WALL OF TEXT: TARIFFS

WALL OF TEXT: TARIFFS. It’s a rare and wonderful thing for a president’s policy to have such an immediate effect. Usually when an administration makes a decision, it takes a decade to see the effect, and by then the opposing party can just blame whoever is in power. Not so this time. As soon as Trump enacted tariffs, prices went up, and for what? Who is getting that money? Who benefits? Courts have already ruled them illegal, and yet we’re still doing them. Corporations have raised prices on everything. It’s exactly what world leaders told Trump would happen if he did this because tariffs work both ways. Whatever weapon you wield against your opponent they can wield against you, too. We feel the effect, and do we benefit? I think even Trump’s voting base thinks this is crap. Tariffs aren’t bringing industry back to the US. They’re only compelling them to raise prices. Let’s look to the future. When Trump is out of office, will the next administration get rid of the tariffs, and if so, what incentive do companies have to lower prices? We haven’t talked about prices going down in many, many years. What forces exist for that to happen? Has rent ever decreased? What incentive to landlords have to lower rent? What incentive do giant corporation who only answer to shareholders have to lower prices? Competition is alleged to be the check on companies raising prices, but we don’t have competing companies anymore. We have a handful of oligopolies who cooperate to keep prices high because shareholders benefit. Let’s be clear about this: prices do not need to rise. These corporations do not operate on the razor edge of profitability. They could cut prices in half and nobody at the top would suffer. It’s only because they must make money for people who do not work that prices go up. Public outcry may well be the only way we see prices go down once the tariffs are gone. If they’re gone. They’re generating money for someone, though who that is remains unclear.