The funniest part to me is that “revitaliz(ing) U.S. manufacturing” is one positive that could (to at least some degree) potentially have come from the tariffs IF Trump hadn’t completely fumbled it right from the start by not taking a firm position.
He and he alone did such a shitty job of it that he and he alone guaranteed that “revitaliz(ing) U.S. manufacturing” is one thing that’s NOT going to happen. At all.
There was no chance of tariffs alone bringing back any manufacturing, regardless of how firm of a position he took. The only way to bring manufacturing back would be through massive state intervention, the way manufacturing was originally developed in the US during WW2 period.
But the fact remains that by not providing any consistency upon which companies could plan, Trump destroyed any possibility of it right out of the gate.
You can disagree all you like, but there is no historical example of tariffs achieving any sort of industrialization on their own. The reality is that establishing factories, training workers, and building out supply chains requires stupendous amounts of capital investment and decades of effort to build out. No private investor is going to fund this sort of a venture because there’s no immediate profit in it, and long term situation will always be uncertain. It’s much easier to simply work around the tariffs of pass the cost down to the consumer.
In fact, we have a perfect recent example of this happening with western sanctions on Russian energy. These sanctions didn’t result in Europe developing clean energy industry, instead they simply resulted in a massive cost of living increase for the Europeans as a result of Russian energy being bought through intermediaries like India and Turkey.
The funniest part to me is that “revitaliz(ing) U.S. manufacturing” is one positive that could (to at least some degree) potentially have come from the tariffs IF Trump hadn’t completely fumbled it right from the start by not taking a firm position.
He and he alone did such a shitty job of it that he and he alone guaranteed that “revitaliz(ing) U.S. manufacturing” is one thing that’s NOT going to happen. At all.
There was no chance of tariffs alone bringing back any manufacturing, regardless of how firm of a position he took. The only way to bring manufacturing back would be through massive state intervention, the way manufacturing was originally developed in the US during WW2 period.
Mmm… I don’t disagree with that.
But the fact remains that by not providing any consistency upon which companies could plan, Trump destroyed any possibility of it right out of the gate.
You can disagree all you like, but there is no historical example of tariffs achieving any sort of industrialization on their own. The reality is that establishing factories, training workers, and building out supply chains requires stupendous amounts of capital investment and decades of effort to build out. No private investor is going to fund this sort of a venture because there’s no immediate profit in it, and long term situation will always be uncertain. It’s much easier to simply work around the tariffs of pass the cost down to the consumer.
In fact, we have a perfect recent example of this happening with western sanctions on Russian energy. These sanctions didn’t result in Europe developing clean energy industry, instead they simply resulted in a massive cost of living increase for the Europeans as a result of Russian energy being bought through intermediaries like India and Turkey.
WTF?
oh sorry reading fail on my part
Yeah - I realized after I posted that that was likely the case. Sorry if I came off as rude.
And yeah (again), I don’t disagree with any of that - the whole notion was pretty much doomed from the start.
I still think it’s both notable and funny though that Trump fucked it up so bad.
Honestly I deserved it, so don’t feel bad. Very much agree the whole thing has been hilarious to watch.
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