When discussing his foreign policies - especially regarding
Israel, antisemitism, and policies that favor our Biblical values - there should be
no question that this polices are almost entirely positive. And yet, those who hate
Trump will completely deny that these policies have any real value for Israel
or the Jewish people, offering all kinds of twisted explanations to justify
their stance.
On the other hand, when it comes to policies that are
clearly detrimental to this country, Trump supporters will deny the obvious and
insist he is right, no matter how clearly wrong the policy is. It’s as though
both camps are blind to reason - refusing to give any credit to someone they
see as the devil. Or to find fault with someone they view as so pro-Jewish and
pro-American like Trump.
I find myself arguing with people on both sides. The last
time I did this was Friday night with an Orthodox Jewish Trump supporter. He
was absolutely right about the positive things mentioned above that Trump has
done. I couldn’t agree with him more. But when it came to Trump’s domestic
economic policies, I was stunned that he defended them. As a businessman who
relies on buying foreign goods, he admitted that these tariffs would increase
his costs. Yet, his defense was that ‘Trump is a businessman and knows what
he’s doing,’ And that it would benefit the American people financially in the
long run. I couldn’t believe my ears.
I suppose I should be used to MAGA supporters like this
fellow being blinded by their pure loyalty to a man they view as almost
infallible.
I have long defended the above-mentioned good Trump policies
- even at the risk of being called a MAGA Republican, which I clearly am not.
But I now find myself condemning his domestic economic policy, specifically his
across-the-board tariffs on all our trading partners.
The reason he has imposed these tariffs is to restore
American manufacturing, which is at its lowest point in U.S. history. Many (most?)
major manufacturers are no longer producing their goods in the U.S. Instead,
they’ve outsourced production to foreign countries. About 50% of the cars purchased
in America are now mostly made in foreign
countries like Japan, South Korea, and Germany. Car parts used by GM, Ford, and
Stellantis are made in Mexico and Canada. The cars themselves are often assembled
there. The automobile industry - once the bedrock of American manufacturing –
has ‘left the building’. Many other commodities are manufactured in a foreign country.
Why? Because the nature of business is to make money. Profit
is the name of the game. Maximizing profit by reducing manufacturing costs is therefore
a top priority. Since it’s cheaper to manufacture almost anywhere else but the
U.S…. do I need to finish that sentence?
Tariffs are meant to level the playing field. If it costs
more to buy products manufactured in foreign countries, then it's no longer
financially beneficial to buy them there. By imposing tariffs these companies
might as well manufacture those goods here, thus restoring the U.S. as the
manufacturing capital of the world, as it once was.
The problem with this formula lies in the 2 elephants in the
room. The first being labor costs. It’s cheaper to produce goods in China,
Mexico, and even Canada because labor costs are lower. While there are some other
factors involved, it is obvious to me that this is the primary reason American
industry has outsourced so much of its production.
How did it get this way? ‘If you can’t win em - join em’ Over
time, unions became so powerful they were able to hold corporate employers
hostage to their salary demands. Eventually, companies chose to collude with
them—more or less giving them what they wanted and passing any increased costs
onto the consumer. While unions may not have the same kind of power anymore today,
the damage has already been done.
Even if manufacturers bring production back to the U.S.,
factory workers will still demand compensation packages that far exceed those
in other countries. I would guess that U.S. factory workers are paid more – overall
- than workers in any other country in the world. And there's no greater
contributor to inflation than that.
When so much of what we buy is made in whole or in part in
foreign countries, and it now costs more to manufacture, consumers will pay
more. Manufacturers may absorb some of the additional cost, but most of it will
be passed along to the consumer.
If Trump succeeds in getting U.S. manufacturers to restore
all production to this country, prices will not go down because of the increased labor costs in this country. That is simple math.
This brings me to the other elephant in the room. What the
president is effectively doing is asking the American people to pay for this
restoration. There is no way Trump’s tariff policy will restore the economy to
what it once was. If these tariffs remain in place, prices will go up and - one
way or another - they will stay up.
This policy is as wrongheaded as it gets. Which is why Wall
Street has reacted so negatively. Retirement accounts have lost real value,
which hurts retirees with a 401(k) or an IRA which are often heavily invested in the stock
market.
Anyone who supports this policy isn’t thinking clearly.
Those defending it are doing so blindly. Permanently ‘taxing’ the American people
is not the way to restore manufacturing in this country. It is however, the way
to cause inflation.
Tariffs are not really a politically conservative economic
policy. It’s more of a progressive policy designed to help the American factory
worker at the expense of the rest of the population. This is what
Democrats usually do. Theirs is the party that supports labor unions. And labor
unions almost always support Democrats. Ironically, it's the Democrats who are
now screaming the loudest against these tariffs and labor unions that are strongly supporting
them. That should not be lost on anyone.
This is the only logical way to view Trump’s tariff policy.
It’s so aggravating that I even have to explain it to people who are otherwise quite
intelligent. And I doubt that I have convinced any of them.
