Column: Trump and Vance are dead wrong — economists unanimously agree that U.S. tariffs are a tax on American consumers
https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2024-09-04/trump-and-vance-are-dead-wrong-economists-agree-that-u-s-tariffs-are-a-tax-on-american-consumers
36 Comments
No shit. Corporations like Walmart or Publix will raise their prices to keep their fat bottom lines. Some consumers will look for alternatives but majority will end up paying the higher price, which by the way impacts middle and lower class more than upper class.
Trump has never understood who pays tariffs.
Of course it is. Companies won’t take it out of their bottom line.
I disagree overall
People that are against tariffs like cheap products that were made with slave labor and conditions that wouldn’t fly in America
Unanimous agreement from experts doesn’t mean anything to their supporters. Remember COVID and global warming?
The main winner from his trade war with China was Ivanka – she got a dozen or so patents out of that. He knows nothing about economics except the sentence that one of his misguided handlers whispered to him 3 minutes ago. Best evidence of that was in 2016 when he wanted to just start printing money to settle the deficit.
I assume Harris wants to continue the tariffs like Biden did too.
This is the best tl;dr I could make, [original](https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2024-09-04/trump-and-vance-are-dead-wrong-economists-agree-that-u-s-tariffs-are-a-tax-on-american-consumers) reduced by 92%. (I’m a bot)
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> The Harris campaign is more forthright about the cost of tariffs to the average consumer, although its specific estimates about the magnitude of the cost of tariffs Trump has proposed for the future – almost $4,000 a year on middle class households – can be questioned.
> It's proper to note that although Harris has called the Trump tariffs a "Trump sales tax," she doesn't mention that the Biden administration has kept many of Trump's tariffs in place and has moved to increase some of them.
> Consider the effect of tariffs on washing machines imposed by Trump and the 100% tariff on Chinese-made electric vehicles Biden announced in May. The EV tariffs will have no effect on American buyers, in the view of economist and economic blogger Noah Smith.
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[**Extended Summary**](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/1f8qgms/column_trump_and_vance_are_dead_wrong_economists/) | [FAQ](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/31b9fm/faq_autotldr_bot/ “Version 2.02, ~693301 tl;drs so far.”) | [Feedback](http://np.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%23autotldr “PM’s and comments are monitored, constructive feedback is welcome.”) | *Top* *keywords*: **tariff**^#1 **Trump**^#2 **consumer**^#3 **economist**^#4 **tax**^#5
What? Tariffs in a free trade world?
Both free trade and tariffs are manipulated to benefit the rich.
Oxymoron.
Trump is dead wrong on just about everything.
Economists also said move your manufacturing to China and it’s ok to become dependent on Russian fossil fuels. None of them predicted the 2008 financial crisis.
Economists are mostly regarded and offer nothing but speculation or empty words
Tariffs increase prices. That’s the *point*. I can’t fathom how anyone can see them any other way.
So Trump’s new grift would be to fleece the American people, and find a way to stuff it into his pockets, because of course that would be an official presidential act, and he’d be immune from prosecution? Honestly, who would stop him at that point? Look what he did to the RNC.
well they have to say they aren’t because otherwise they’d be wrong, and alphamales are never wrong.
The EU aimed their contra tarrifs to hit red states
This is high school level economics. It’s so basic it’s laughable to not understand the most basic aspect of tariffs.
Anyone who’s ever stayed awake in Econ 101 knows this.
In their world, how can they reconcile their position that higher corporate taxes are passed on to consumers, but tariffs aren’t? If anything, tariffs are easier to price in because they impact the top line number.
They said the tariffs would end up costing consumers and contribute to inflation. Big surprise when it actually happens….
Saying JDV and DJT are “dead wrong” here implies these were legitimate policy ideas that were workshopped with policy wonks that have some basis in reality, where economists can debate the merits.
These are bullshit extemporaneous brain farts by Trump divorced from any serious reality, and parrotted by couch fucker.
These aren’t economic policies. These are bullshittery of the highest order
The press really needs to do a better job of framing objective facts as objective facts, and opinions as opinions.
The Orange turd is not a business man. The man bankrupted 3 casinos. He doesn’t understand how tariffs work and never will. Unfortunately his dumb base doesn’t have any incentive to look beyond the surface and just trust what he says.
