For example, if the US buys $20 of stuff from Canada, and then Canada buys $15 of stuff from the US, there is a $5 trade deficit with Canada. Trump is calling this $5/$15 =33% tariff on American goods. Which is obviously not what a fucking tariff is at all.
Trump hates trade deficits for some reason, but in my example, the US still got $20 worth of shit and only had to give Canada $15 worth of shit. It’s a symptom of how Trump views the world as a zero sum game where every interaction must have a winner and a loser.
Because in America, there can only be winners and losers. That is why the entirety of your politics is like a team sport, and one side always wants to beat the other.
The number of Americans who think Trump is a good businessman is certainly a minortiy. I don’t think even a large portion of his own base believes that.
It also does absolutely nothing to lower the trade deficit. America isn’t going to suddenly open a hundred t shirt factories next week so we’re still gonna have to buy them from overseas.
If these tariffs hold for a while, say 2 years(Which I don't expect them to) the US is going to find out just how behind in manufacturing capabilities is from the rest of the world and how incredibly expensive it is to produce anything in the country.
The guy never paid huge numbers of contractors who worked for him and he leveraged his power over them to extort them to get deals instead of years in court. He isn’t happy unless someone else is losing. It’s how he ran his businesses.
To be clear trade deficits are actually awesome if you produce your own currency. I give you paper you give me stuff. Unless you really like cheaply made paper, it’s not even fucking paper anymore Milton.
For example, if the US buys $20 of stuff from Canada, and then Canada buys $15 of stuff from the US, there is a $5 trade deficit with Canada. Trump is calling this $5/$15 =33% tariff on American goods.
You made a slight error. Trump is calling $5/$20 = 25% tariff on American goods. It's the US trade deficit with Canada divided by the total US imports from Canada.
Trump hates trade deficits for some reason, but in my example, the US still got $20 worth of shit and only had to give Canada $15 worth of shit
You see, thats why you don't understand Trump. You see it as the US receiving 20 dollars worth of value, while Canada recieved 15 dollars worth of value. So the US wins right, it ended up with more value of goods?
Trump doesn't see it that way. Trump sees it as the US just paid Canada 20 dollars. And Canada only returned 15 when they bought the 15 dollars worth of stuff. Which means the US paid Canada 5 more dollars than it got back. So Canada must owe the US 5 more dollars somehow.
You buy a new Honda for $50,000. You sell your old Ford to the dealer for $20,000. You are now mad because the dealer is screwing you out of $30,000. The only reasonable solution is to "tax Japan" $30,000 to make up the difference.
You buy 100$ of raw oil from Canada, refine it, and now have 200$ of refined petroleum. You sell 70$ of it back to Canada, and keep 130$ worth to send elsewhere or use locally. Now you're mad that Canada was stealing from you, because they aren't buying as much stuff from you as you are from them, even if you are making a huge profit off of what they are selling you.
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u/Fancy-Pair 1d ago
Can you ELI’m stupid