Torch-bearing white supremacists in Charlottesville, Aug. 11, 2017, cited President Trump as the inspiration for their “Unite the Right” rally (Photo: Edu Bayer/The New York Times)
On November 25, Trump said that as soon as he’s inaugurated on January 20, 2025 he will institute a new 25% tariff on all goods coming into the U.S. from Mexico and Canada, plus an additional 10% tariff on goods from China.
So look out. Your cost of living is about to get a huge increase.
Trump is either willfully ignorant about how tariffs work, or is lying to Americans about it by repeatedly asserting that other countries will pay the tariffs, and not Americans.
Economists and tax experts all say that’s completely wrong.
Tariffs are a tax paid to the U.S. government on goods imported to the U.S., and they are paid by American companies that import the goods. The countries that export the goods to the U.S. don’t pay a thing. Companies pass the cost of the tariffs on to consumers by raising the prices of their imported goods, so Americans pay the cost of tariffs, not foreign countries.
So get ready for big increases in the cost of beer, food, cars, appliances, electronics, metal, plastics, car parts, gas, cement and lots, lots more under Trump’s policies
The U.S. imports auto parts, medical equipment, electronics and lots of fresh foods and household goods from Mexico. Trump’s tariffs will increase prices by 25% on fresh fruits, vegetables and nuts from Mexico, like tomatoes, berries, asparagus, broccoli, watermelons, avocados, piñon nuts, pecans, walnuts and pistachios. Also expect a 25% increase in the price of Corona, dos Equis and Modelo beer. You’ll see a similar jump in the cost of gas, because Mexico exports most of its petroleum to the U.S., and brace for a significant increase in the cost of electronics, like tablets, computers, monitors, cell phones, and household appliances like washers, dryers, toasters, refrigerators and air conditioners. Expect even bigger increases in the price of iPhones and iPhone accessories, since they are made in China.
Trump garden flag for sale
Our top import from Canada is crude oil, so expect a jump in the cost of fuel from that direction, too. The U.S. also imports mineral products, lime and cement from Canada, so expect the cost of cement to jump if you are planning to install a new concrete walkway or repair a cracked concrete driveway at your house. The U.S. imports $17.2 billion in wood products from Canada, like cork and hardwood flooring, and we get leather goods, plastic and steel from Canada. In 2023 the U.S. imported $8.36 billion worth of iron and steel from Canada, so the prices on iron and steel will rise, too, so even if builders turn to using steel instead of wood to frame new buildings, it’s going to cost a lot more to build, which will add to unaffordable housing and exacerbate the country’s housing crisis.
American consumers will be paying Trump’s tariffs, which is why Kamala Harris called his tariff proposals a “Trump tax.”
Companies will also take advantage of government actions, like the levying of additional tariffs or taxes on products, to throw an additional price increase of their own on products, so they can pocket even more money and come out even better under the guise of blaming it all on the administration.
So if you thought inflation was bad under President Biden, get ready because it’s about to get a whole lot worse under Trump.
A quote Donald Trump made about women in a 1992 New York magazine interview.
https://open.substack.com/pub/heathercoxrichardson/p/december-4-2024?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=5gumz
Couple the above proposed cuts to social service programs in this 12.4.24 link with Anne’s article on the predictable dire outcome to the ordinary person- if the tariffs go through .
The road to hell will no longer seem far away- to the ordinary person.
I like to visit Anne’s site to get an idea of what the left is thinking. She often includes irrelevant information meant to incite readers. Witness her inclusion of an image of the “unite the right” rally in Charlottesville, which has nothing to do with tariffs.
But it is always good for anyone who is interested in politics to challenge one’s own beliefs.
I have been thinking a lot about tariffs this week. Tariffs are one of the many things conservatives are supposed to abhor. I spent some time this week listening to Milton Friedman talking about free trade and how much it makes sense. It really does, but that is only in the abstract…not really connected to the country we live in. The US government has been meddling in our economic affairs since forever, with everything from welfare to the Federal Reserve and the Civil Rights Act which ended up compelling private companies’ behavior.
People on the left are suddenly free trade advocates, but I believe it’s only because they want to pound Trump. Their predictions of economic annihilation in 2016 didn’t come true, but we are supposed to believe his 25% tariffs will finally bury us.
I can’t pinpoint who started to meddle with free trade in this country but I suspect it can be attributed to all parties. People like to meddle. People think they can change things for the better if they can just tweak of little of this and a little of that. There are so many moving parts in an economy, that predictions are ridiculous. We can only predict after the fact which is, of course, not a prediction at all.
