I hear a load of crap about tariffs

 

People in the US don’t seem to understand that when Trump slaps a tariff on imported goods, it’s you, the consumer, or the retail outlet in the US, who pays the tariff, not the exporting country.

Here’s how it works..

Redneck Roy’s Paper Products sells Rough’n’Tough toilet paper, but they are in competition with The Beijing Toilet Paper Emporium which TarMart ships in from overseas. The foreign competitor is able to undercut poor Roy because they have lower labor costs so Roy is about to go out of business. So, the president slaps a 50% tariff on imported paper products. Now, when TarMart imports toilet paper from Beijing they pay the original product cost to the supplier, so Beijing is perfectly happy, and an extra 50% to the US government. This eats into their profit margins so they have to raise the prices on that brand.

If customers really really like the Beijing product, they can still get it but they have to pay more. Most people won’t do that, so Roy is back in business.

That’s how it’s supposed to work. Prices of imported goods go up giving local businesses the edge.

That is the whole fucking point of the tariff! It’s there to make the imported goods more expensive than home-grown alternatives, so when you see prices in the store rise, the system is working as designed.

Of course, if there are no local alternatives, you’re screwed.