S4 E14 - Trump Tariff Facts - Forgotten Red Pistachios

The script challenges the common narrative that tariffs, particularly those imposed by President Trump, are detrimental to the economy and the poor. It argues that tariffs are often misconstrued as inflationary and harmful, while highlighting that other factors like wars, energy policies, mass migration, and social programs are more inflationary. The script asserts that tariffs are a strategic tool used by many countries and that they can encourage domestic production and reduce dependency on foreign goods. It criticizes global trade practices as inefficient and environmentally detrimental, and concludes that tariffs serve to protect American workers and industries without being unfair or unprecedented.

Commentary on trending issues brought to you with a moderate perspective.

Transcript

The Tenth Man: 0:11

They say tariffs are attacks on the poor. They say Trump's trade policies will crash the economy, but the real threat to global trade is global trade itself. Today on the 10th man. The whole world is talking about Trump's tariffs, and almost everything they're saying is wrong. They say Trump is taxing the poor. They say tariffs cause inflation. They say America is now an unreliable trade partner. And they say it all with a straight face, but we're not here to nod along with conventional wisdom, but to challenge it. So let's break this down. Let's start with the tariffs cause inflation claim. It sounds plausible until you remember what inflation actually is. Inflation is when you pay more and get nothing extra. Your dollar buys less. It's the price, wage, spiral costs chase wages, wages, chase prices and everything inflates like a balloon. Ready to pop. Tariffs. Don't do that. If a tariff raises the price of your champagne or your BMW, it's a one time bump, not a spiral. And guess what? You're still getting champagne and BMWs. You are just paying a premium for the privilege import of importing luxury. Tariffs are not. Inflationary wars are social programs are printing millions for stimulus is inflationary. Paying people not to work is inflationary, but a tariff, it's a price signal. It's saying, buy American or pay up. Let's look at some things that are inflationary war. When you take billions of dollars of material and blow it up on the battlefield, guess what? That's not investment. That's waste and waste causes inflation, guns or butter. You can't have both. Energy policy. Biden said, no more drilling energy prices spiked. Natural gas makes fertilizer and fertilizer makes food. Congratulations, you just made groceries more expensive. Mass migration, migrants consume services, but they don't build homes. They live in shelters. You are producing less, but demanding more as a society. Inflationary riots and protests, those are not only unproductive, they're destructive. Burn a Tesla dealership, and now we all pay more for Teslas or for insurance. And every one of these examples is a left wing policy. Everyone is inflationary, and yet the left says tariffs are the problem. Are they outta their minds, but are tariffs unfair? Well, let's ask the obvious question. If tariffs are bad, why does every other country use them? Europe slaps tariffs on our beef, our bourbon, our corn, our ketchup, and even our Cheerios. China doesn't believe in free trade. China believes in manipulation, subsidies, and stealing intellectual property. Obama used tariffs. Biden kept Trump's tariffs. Trump's just the first one to say out loud, Hey, maybe America should actually get something in return. I. In world trade and he campaigned on tariffs. He won on tariffs. He implemented tariffs, and now they act surprised he's bringing them back. Well, Europe and China, you had five months after the election to prepare to make changes. In negotiate. You didn't, and that's not our fault. Retaliatory tariffs. Hilarious. Other countries now say they'll retaliate, raise prices on American goods. Okay, here's a fun fact. You can't win a trade war with the US because you don't have the leverage. We buy your stuff, but you don't buy ours. We run the trade deficit, so that gives us the upper hand. We can stop buying, but you can't stop selling. And you can't slow down buying that. You're not doing in the first place, retaliating against the US when you're the exporters like trying to hold your breath until we give you oxygen. Oh, and Canada, you're not Costa Rica. You don't grow bananas or oranges. We grow the same things. You do grain and timber and then you're threatening to cut off electricity. Electricity is not something you can store. You can't load it on a ship and export it. You generate it now and you need to sell it now or never. And if we need it and can't get it from you, what happens? Who's the unreliable partner here? And if we don't buy it, who are you gonna sell it to? Unless you're a boomer or older, you probably don't remember red pistachios. All of our pistachio nuts are tan now, but let's go back to the 1980s. Back then, Iran controlled the pistachio market. They dyed them red to cover imperfections. Then along came the Iran hostage crisis, and they cut us off from their pistachios. So what did we do? We just started growing our own, and California pistachios took over the market. Today we export more pachios pistachios than Iran does. And you can't even find a red pistachio here anymore. Iran thought they had us, and instead we replaced them. So if France wants to tax bourbon or Europe blocks our ketchup instead of settling, go for it. You're just gonna create your next competitor.'cause we can make our own champagne. Don't make us prove it. And not just luxury goods either. Tariffs on foreign cars mean a lot of people are going to switch to American cars. Once they find out American cars have higher quality than they've been told. Good luck to you trying to get those customers back. Are tariffs attacks on the poor? Not really. Let's talk about this tax on the poor argument. Problem is in the US the poor don't pay income tax. In