I am watching what Sheinbaum is doing in Mexico. Trump has certainly gotten her attention, which I believe was his intention. Mexico has always been in crisis but today there is full out war in northern Mexico. Cartels have tanks and missiles and are using them in cities and villages all over the country. Many of Mexico’s young men are being romanced into the cartel life which only ends in violent death. Hopefully she cares enough about her people that she will stop making excuses and take whatever help Trump can offer her to right her ship.
Like to visit? Don’t sugarcoat it, Tad Hatter Ph.D (Phony. Dipsh!t)…you’re a compulsive troll, blatant disinfo broker, and desperate last-word contrarian. Moreover, the growing length of these self-important posts peddling smooth brain rhetoric, nitwit hot-takes among other nonsense talking points you huffed from Faux News septic tank…aren’t reaching anyone here. Maybe instead of pathetically riding the coattails of a reputable blog, only girding to cause conflict…consider starting your own! But I double anyone would read it nor show the least interest in; because the right-wing echo chamber is already overflowing with such turds and this is only about stinking up the place to “own those libs”. So please, stop pretending you’ve got any real motive beyond that…or this preachy stream-of-incontenence ever adds up to anything cogent.
I do find it absolutely hysterical the name-dropping of Milton Friedman though; as even if his Nobel-prize winning ideas were distilled into the kind of the Economics pop-up book you might be capable of gleaning a squinty-eyed geriatric understanding from…it would still extort the virtues of Free Trade along with expressing boldly that TARIFFS ARE BAD FOR CONSUMERS, DUMMY. But go on, keep up all that pitiful “research”, because if are as much an armchair economist as are the legal scholar from the Peters trial….that’s only more accreditation as a bonafide idiot.
Milton Friedman also peddled universal basic income.
Marx loved the idea of meddling with the market. Just like trump does.
Badharry is mad because a liberal stole his lady. Badharry isn’t really bad, he’s just a loser. Badharry should change his name to Loserharry
No, he’s mad because a liberal “stole” the lady he was absolutely, positively going to ask out, as soon as he could get Tina Peters to do something about that No Contact Restraining Order against him.
I have on good intelligence that President Biden has directed that all Federal keyboards disable the letters “D,” “J,” “T,” and “E,” “M.”
If DJT and Elmer can’t see their names in print they will disappear like the Wicked Witch of the West, upon whom they have modeled themselves.
This election was fueled by male machismo and afterwards the most googled word was tariff. Americans, particularly young males, did not know the definition of tariff. They are about to find out. Meanwhile, Trump will cut taxes for the wealthy once again. The trend continues. The rich get richer and the poor get poorer.
So get ready for big increases in the cost of beer, when we’re fighting in the streets for food.
All your prescription drugs are manufactured in China including antibiotics. It would take years to change that. Do you really believe these countries will take this BS from the US without retaliation in the market? Dream on! We pay the price, not the Oligarchs he is marching in, with dreams of privatizing all government services, including the VA.
The new Kindercare in the White House and Cabinet will be a clown show like the previous Trump term, these people have no clue and only want to line their pockets, that is the Trump Agenda. An orgy of thieves.
Q: What country provides most of our foreign oil products?
A: Canada by far. Mexico is #2.
We’re screwed.
“The countries that export the goods to the U.S. don’t pay a thing.”
They’ll pay when people don’t buy their products, which is kinda the point. It’s leverage and a bargaining tool.
The reason we buy stuff from second world countries is because we assume, because of their low labor costs, we’re getting something for nothing. There isn’t one thing on your list that the US can’t produce in this country…especially the oil and gas. With the automation now existing in this country, our labor costs shouldn’t be as prohibitive as they once were.
This is a “bold” step, although you and Kamala should admit that Biden raised some of the tariffs Trump put in place..particularly on China. And with Trump winnowing the Washington bureaucracy plus tariffs, we might end up reducing the national debt and getting help to stem the tide on the southern border.
Just think of all of of those bureaucrats getting jobs building “made in America” washing machines.
PS. Did you know that we’re buying a lot of avocados and other produce in Mexico from homicidal drug cartels? They have absconded with many formerly family owned farms down there. Think about that the next time you buy a bag at Sam’s club.
How will we produce enough gasoline when our refineries aren’t designed to process the crude oil drilled in this country? You did know that not all crude oil is the same, right? From all those different sources of information you read? U.S. crude has a high sulphur content and is more difficult to refine, which is why we import low-sulphur crude that is easier to refine. Ending those imports will shut off the gasoline supply for weeks or months while our refineries are rebuilt to process American crude, causing prices to skyrocket. Then, of course, the price will skyrocket even more as the oil companies try to recoup their expenses from the conversion.
As for manufacturing, you are correct that anything COULD be built in the U.S. However, relatively little actually is and months or years will pass before new factories could be built to take over from China, with comensurate increases in price.
Your arguments ignore the realities of the situation. It’s not as simple as you and Trump think it is.
Probably. We’ll deserve it.