Let’s give the tariffs time to work. If they don’t work I will be the first to admit I was wrong. President Trump seems to be backing off his hardline positions with a 90-day reprieve for most, and taking tariffs off cellphones, electronics and associated items made in China. I think that is a good move and if we can cut deals with the 75 or so larger traders the U.S. buys and sells to, then this country will be far better off.
The tariffs make sense. If China charges us a 100% tariff, then it’s only fair that we charge them one. The same goes for Canada, Mexico, Vietnam and all the others. If they want to charge us 40% then it’s only fair that we charge them the same. What is good for the goose is good for the gander.
Higher prices may come for a while. Foreign car dealerships are going to feel the pinch. But the good news for consumers is that the price of gas should come down substantially.
People are worried about buying cheap stuff from China at Walmart or Amazon or any other country. Others are upset that Amazon and Temu purchases my be higher. I honestly don’t want stuff from China. If China never ships another thing here it wouldn’t bother me. Sadly, everything we own today is, in some way, likely tied to a foreign country including consumer goods, prescriptions and grocery store items.
My friend Dr. Glenn Mollett relates when he was a kid, he had a transistor radio made in Hong Kong. He thought it was funny to have such an item made from so far away. Throughout the years, he said however, it became the norm. Cars, televisions, furniture, appliances and steel started coming from other places. Sadly, our American manufacturers were moving to Mexico, or any country on the planet where they could find slave labor. This turned into big profit for them because they shipped the goods cheaply back to the United States and made big profits. The problem was that those jobs were forever lost in America. The American workers had to go out and find jobs at Walmart and Starbucks making $10 an hour which today is more like $15 to $18. They had been used to making $35 or $40 an hour before their job moved out of America.
Mollett continued, “Back in the fifties, sixties and even seventies people could go to one of the big cities in their state and find a good paying manufacturing job. There were lots of jobs. We made a lot of cars, televisions, radios, clothes, furniture, steel, lumber, and had coal mining and much more. These people made enough money to buy a house, buy two cars, buy food, raise their kids and have a real retirement after working 30 years. That was called the American dream.
Today the American dream for many is applying for disabled Social Security and then praying that you can afford to go to Walmart. Don’t even think about buying a new car, a new house or taking a vacation because on today’s income it is not going to happen.”
He’s right. Let’s try to keep breathing and see how these tariffs play out. We need jobs to come back to America. We need our own companies to come home. We need to buy our own American steel and make things here once again. If other countries will come to America and build their products here and hire our people that will be a good thing.
Just maybe, in a few years, once again, people in America will dream again.
Mike – If there is a plan then lets hear it but we know there isn’t. It’s just slapdash and stopped before it even started. Don and his friends made out well on the insider trading thought. This is just more of the “quid pro quo” from his first term. What will you give ME if I don’t institute the tariffs. Notice I said ME because he has no other person he wants to benefit more. Once again you MAGA’s astound me with an ignorance that is disturbing at best.
Continuing to do what we have done wasn’t working.
Trump is a businessman.
He made a lot of good decisions before, so going to let him work and give it time.
If we can shutter the country for a year due to the China Virus,
we can let negotiations play out for our economic health.
Calling Trump a businessman is like calling Al Capone a philanthropist. And I’d love to hear your list of previous good decisions. And seriously, our economic health was great before Dear Leader took over. No one has ever destroyed an economy faster than Don the Con. We could talk about the insider trading last week but I’m sure you don’t want to talk about that but it sure mad Don and his friends richer.