THE GREAT TARIFF BRUHAHA
Are tariffs good or bad? It all depends...
Many years ago, a friend and mentor put his arm around my shoulder and said, “Ron, in life you should always ask yourself three questions: One, what do I want? Two, what do I have to do to get it? And three, is it worth it to me?”
These same three questions can be applied to the tariff issue that is currently causing a bit of a stir in America.
A tariff is a tax imposed by a country on imports coming from another country. Its purpose is to exert influence on the tariffed country, to raise revenue for the country imposing the tariff, and, critically, to protect from foreign competition the essential domestic industries of the country imposing the tariff. With few exceptions - most of them theoretical - tariffs raise prices to consumers.
Is this good or bad? It depends on what target you’re shooting at…
For Americans as a people to get a correct and productive perspective on tariffs, they are first collectively required to answer this question: Do we want strong and impregnable national security, or do we want to pay the lowest possible price for the goods and services we consume from day to day? If we set national security as the top priority, we cannot expect to pay the lowest possible prices for all goods and services. Conversely, if our collective goal is to enjoy the lowest possible prices for what we buy, then we will certainly lose critical manufacturing capacity to lower-cost foreign competitors and thus must be willing to settle for second-class, increasingly vulnerable national security - or worse. The two goals - strong national security and lowest consumer prices - are mutually exclusive. You can’t have your cake and eat it, too.
To the layman, tariffs may seem complex and opaque at first glance. But not really. The simple economic reality that we Americans and our President, Donald Trump are dealing with is that we can seek either the low prices for the goods and services we consume - which requires as much as possible an international free trade policy and a willingness to export some or all of our critical manufacturing capacity wherever in the world those cheapest prices can be obtained (i.e., China), or, alternatively, pursue a trade policy that is focused on national security - a policy intended to maintain and secure domestically all resources and manufacturing capabilities essential to a strong national security. We have in the past pursued the former course. Trump is determined to pursue the latter.
One can simply ask this question: If America found itself in another world war (is any reader so naive as to think this will never again happen?), which essential resources and manufacturing capabilities would we want to have control of and ready access to within our own borders? These days that clearly would include heavy industry, steel, aviation, shipbuilding, military manufacturing, munitions, energy, AI, electronics, semiconductors, pharmaceuticals (my life currently depends on a drug made exclusively in China), etc.
Repatriating, building up and protecting such essential industries on American turf is exactly the focus and intent of Trump’s tariff-based economic policy. He has obviously opted for and, incredibly, in just a few weeks, is well on his way to achieving an unassailably secure national economy possessing on our own soil all the resources and manufacturing capabilities necessary to protect the country in a dangerous and volatile world. At the same time, Trump's tariffs do pose an obvious and direct threat to the former lowest-price trade policies of the past.
No free lunch. Take your pick. You want strong national security? You’ve got to pay for it - all of us.
The former mindset - the free trade lowest-price mentality that has been the driver of US trade policy for generations - is necessarily characterized by the grossly naive expectation, supported nowhere in history, that peaceful days of international cooperation will continue forever, that tyrants will never again arise, that the horrors of war will never again be inflicted on the world, and that individual nations will never again be thrown back on their own in-house resources. This is the parable of the ants and the grasshopper revisited.
If we want to reestablish and maintain America as the 800-pound gorilla on the international stage - a role our Founders knew this country - their “shining city on a hill” - was destined to play - we must be willing to pay the price. The hard and unforgiving laws of economics require us to make a choice. So, what’ll it be - cheap prices or fortress America?
Unassailable national security is obviously Trump's objective - and I, for one, fully support him in that goal. I also suspect former presidential candidate Patrick Buchanan - who wrote "Suicide of a Superpower" some years back - is also a Trump supporter these days and must be cheering in his supergenarian rocking chair as DJT works vigorously to rebuild our long-flagging national security profile. No more “superpower suicide” under Trump.
Fortunately, with Trump and his team in the driver's seat - placed there thanks to a loud shout of acclamation from the "vox populi" - we now have a real shot at rebuilding our national security, reestablishing American dominance and respect in the world, and truly making America great again - after the treasonous destruction imposed on the nation by the illegitimate, election-stealing, lawless, seditious, thoroughly corrupt Joe Biden and his America-hating regime.
Accordingly, all the complaining and nit-picking about tariffs is entirely beside the point. Understood in the context of our essential national security concerns, the objections are "all sound and fury, signifying nothing". Along with his creative tax policies, Trump’s tariffs and/or his threats of tariffs are already working their magic - drawing back into the country massive financial resources and all manner of essential industries - steel investment from Japan, cutting-edge semiconductor manufacturing from Taiwan, rare earth minerals from Ukraine, communications technology from Apple, shipbuilding, etc.
Sunshine warriors and summertime patriots? Don't want temporarily or even long-term to pay a bit more for this and that in the cause of rebuilding our national security? Why not just get out? How about you head for Canada or Mexico or China? Or how about somewhere in Europe where free speech is an inconvenience and you'll have to keep your mouth shut if you don't agree with the official narrative?
Right vs. wrong, truth vs. lies, reality vs. fantasy, knowledge vs. ignorance, law vs. lawlessness, justice vs. injustice, liberty vs. tyranny, order vs. chaos, light vs. darkness, good vs. evil, happiness vs. misery, God vs. the Godless…
If you can be fooled, you will be…
Torquemada