Tariffs are Taxes

Well the dontard has the ability, at least for now, to impose tariffs depending I guess on his latest mood.

Yesterday he attacked China and targeted areas that we are just not likely to compete in, therefore doing one of two things.

Either a lot of technology prices will have price increases or the manufacturers will find another low price country to shift to.

Now the exact list of the items the tariffs apply to isn't published yet but the idea that somehow we are suddenly going to find people willing to do the type of work involved for competitive wages is pretty unlikely.

Manufacturers are unlikely to even try.

So the most likely outcome is that whatever tariffs are collected will simply increase some prices.

One area on the list that might help a bit is tariffs on solar panels which is an industry that has a growth future, although not favored by the dontard.

China has imposed a few retaliatory tariffs and the market has dropped significantly and looks to go down some more.

Trade wars lead to less jobs overall as they increase prices and reduce demand.

Naturally as in everything there are some winners but more losers.  The proponents will point to the winners, if any in this case, and cite it as a success, ignoring the losers for sake of their argument.

As bad as the recent tax law was, it would in the short term produce some jobs as prices would in fact decline a bit increasing some demand.  However the problem there is that the up side for demand isn't as great as the down side as we are near full employment.

The problem that actually exists in this country is that in the old manufacturing heartland, high paying jobs have been replaced with lower paying jobs.  Trying to compete with China on the low end isn't going to do anything for that.