Ag_of_08 said:
I dont believe people will "get used" to an bad economy, nor than manufacturing cannot return.
I believe that sending 50-60%( the percentage living check to check) of the country into destitution through protectionist tarrifs, and stagnating innovation and growth through those tarrifs, is as bad now as it was in the 1850s,the 20s, 70s, and every other time it has been tried and proven to create an expensive and foolish bubble.
Im also a realist that knows the job market in the US must recover before we can put people under that strain. Stopping H1B visas, ironically, would be a step in the right direction. Deportation, tax credits to encourage repatriation ... good steps.
Something ive been researching a lot lately that would likely help is stopping foreign trucks operating in the US. The owner/operators are being thrown down the drain, and the mega carriers are consolidating and dying. Cut back on foreign trucks operating here, curtail some of the assanine government regs, and that industry might self correct and help other parts of the economy.
I don't disagree with some of this.
However it's not the job market that is bad.
It's the inflation.
I am not advocating tarriffs all at once.
You spend a year curtailing inflation and gearing up for good midterms.
You do this by cutting back on H1B Visas, massive illegal deportations, continuing with the tightening of the government budget, and reduction of government waste. Also you get rid of all of Biden's moratorium on federal oil and gas leases and fast track approval for pipelines, this creates jobs and reduces energy prices.
You also try to recapture some of the chip makers, etc who wanted to move manufacturing back to the US by axing the ridiculous DEI requirements Buden put into their incentives.
At 12 months in, you begin negotiations with countries who have massive tarriffs against the US.
at 20 months in you start levying the tariffs to those who refused to open up their countries to US products so as not to affect the midterm elections.
You continue decoupling from the Chinese slave labor force and levy tariffs on 2 kinds of corporations first
1) countries where they use slave labor to make products- I am looking at you Nike and Apple.
2) corporations based in countries with massive tariffs on US products.
The products people have struggling to buy right now are gas, rent, food, and energy.
Tariffs don't affect ANY of those 3 product categories.
Tackle those first and improve the pay for workers to bring wages in more alignment with inflation and that will give people enough breathing room for tariffs and people will be able to stomach it.
The big 3 food, rent, gas is what hurts the middle and lower class the most.
Electronics and other manufactured goods are what hurt the upper and wealthy classes the most.
Tariffs are going to affect the poor and Middle classes in a negligible way.
At this point noone cares about big screen tv's being 500 bucks when their grocery bill is twice that a month.
Once again.
All of your arguments about tariffs hurting the middle class are 2 decades behind the times and a 20th century argument that no longer applies because of how our economy has changed.
And no tariffs alone will not work but tariffs in concert with a comprehensive plan are a great additional tool to correct the fundamental issues that have plagued our economy ever since these one sided trade deals began.