A "conservative" in my sphere started talking about tariffs. He told me that you can avoid the higher prices by only buying American-made products.
I pointed out that this isn't true.
I told him that if a foreign product goes up in price, it will give the American product room to raise its price as well. If the foreign product goes up by 25%, why wouldn't the American product's price go up by 20% - or by whatever amount keeps it just slightly below the competitor's price? Who wouldn't raise their prices if the competition has to? Tariffs are anticompetition.
He admitted that this may be true, but you can still avoid the higher prices by not buying anything. He said there wasn't anything he needed to buy that much, and he could do without it.
I said, in other words, "You’ll own nothing and you’ll be happy"- MAGA edition.
When I quoted Communist Klaus as my only reply, he had no response at all. He was speechless and changed the subject.
This isn't hard to understand, and if you're not brainwashed by Keynesian fake economics you will be able to understand. Otherwise, you probably won't understand.
Appendix:
I openly disagree with Right-statists in this way all the time, because they are all around me, and they can take it. Occasionally, they even admit I'm right.
On the other hand, I don't usually say anything to the Left-statists around me when they are wrong, because they can't handle it. They are too fragile and lose their minds (and shut me out) when challenged on anything. There's no debate.
This is just my experience, based on a small sample size in the few geographical regions where I've lived. Maybe it means something; maybe it doesn't.
Thank you for reading.
Here's a side of the story not reported. The countries being targeted already have tariffs on American products. Trump will remove them if they do the same. Is it wrong to want a level playing field?
ReplyDeleteI think everyone knows those countries already have tariffs on American products, and thus on their own populations.
DeleteAs for level playing fields... it depends how you get there. If the Chinese government says it's going to kill 10% of the people in its country, should the US government say if they do, it's going to kill 10% of Americans? That would be an attempt to level the playing fields, but seems sketchy to me. Just like tariffs.
Instead of picking and choosing and making it excessively political, the US government could just make up one simple and clear "law": The tariff on each country's products will automatically mirror the tariff that country places on American products. It's still a tax on Americans, and taxation is theft which helps fund The Ancestral Enemy, but I can see the "practical" argument for it.
I think the excuses for tariffs are based on faulty premises, just like the imaginary problem of "trade deficits":
https://kentmcmanigal.blogspot.com/2016/03/trade-deficits.html