Tariffs: Who Wins?

Tariffs: Who Wins?

If things go well, working class Americans who need more high-paying jobs . 

For context, a tariff is a tax on things that are imported into the country. 

They’re designed  to incentivize companies to build factories here in the US and make US-made goods competitive. 

Right now,  nearly everything in stores is imported but it wasn’t always this way.

Not long ago, it was a tariff-based system of trade that paid the bills and made the USA the “land of opportunity” where the best products were produced. Then, in the 1970s globalization policies gutted American manufacturing and ruined the lives of countless working-class American families as companies found it cheaper to build overseas. Now that tariffs are back the manufacturing middle class might make a comeback too.  

The dream is a good one but there will be some bumps in the road for sure. If cheap throwaway consumables are the ‘drug’, the ‘rehab’ will be what’s coming next — short term price hikes, some layoffs (mostly at international companies) and stock market volatility. 

But once we get through our economic “withdrawals”, and as other countries either start agreeing to drop their tariffs or companies start re-building factories in the US, there will likely be a massive uptick in the number of high-paying jobs which don’t require an expensive college degree to get. 

The question will be, can Americans hold on? 

Do you think the tariffs are “worth the pain”?

Let me know in the comments.