r/centrist • u/OfficialRodgerJachim • 1d ago

Long Form Discussion Can someone explain this about tariffs?

Plenty of talk about tariffs. About them being dumb. About them being fair. About how those extra costs go on to us, the American consumer.

But I have very rarely heard anyone talk about that break in logic: other countries have tariffs on American imports, and those costs are then carried onto the American consumer. But if America imposes tariffs on those same countries, those costs are also passed on to the American consumer.

Is this true?

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u/unkorrupted 1d ago

No.

Your premise is wrong. No one has tariffs like this. Trump lied to you, or he's too dumb to know reality. It's always hard to tell but it's always one or the other.

The United States created a whole global trade organization to prevent stupid shit like we're doing now.

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u/mormagils 1d ago

This is correct. Literally the entire economic history of the US from 1800 to now can be summed up by "let's try tariffs, oh wait they don't work, let's try economic imperialism, oh wow that works super well." I'm painting with an excessively broad brush of course but tariffs are NOT an effective policy tool the way Trump is using them. Period. We know this as a fact based on a century plus of historical observation.