re: Have Tarrifs worked?

Back in the late 1960's, I remember there were hundreds of textile mills that had been thriving for over 100 years all over the South. In what is now Soho in NYC, there were a great many sweat shops making clothes of all kinds.

Then, the tariffs on Indian textiles were dropped. Over a couple of years, all of that domestic production vanished.

The good news for me was that I was able to rent a former textile/sweat shop loft of 3000 sq. ft. for $500 a month.

quote:

---

A competent administration would have provided companies incentives over time to make moves abroad before being hit with tarrifs.

---

There may be some truth here. I mean, Clinton definitely provided incentive the other way for manufacturing to leave, and it only took a couple decades for us to become a service and tick-tock economy. We make nothing anymore.

quote:

---

Well, they can pay increased labor costs, or pay the tariffs, or sell less product. Those are the options, currently and the near future at least.

---

Sure, and each of those choices has negative consequences. None of them are neutral toward the economy. Again, you can't draw water out of one side of the pool. When you suck money out of a system, there is a reaction inside the system. It might be that raises and hiring gets frozen. It might be the cancellation of expansion. It might be the company's stock goes down as the company becomes less profitable. It might be that the company has to raise prices to pay the tariffs or the increased labor costs.

But something has to happen to offset the action. It can't not.

quote:

---

Maybe all parties involved can just stop the silliness and drop all tariffs.

---

Sure. I've said that from the outset. If the point of the tariffs was to force other countries to drop them, sure, fine.

But number one, that hasn't happened. And number two, that goal is diametrically opposed to at least two other stated goals for the tariffs in the first place.

quote:

---

And number two, that goal is diametrically opposed to at least two other stated goals for the tariffs in the first place.

---

No, it isn't. If there's one thing Trump has been consistent on... and by consistent, I mean since the 80s, it's tariffs.

quote:

---

Or....and hear me out for a second...

Maybe all parties involved can just stop the silliness and drop all tariffs.

---

That's not what MAGA wants. To them, cheap labor is unfair and we shouldn't have to compete with it regardless of tariff status.

quote:

---

Tariffs aren't a catastrophic economic event that moves things in a week or a month.

---

Yeah, we covered this, remember?

Trump has 1,016 days left in office. No country is going to drop tariffs in the next 1,016 days.

Why?

Because they have an excellent chance that on day 1,017 the tariffs disappear like a fart in the wind or at least get reduced down to something workable for them.

According to Bureau of Labor Statistics..

Consumer prices in the U.S. rose by 7.0% from 2021
8.0% in 2022, the highest annual increase in decades,
3.4% in 2023
2.9% in 2024

2.7% in 2025
And 3.3% so far in 2026, with energy spiking it currently.

Costts go up, never come down. Chinese and other foreigners are still making money off of us, even with Tariffs.
An indicator is the NY real estate market. 3-7 million dollar listings in Manhattan are in high demand. Foreigners are gobbling them up. If you are renting high end apartment in NYC, there is a good chance your landlord is in China.

quote:

---

To them, cheap labor is unfair

---

Even once it's explained to them that in the context of any given country's economy, the labor isn't even particularly cheap...only in the context of ours.

The average Chinese factory worker who makes $6 an hour very likely lives better on that wage than the average factory worker who makes $17 an hour here.

But you move that manufacturing back here and the producer is now looking at 3 x the labor costs.

It works just fine for everyone involved—the net benefit to everyone is greater, in fact—or the Chinese worker to make her $6 an hour there and for the American producer to pay $6 an hour labor.

But Trump says things like, "We're being taken advantage of," and they believe it.

*As I have always said, it's true that we need certain items manufactured here for national security reasons. But we don't need tariffs to accomplish that goal. Just contract with civilian companies that are already here to produce whatever is needed for NS.

MAGA thinks we don't produce anything here anymore. We're still 2nd in the world in manufacturing, behind only China.

Once again, OP starts a thread in bad faith with an extremely misleading graph.

We get it, Iran isn't working out the way you hoped. Time to take a break from grooming kids and wishing death on American troops to start another thread that leads with a blatant lie.