r/coolguides:

u/xander707

I mean cmon, its not like Trump has been president before and did impose hundreds of billions of dollars worth of tariffs. He continues to announce, memorandum, and EO tariffs on pretty much a weekly basis right now. You think hes gaining leverage but the reality is that he is turning our allies/partners against us, at OUR expense, isolating the US and priming a future Chinese hegemony because no matter what Trump may or may not gain in the short term, the long term consequences of his actions are clear; western democracies will find ways to shift away from their dependence on the U.S. for trade or alliance. Nothing good is going to come from Trump bullying our allies and raising the cost of living of Americans. Its a lose-lose game for everyone except our explicit adversaries.
u/xander707

Yes, you understand the basic principles of discourse. Trump/GOP plans to do something, people discuss how that something will be good or bad, and then we see if that something still happens or not. Trump has been very adamant about tariffs though. Im not sure why you would err on the side of him not doing the sole thing he entirely based his economic message and platform on since entering the political arena.
u/xander707

If your only counter-argument is hoping Trump wont follow through on his promises, youve really lost the plot. No, they havent been implemented; but as long as he keeps threatening or promising to do them, we are obligated to discuss and understand the impacts in the hope that rational heads find a way to convince conservatives to avoid driving the American economy off of a cliff. WE arent going to be ok if that doesnt happen.
u/xander707

No one said that it does but a tariff on China is not a tariff across the board on all imports from all nations. Trump has announced or threatened mass tariffs against China, Canada, Mexico, Japan, and EU, these nations are literally responsible for almost 90% of all American imports. Perhaps you think we will just shift all of our importing to Russia, and overnight. Now that’s a prime example of 3rd grade thinking. If another producer is making a profit at the price level they are now what does an increased market share do for them? That isnt how competition or corporate greed works. If an American widget is currently $50 and doing reasonably well against a Chinese widget thats $40, when that Chinese widget goes to $60 the American widget will respond by increasing to $55-59, still remaining cheaper than the tariffed product but increasing margins on top of increasing market share. This isnt hypothetical, this is a known impact of tariffs. And thats without going into the fact that the raw material imports used to make the few things that are genuinely manufactured in the US will cause those final US made products to go up in price regardless because the cost to manufacture increases, due to tariffs. Honestly you should just shut the fuck up because you really have no clue what you are talking about. But Im sure being clueless has never stopped you before and wont stop you now.
u/xander707

Significantly large Mass tariffs has to be factored in. And they will increase your cost of living no matter what buying choices you make. Much of the items and materials we import doesnt have direct American-made competition, and it takes a long time to shift supply chains or bring manufacturing back to America which likely wont happen at all, much less in the near future. You and I will be paying for these tariffs one way or another. Do some actual research on tariffs before spouting off 3rd grade level takes. They remove competition from the free market and lead to more expensive AND lower quality alternatives. If Chinese tariffed goods increase in price, alternative goods will raise their prices to whatever is still competitive against the new market bottom prices. Being frugal is not going to save anyone from the impacts of mass tariffs.