's done his whole life. He sells goods and breaks contracts. He is and remains just an upstart grocer with a criminal streak who was lucky that his father was a successful and very wealthy entrepreneur.

    .
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