i don’t think you understand what tariff is and how it works. say there is some american made goods, it costs 10 usd. and here is the chinese equialent, it costs 5 usd, for seemingly similar product.
majority of people will buy the 5 usd product, because “they are not dumb, right” TM
you subject that chinese product to 5 usd import tax - now both of them cost 10 and you can as well buy the home made made one.
yes, it is more expensive for you.
but on the other hand your neighbour now may have a job he didn’t before and can buy service you provide, so you will also end up with more money.
and the state still has that 5 usd which, hopefully, it will invest wisely to further increase the general well being of the population (don’t laugh, i know. but if they don’t, that’s not problem of the economic principal)
and when one day china says “no more products for you, unless you bow to winnie the pooh here”, you may say “fuck you, we are actually manufacturing the product at home and we are not going to starve without you”
the last part, the self sufficiency, is the most important. my country officials were bowing and saluting to china cargo planes carrying masks and syringes during covid and there were real fear they if they did not, the plane might not have landed. and being dependent on china, which is euro-atlantic civilization’s geopolitical enemy is not smart long term strategy.
Ideally that’s how it works. Economics are rarely of ever ideal and tariffs statistically do not end up working as ideal.
Except, more likely, there are few available competitors to the tarriffed product and now the consumer covers the increased cost. Meanwhile, local alternatives, where they are available, price up because, well they had market when the pre-tarrif import was available and their own delta was what it was, so they can push the price up to just capture more profit with the same or still larger market, depending on the good.
The point is that deploying the sort of policy is incredibly tricky in the best of circumstances, and still likely to do more harm than help. And that you think, of all people, someone as very obviously stupid as Trump is capable of threading that needle is beyond baffling.
