Harris Blames Price Gouging

Tariffs are very simple to understand. You add the cost of the tariff to the cost of goods and the cost to the consumer goes up. The importer pays the tariffs on goods when they arrive at the destination port. Tariffs are part of customs duties. The only economic penalty incurred by the vendor is a potential price impact at the consumer level. In plain terms, you the consumer have to decide if you want to pay a higher price at the register due to said tariffs. This is supposed to encourage domestic production by leveling the playing field, but the alternative is that the vendor (most likely Chinese in this case) just charges a little less for the raw product to compensate for the tariffs, which coincidentally are collected by our government. What then happens to that money? Ask your Congressman or Senator if he/she know. Oh, and by the way most outlets selling these imported goods base their markup on the total cost of goods which includes these tariffs. Thus the outlet is making more of a profit because the sales price includes a profit based on a fixed percentage which is applied to the total cost of goods and the tariffs serve as a multiplier for profits. Thus we have a basis for inflation.

The evidence is that China increased subsidies to counter the tariffs and the prices didnt get passed on as much as everyone is whining about.

I have no issue with tariffs. They are better than income taxes. Tariffs help to support better wages in the US by balancing our COL with other countries. They help to fight the tariffs that other countries charge. China, with the blessing of every fucking president, has tariffed our products going into China and we have not tariffed their products. How is that fair trade? China fucks over our businesses that locate in China by imposing ownership rules that we dont do to Chinese companies. They promote IP theft of those companies. (the CEO of every american company that relocated to China should be terminated due to that alone)

WTF is this whining about tariffs? Is it simply TDS kicking in?

Not only did he keep them he upped them.
Way to go Joe!

www.nytimes.com/2024/05/18/business/biden-china-tariffs.html

Here is a nice article on the impact of the Tariffs by both Presidents. As I said, tariffs can be good in some cases, but they do increase inflation and will have some negative impacts.


taxfoundation.org/research/all/federal/trump-tariffs-biden-tariffs/

For the first two decades of the 21st century, many consumer products on America’s store shelves got less expensive. A wave of imports from China and other emerging economies helped push down the cost of video games, T-shirts, dining tables, home appliances and more.

Those imports drove some American factories out of business, and they cost more than a million workers their jobs. Discount stores and online retailers, like Walmart and Amazon, flourished selling low-cost goods made overseas. But voters rebelled. Stung by shuttered factories, cratered industries and prolonged wage stagnation, Americans in 2016 elected a president who vowed to hit back at China on trade. Four years later, they elected another one.

In separate but overlapping efforts, former President Donald J. Trump and President Biden have sought to revive and protect American factories by making it more expensive to buy Chinese goods. They have taxed imports in legacy industries that were hollowed out over the last quarter-century, like clothes and appliances, and newer ones that are struggling to grow amid global competition with China, like solar panels.

Mr. Biden’s decision on Tuesday to codify and escalate tariffs imposed by Mr. Trump made clear that the United States has closed out a decades-long era that embraced trade with China and prized the gains of lower-cost products over the loss of geographically concentrated manufacturing jobs. A single tariff rate embodies that closure: a 100 percent tax on Chinese electric vehicles, which start at less than $10,000 each and have surged into showrooms around the world, but have struggled to crack government barriers to the U.S. market.

Instituting a system of tariffs to support US manufacturing is a great idea as the rest of the world does so to protect their own interests. There are a few problems with the support systems here at home. If you restrict trade through the use of tariffs you need an affordable alternative. Problem with that is US manufacturers then see themselves as the prime source of supply and as such charge what the market will afford to pay. When the public resists high prices sales slow down, the economy goes soft, unemployment rises and bad things happen. What needs to be done is exactly what the Chinese have done which is to subsidize their industries. That would lead to a rise in socialism and some on here don't adhere to that model. Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on your position as - let's say a farmer receiving state subsidies not to grow one item or another, we are already living in a socialist environment like it or not. I was competing directly with Chinese food products and the only edge we had was quality. When the Chinese bring their standards up to ours our government will be forced to face reality. I could go on and on about experiences I've had while selling overseas, but the bottom line is that the other countries, including most of europe, cherry pick our market and the only real defense would be for our government to do more for small business as small business owners make up 90% of our American market share. I retired partly as a result of our Export Import Bank of The US halting export insurance/funding the last time our Republican friends failed to fund the government on a timely basis. The aim was to make the only part of our government that was actually making money to be privatized so that their "friends" (see major donors) could raise the insurance rates and change the rules of the game. Hard to fight with both hands tied behind your back.