He might, rabbit, he might.
The trouble with this misguided tariff is that it looks like he’s trying to help the steelworkers. Even if the steel industry comes back, steel workers won’t. Automation is what kills these jobs, not foreign completion. Economics is what killed the coal industry, not environmental regulations. These jobs aren’t coming back. Now thanks to this stupid policy, the auto industry is going to lose a shit ton more jobs because now US companies will be paying more for steel than their foreign competitors.
Which countries and what are the respective tariffs?
I think you’re saying the cost of steel in the US won’t increase because most of the imported steel would be exempt from the tariff. But even then, there will be steel-producing countries who will be hit by the tariff, and they could still impose tariffs on their imports from the US. The US economy can take a hit.
Then again, I suppose Trump supporters will not blame Trump for it, they’ll just blame those foreign countries.
I have the news on. They just had a story about Harley-Davidson closing a factory in Missouri because of the tariffs, at the cost of 800 jobs. And they’re shifting production to Thailand to get around the tariffs.
But this is exactly what Midwestern factory workers voted for, so I should be happy that they’re getting what they wanted.
Yes, it is. It’s exactly what he voted for. Liberals warned Trump voters that Trump is a poor businessman who will hurt them if he’s elected. They voted for him anyway.
I know this makes me a bad person, but I am so very, very happy that people who voted for Trump are being directly and clearly hurt by the results of their folly. Damned unfair and a shame that those of us whose warnings were brushed aside will also be hurt.
I’m not happy that they are being directly and clearly hurt. I’ve been out of work before, and it isn’t fun. It’s just that my reserves of sympathy have been drained. Sometimes people need an object lesson.
For me, it depends on why they voted for him. If they’re gullible and just fell for a highly skilled con man, or just wanted to try something different, I can feel some sympathy for them getting hurt by this guy. But if they voted for him because they share his hatred for anyone who isn’t a straight Christian white male, then I hope they suffer greatly.
Mostly agree with you, although it’s hard to muster much sympathy for the marks when the con was so blatant. And I do feel sorry for the innocent children of the Trump voters. But for those who savored the taste of liberal tears, well, I hope their cup runneth over with bitterness.
You know, if the con man is the only person they hear from, I can understand this position. But if there’s someone standing right beside them who keeps pointing out that Three Card Monty is a scam, and they keep putting their money down, at some point you have to figure that they’re responsible for their own predicament.
Absolutely everyone who wasn’t Trump pointed out that he’s an idiot during the primaries, and they still voted him in as candidate. Everyone who’s not a Republican kept pointing out that he was an idiot during the election, and they still voted him in as President.
At some point, they have to accept that they screwed up, and it’s their fault.
No, no, no, that’s the wrong response–we must send them our thoughts and prayers.
Steeped in wormwood.
See, I can understand someone being hoodwinked and bamboozled by a highly skilled con man.
Donald Trump is not a highly skilled con man. His con is so transparent and ridiculous that a five year old could see through it. His con is “Come to my van, I’ve got candy in there.”
US steel prices have almost doubled since early 2016. As they have in the rest of the world. 'Tis due to substantial reductions in production, lead primarily by China and Canada. But also in the US and Europe.
The US steel companies are seeing profits rise and their stock prices are up (well three of the big four anyway). US steel producers share prices have dipped since the announcement.
What’s been the jobs effect?
If steel prices have doubled, and there has been negligible increase in steel jobs/pay, how much impact will a 25% tariff on 15% of steel imports have? (which assumes the market share don’t change and the specific aim of the intervention fails)
Personally, if I’m glad of anything, it’s that people seeing the real consequences of Trump will make it politically easier to get rid of him and his ilk.
You’re assuming that people will see that. But we live in a world where millions of people will accept without question that black is white, war is peace, freedom is slavery and ignorance is strength if it’s told to them by the right people using the right language and blaming the right “other” for all their woes. The worse things get, the more these people will look to blame anyone but themselves and their poor choices. Which is ironic, really, given that they insist that everyone else “take responsibility” for their problems.
But it’s getting to the point that they’re not even being told that. When a steel mill closes and cites “Trump’s tariff” as the reason for their closing, that’s got to hurt Trump.
I think this goes far beyond a simple con job. Donald is a cult leader, the apex of a great pyramid of lies and the center of an impenetrable bubble of disinformation. Many of these people weren’t just listening to Donald- they were fed nonstop propaganda by Fox and guys like Limbaugh and Savage, they read memes on Facebook shared by their friends with similar views. There was an unending stream of reinforcement given to them during the campaign and since then. Once in the grasp of such a bunch of skilled manipulators, reason simply cannot penetrate.
Tariffs usually do help a politician.
Economically speaking they’re usually stupid, but we aren’t talking about economics, we’re talking about politics.
To use a steel tariff as the example, that steel tariff hurts everyone. However, it hurts people in indirect ways. “It raises the prices of everything” is literally true, but most voters don’t perceive steel prices rising. Steel prices affect things like, say, the price of an office building, which has hundreds of thousands of dollars of structural steel holding it up. No one who works in that building, or visits it to get a service, feels the price of steel. The negative impact of a rise in structural steel cost would be that some buildings are never built, or are built smaller than they could have been, because of the deadweight loss the economy suffered - but no person who didn’t get a job as a result will attribute that to steel prices. or to use Wilbur Ross’s ridiculous example of soup cans, that 0.6 cents per can will cost Campell’s millions of dollars; it’s not that Campbell’s will go out of business, but those millions of dollars are lost, as are a hundred times more dollars from a hundred other companies that use steel. The pain is distributed throughout the economy and will absolutely contribute to the next recession and make it worse, but no one person hurt by it will think “Damn steel tariffs!”
However, the BENEFICIARIES of steel tariffs damn well do notice. The owner of the steel plant that gets work because more efficient foreign steel mills are shut out of the market know damn well he’s only making money because of the tariffs, and his steelworkers know it too. The people deriving benefit from it (or thinking they do) are much more aware of the positive impact they feel than people taking the negative impact are aware of it - and of course the beneficiaries are much likelier to be clustered together in a limited number of Congressional districts or states.
This phenomenon is very, very common, and it’s obviously not limited to tariffs; subsidies, regulations and laws, tax breaks and all manner of government favoritism can hurt the economy but assist the politician in precisely the same way.