fact, with the earned income credit, they often get money back. You've gotta make over$30,000 a year to pay a dime in federal income tax and tariffs are only a tax if companies pass on the cost and they don't have to. Take Wal Walmart, for example. They told their Chinese suppliers, you're gonna eat the tariff. We're not raising prices. And most of these things that get tariffs, they're optional. Nobody needs a Jaguar or French champagne or Mexican avocados for that matter at her. On the other hand, back in Europe and Canada, every wage earner is taxed. So the tariffs they charge on American goods are gonna be just piled on top of the existing taxes they pay that are already too high. So tariffs are actually a tax on the rich. In reality, tariffs are more like a tax on choice. If you want the foreign car, the imported cheese, the fancy French lipstick, you're gonna pay a little more, or you can drive your Ford. You can buy domestic. You need Wisconsin cheddar, you're not gonna suffer. You might even save money because tariffs here aren't mandatory. Inflation is mandatory, and that's the difference. And if American companies step up, you create jobs along with those markets, the foreigners may never get back. You know, Democrats are always in conflict. And this brings us to the left's favorite game, self contradiction. The United Auto Workers Union, for example, the U aaw supports Democrats, but so does the National Education Association, the NEA, the Teacher's Union, but university towns, you know, the NE's strongholds. They're filled with Subarus and Audis, not Fords and Chevys. So who's really backing the American worker? It sure isn't the guy teaching Marxism and driving a Hyundai. Now, what happened to Trump's billionaire? Friends benefit, benefiting the stock market Took a hit. Billionaires lost millions on paper at least, and yet. Media says, Trump's only helping his billionaire friends even while those billionaires are losing money. Here's a sidebar for you. When the market dropped after the Trump assassination attempt, that was the biggest dip of the year. Nothing but crickets from the media on that one. Now you have to ask yourself, why aren't China, Korea, and Japan. Trading with each other. Here's the contradiction. No one talks about Mexico, Canada, and the US are huge trading partners. That's as it should be. We are neighbors and China, Korea, Japan, they're neighbors. They have ports, they have shipping lanes, but instead of trading with each other. They all desperately export to us. Why? Because they don't trust each other. China subsidizes. Korea blocks, imports. Japan defends domestic markets. They don't believe in free trade. They just expect us to. It is like a three-way cold war where everyone depends on the same customer, and when that customer, the US decides to set some terms, they cry foul. Give us a break. The thing about it is a lot of global trade is just a monument to waste. Here you have a ship full of Korean cars. It gets underway and sails around Japan. It crosses the Pacific through the Panama Canal and up the East Coast, and it does that to sell cars that we already make here. There is no economic need. It's not rubber or rare earth minerals or even chocolate. So you wanna talk about emissions. Waste carbon footprints. Try looking at global shipping. Ships burn. The dirtiest fuels available, but the climate protestors are silent. We import cheap plastic junk. We don't need trendy clothes that we throw away. Ordinary summer fruit. We can get cheap all summer. We want it in the winter. You know what? Blueberries in January, fine, but don't try to tell us this system is more efficient than buying American. Oh, and because by the way, the fewer ships we have here unloading goods from China, the fewer opportunities they have to smuggle fentanyl. There's very little economic justification for much international trade, but trade imbalances are especially bad for the climate. Where are the protestors? With Asian countries shipping so much merchandise to the US without their buying our goods? That means all those ships come here. Belching, diesel smoke. Then they return empty to the other side of the world. Huge ships going halfway around the world with nothing in them. How is that good for, for the environment? And again, where are the climate protestors? We believe in free trade. The problem is no one else does. Europe uses regulations to keep out American food. Phony regulations, France bans harmless food additives. Germany complains about GMOs. Japan and Korea protect their large industries, keeping American products out and bailing out national industries that get into trouble. That's not free trade. And now they want to retaliate based on what. Europe can't even feed itself. Only three of the big countries can. The us, Russia, and India. Everyone else needs us more than we need them. Not just in how much we trade, but in what we trade. So before you slap a tariff on American wheat, maybe think about where your next baguette is coming from. In short, the media's narrative is garbage. Tariffs aren't inflation. They're not taxes on the poor. They're not unprecedented. They're not even unfair. They're actually overdue. Every other country protects its markets. Were just finally waking up and doing the same. The Biden administration spent years setting money on fire. Spending it on wars, handouts mass migration and ESG pipe dreams. That's why we had inflation trump's tariffs. That's just one man saying if you want access to the American market, it's gonna cost you something. And for once they're listening. So let the world whine. Let the media scream. Let Europe, huff and Puff America isn't the world's piggy bank anymore, and if the price of defending our workers, rebuilding our industry, and standing up for ourselves is a few extra bucks on a bottle of French wine, well then just pour me a Napa Valley cab instead. We will be just fine. If you like this breakdown, subscribe and share the 10th Man Podcast where you'll hear the obvious truth.