Anyone Notice Stiff Tariff Increases On Goods?

AllegroD wrote:

In a nutshell, NO ONE WINS except for the governing body that imposed the Tariff.
The consumers lose, businesses lose.

I do not find this to be entirely true. The statement only takes into consideration cheap importers. Tariffs either make the US products more competitive in the retail market or foreign goods less appealing as imports. Tariffs level the playing field for US competitors against countries like China who have no labor laws nor equitable labor practices. Tariffs are a tool to keep such countries from flooding an dominating the market and ruining US manufacturers. The US is not alone in this. Tariffs are used by many countries to protect their own manufacturers.

Umm..

No, not so.

Tariffs affect ALL businesses AND consumers IN THE COUNTRY THAT PLACED THE TARIFFS FOR ALL GOODS AND SERVICES.

By bumping up prices all we are doing is making circles in the sand, eventually spiraling our way into the mud.

You simply cannot TARIFF (TAX) your way into a prospering economy, many countries have tried this, China used to be one of the biggest offenders for hundreds of years with Tariffs. Even they found that keeping other countries out resulted in them being a backwater country and they have slowly reduced Tariffs on incoming goods..

Cheap imports actually makes a lot of lower cost items available to those WHO OTHERWISE CANNOT AFFORD IT!!!

Why do you think folks are trying to push $17 MINIMUM WAGES?

Not "everyone" can afford $10K loaded "MAC'S" tool box, but many folks can afford $200 worth of Harbor Freight tools and it will fill a good size tool box.

Sure HF quality can be a bit spotty but if you only need to use a few times they can be a great bargain. Heck, for $9.99 I can buy a throwaway 30 drill bit set at HF, buy just ONE NAME BRAND DRILL BIT at Lowes or Home Depot and you WILL pay just about $8 for ONE SMALL BIT and for large bits you better hold on to your hat.