It’s a sad state of affairs when you have a very uniformed electorate that in general does not have a grasp of the issues.
What I don’t understand is how in polls people would trust this dumb fuck with the economy of Harris. Let’s not forget he tanked the economy while in office and crime increased.
Vote Blue in November.
Depends on the country. Tariffs on Canada was one of the most extraordinarily dumb ideas any president has ever had. The US and Canada have a mutually beneficial trade and economic relationship that adds substantial value to every aspect of their respective economies, including both labour markets.
However tariffs on some Chinese commodities make alot of sense because of the lengths China will go particularly with child slave labour and appalling wages and working conditions in their drive to compete with American companies.
While I’m definitely voting for Harris and appreciate the factual nuance, I never felt Trump was wrong about the need for tariffs on Chinese goods. There’s a reason why China doesn’t want these tariffs on US sales of their exports and it’s not because they particularly care about how Americans budget their money. Yes, Americans would need to pay more if they really want those goods, or if there are no other alternatives. But in time, new, American-made alternative goods may appear. They may be price competitive with the Chinese goods with the tariffs. Remember that Chinese producers are usually heavily subsidized by its government precisely so they could undercut pricing of goods produced elsewhere. Add the fact that little environmental/labor requirements exist there. So they of course will be cheaper. China wants to sell a high volume of goods so they can dominate entire product categories- tariffs may be the only way to make markets fair for US producers and workers.
Tariffs causing a tax on the domestic population isn’t some disputed controversial argument in Economics; it is as widely believed as gravity is in Physics.
This is the economic equivalent of flat earth theory.
And you know how annoying it is to argue with a flat earther.
So the thing is Vance in his interviews talking about Tariffs doesn’t even (can’t even??) defend the position that they increase costs. His only mildly defensive point is that it could, coouuuld, increase wages domestically. He would then go into say that that increase in wages completely offsets the tariff costs which…BS it does…
Tariffs he enacted are same ones Bush tried and removed after retaliatory tariffs were put in place. Trump did the same thing and again there’s retaliatory tariffs enacted. That’s what started the inflation issue. That and you know all that money that was printed so CEOs could all get boats and vacations and not pay it back.
Major part of the problem is that no media is really breaking down tariffs for the public. There needs to be a serious expose on how tariffs work and why it’s not used more widely. Companies need to step up and voice their concerns as they will pass the expenses down to the public in terms of price increases. Not to mention retaliation on US tarries being placed.
Trump is a lazy MOFO. Tariffs, build a wall, and other “policies” are a lazy person fix that will down the road cost billions to the tax payers. But he didn’t care. That’s the future generation and presidents problem. He is an ass.
That’s literally macro economics 101. Fucking duh
Good luck explaining that to the mouth breathers
One of the rubs of GOP policies has always been their push to raise fees, fines and tariffs while claiming to be anti-tax.
Decades of this double speak and still going strong.
Governments love tariffs. They don’t care about the downstream negative consequences, the power is too much to pass up.
Of all the things the Biden Administration undid when they got into the White House, they left the Trump tariffs alone.
Everyone is missing the domestic control aspect of these tariffs. Sure everything gets worse, but the administration gets to pick and choose who to spare based on their support for dear leader. It’s time to stop thinking like capitalists who are afraid of incompetent leadership, and time to start thinking like a fascist surrounded by capitalists that want to survive.
I don’t know if I disagree with the tariffs. Sure, it will make things cost more, but people will either buy more domestic goods or there will be more $$ hopefully going towards social programs? If the $$ goes towards something good then maybe it’s not a bad thing. Plus it keeps more $$ in this country. But maybe I’m wrong on this. I mean, Trump and Vance are fucking disgusting assholes, so I can imagine them getting it wrong.
There are labor groups who believe tariffs are good “because they keep out foreign competition”. I would argue that is correct, but it helps companies even more and in both cases, the “help” is only temporary.
Look at Trumps steel tariffs. The immediate effect is steel became more expensive (overnight). No new steel plants opened up. Net steel employment did not increase. Manufacturing employment in steel fabrication along our borders plummeted because raw steel was tariffed but fabricated steel was not, putting domestic steel fabricators at a major disadvantage.
Tariffs are appropriate to combat dumping, but that is about all.