This is why I asked the question, because you are—I estimate—about 85% incorrect in this answer.

But before we get to that, let's assume you are 100% correct. If the people paying the tariffs are residents of the countries imposing the tariffs, how are we "being bullied" by other countries imposing tariffs on our goods?

Maybe just focus on answering that one first, then we can talk about this:

First of all, companies passing along tariffs in the form of higher prices is only one way that they can respond to tariffs. Another way is to downsize and lay employees off. Another way is to freeze hiring, promotions, and raises, which causes widespread wage stagnation and loss of potential jobs. Another way is to forgo planned expansions, which also costs the economy potential jobs it would have otherwise had.

And none of those things are reflected in higher prices that you can see when you go to the store.

There was a report released the week Charlie Kirk was shot (might have even been the same day), so it didn't get posted here as we were all (rightly) focused on something else, but guess what it showed already happening and ramping up in the US economy? Yep. Those things I just posted.

And it's also not true that prices haven't gone up. They have. There was a report released during the summer showing increases in prices for healthcare services, auto insurance, air travel, rent, and I can't remember the last one. There were five. And all of them pointed back to...

The fact that it's not all or even mostly "your choice" about whether to pay a tariff or not. If imported auto parts cost more, so will your auto insurance. Same with airplanes, which have to be manufactured and repaired with parts and materials from overseas. Same with rent. When materials and parts to maintain properties see price increases, your rent will go up, and so will houses for sale. Same with medical supplies.

And by the way, when rent starts going up across the board for commercial as well as residential properties—which will be gradual, because rent doesn't increase until the lease comes up for renewal, right?—guess what happens then? Now the price of everything sold out of, stored in, or otherwise utilizing a rented property will go up. Which means almost everything.

And let's say that companies don't pass along the increased costs (they will eventually, because as you can see, this has a compounding effect over time...if your auto insurance costs more, so does UPS's. And now their rent costs more too. And the parts to fix their trucks. And health insurance for their employees because health care has become more expensive because supplies have become more expensive. At some point they can't NOT pass along costs...but for this discussion, let's pretend that they won't) all that means is that the problems I typed out above will be even more severe.

2 + 2 cannot equal 2. There's simply no way to syphon money out of a system and not have it show up as an expenditure somewhere.

I believe there was an article posted this week about the average cost of new cars being at a record high while dealership profit margins are at record lows.

Why do you think that is?

This post was edited on 10/16/25 at 10:33 am