Jasper, Tariffs are a perfectly legitimate mechanism to help create balance in trade without imposing outright restrictions on imports. They are a good mechanism when used properly. This situation is however nothing like that.
Trump is attempting to change the entire taxation base of the US from income taxes to consumption taxes. The tariffs are a proxy for consumption taxes, ie levied on goods, components and materials as they enter the country but ultimately paid by US consumers when they buy the items. They chose tariffs because they could get most people to believe that the tariffs were not a tax on consumers but on foreign governments or foreign companies. That rhetoric has been very evident which is odd since its so obviously untrue.
By shifting the tax burden from income to consumption the average person who spends most or all of their income actually contributes more to the tax system (via tariffs) and wealthy people who already reinvest much of their income into investments pay much, much less. If your a billionaire and income taxes are replaced by consumption taxes then most of your taxes disappear and get much richer much faster whilst > 80% of the population goes backwards.
Its not hard to see why so many of the US's billionaires suddenly rallied behind him this time including those that previously opposed him.
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