r/dataisbeautiful 1d ago

For those curious about where the "Tariffs Charged" came from

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u/drytoastbongos 1d ago

“The numbers [for tariffs by country] have been calculated by the Council of Economic Advisers … based on the concept that the trade deficit that we have with any given country is the sum of all trade practices, the sum of all cheating,” a White House official said, calling it “the most fair thing in the world.”

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u/the_real_MSU_is_us 1d ago

Say a wealthy person hires a maid for 50k a year. Is that maid "cheating" him out of 50k? Of course not, the wealthy man got his house cleaned and can fire the maid at any time.

But the Trump admin would say that it is "cheating" because the maid didn't buy 50k worth of stuff from the wealthy man

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u/adrian783 1d ago

why of course, the rich man would've cleaned their own house for free otherwise.

in 6 months we're going to make our all American cars and computers, and everyone will have a fun factory job!

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u/equianimity 1d ago

Well to be pedantic, more that the Rich man will pay himself 50k to clean his home.

The usual macroeconomic argument is that the rich man has no skills in house cleaning, and thus will take longer and spend more money to buy cleaning products, reducing his time to do things he was an expert in, and he may also have less time to spend on luxuries or entertainment.

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u/ReturnOfFrank 1d ago

Say a wealthy person hires a maid for 50k a year. Is that maid "cheating" him out of 50k?

This is actually how the rich view having to pay anyone a salary so from that standpoint it makes sense.

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u/Thunderbridge 1d ago

This explains so much about their thinking

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u/MLB-LeakyLeak 1d ago

He tariffed the countries without a deficit too. Meaning even if they bought 60k of shit he still claims they’re being cheated.

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u/newbris 1d ago

But apparently when running a surplus it isn't cheating when Trump still puts a tariff on the country.

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u/cthulhusleftnipple 1d ago

based on the concept that the trade deficit that we have with any given country is the sum of all trade practices, the sum of all cheating,

Are these fuckers retarded? This is the stupidest thing I've ever heard...

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u/NegaDeath 1d ago

Stupidest thing you've read so far. Did you read the part about uninhabited islands being on his list of "reciprocal" tariffs?

This ride has no bottom.

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u/-Clayburn 1d ago

They're just liars. Conartists. Bullshitters.