Note to self: Never underestimate Donald Trump!

We think in terms of 4-year election cycles. China thinks in terms of four millennia of history...
This game of Mahjong ain't over quite yet,,,

I'm downvote you, not because if what you said, but because of the color of your text. Please learn the contrasting color scheme in art class.

They probably banned The Art of War over there at some point to.

the image is ai bc of the letters on the book's spine, but he might have actually read it. i read how to get rich last summer and it was a good read

If by "never underestimate", you mean, "never underestimate how impossibly stupid he is", you're right.

No one should forget that he is impossibly stupid.

I mean, claiming that tariffs will raise $6 trillion dollars AND bring back manufacturing is objectively stupid.

Ah, so you haven't thought it through. Okay. Well, let me get you started. Trump has claimed that his tariffs will raise $6 trillion. Why and how?

Because the American consumer will have to pay the inflated prices. It's not the business or the manufacturer that pays the tariff. It's the consumer.

But because the imported goods cost so much now, Americans will buy less, right? What does that mean? it means the tariff's won't be raising $6 trillion.

Unless American's continue to buy the same goods at the inflated rates until the manufacturer can move operations over here, right? But if Americans are buying at the same rate but at higher prices, why would the manufacturer move operations? To avoid the tariff? Why? They don't pay it. Americans do.

So... explain to me how these tariffs can raise $6 trillion AND move manufacturing here to the States. Use as many charts and graphics as you feel necessary.

No, they'll buy American and the manufacturer pays the tariff.

Okay. You think manufacturer's pay the tariff? Imagine you are the owner of a manufacturing firm. One of the countries you sell your product in announces you will be subject to a 100% tariff.

Do you

A: suck up the cost and continue to sell your product at the same price?

B: raise your price to cover the tariff and you continue to make money?

The answer is B. So...who paid that tariff? The consumer.

So, if you can sell your product in that country at that markup why would you move? You won't. It doesn't make sense to move. You're still selling. You continue to make money.

but let's say that you move your production inside the country. And somehow every single one of your suppliers does too. And their suppliers. Everyone moves their production inside that country.

Now no one is paying that tariff. Which means it can't raise the $16 trillion. Because no one is paying.

The tariff's can't raise money AND bring manufacturing to the US. It's impossible.

The answer is B but then people stop buying your goods and you have to make the choice to eat some of the tariffs or lose profitability. Alternatively you can move to the US and save enough on costs by not paying the tariff to remain competitive.

And all of their vendors & suppliers will have to move into the US too. Otherwise, the american consumer is still paying tariff tax from importing all those materials.

Exactly the man is a genius!

No. He's an idiot.

Flagged.

I'm fine with no taxes on businesses as it gets passed on to the consumer anyway.
Also the cost of building a factory in the US is offset just by the savings in the tariffs.

Again, they don't pay the tariff. The consumer pays it.

It's like he thinks by repeating it it's supposed to convince others.
He's been corrected on this for months, the error is deliberate.

Nope. I'll leave you to look into the average square foot cost of building a production facility in the U.S. For scale, keep in mind that a 10k square foot facility is only 100 feet on a side, most manufacturing plants require hundreds of thousands of square feet, the build cost doesn't include internals like processing machinery or administrative space.

Yes, and they make it all back in less than a year.

Nope. And here's why: the company just ate millions of dollars in capital expenditure. They had to get that money from somewhere; maybe it came from a bank, maybe from their reserves -either way, doesn't matter. They're now operating at a disadvantage and the shareholders, debt-holders, coffer refills come first. Add to that they now have to make a choice concerning where they source their materials; if from imports, tariffs, if from domestic sources, lower prices (maybe) relative to the tariffed source but still far higher than their original materials costs. On top of that, now they're also paying domestic labor rates.

The solution? They're obligated to hike their prices to meet the new financial burden and maintain their profit margin. Oh, but there's a problem with doing that --price hikes drive away customers. And when companies already operating at a loss drive away customers by hiking prices in an attempt to re-capitalize, they invariably either downsize (layoffs, reduced product output), or they collapse so either way, they're not making that money back in less than a year. And depending on how marketable their product was to begin with, assuming they don't declare bankruptcy and close up shop, they may not make it back for multiple years.

Right- the consumer stops buying so many goods because of the inflated prices. 1) Because American's aren't buying imported goods no $6 trillion in tariff tax income.

Then what happens? Because consumers are spending less, prices have to go up on local goods in order to maintain profitability. So now consumers are paying more for imported AND domestic goods. Which means they spend even less.

That's when the small businesses that lived in the margins go out of business. Unemployment goes up. Now even less money is being spent. and the failure cascades up. Resulting in a recession.

How do I know that?

Because it's literally happened every other time we've tried tariffs. And, yes, we've done this twice before. But I guess 3rd time is the charm because this time math doesn't math the same way anymore?

No, the point of the tariffs is to bring other countries to the negotiating table to reach zero tariffs (and other manipulations) on all sides. Once this happens, America can compete on quality and China can compete on cheapness, and everyone wins as prices will go down and jobs will go up in the US.
In the meantime other countries are no longer allowed to cheat America out of money.

And that 3rd thing also can't be true either. We can tell because he announced tariffs on islands only inhabited by penguins and one that is only inhabited by the US Navy.

He thought he could force the world to charge less money, but then he found out that was a bad idea when the stocks AND the bond market started collapsing.

Then he has to do "um, well, what my genius plan was all along..."

Sure, Donny, you meant to do that. Sure you did.

He announced tariffs on penguin islands because they like to try to bypass the tariffs by claiming that as point of origin rather than China.

Your little meme tells me you don't understand negotiating and compromise. He's doing those things Because they are coming to the negotiating table.

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Bring it home MAGA.
Lol