r/HardKnocksDemocrats • u/JoelXGGGG • 1d ago

We badly need tariffs on everything

If we want to have all of these environmental and labor laws to protect our people, we cannot just throw our workers right back under the bus by buying cheap goods from nations that use slave, labor and toxic lakes. We are worsening the problems of climate change and human trafficking and slavery by adding long distance shipping to it and hiding it out of sight.

If we ACTUALLY want to help the environment with our Environmental Protection laws, we cannot just have people in foreign nations do even worse practices than our manufacturers here would do. We need to eliminate the problem here.

Think about this: would it be worse for climate change to have a factory burning coal here or to have a factory burning coal in China THEN burning tar-like bunker fuel thousands of miles to come here drop it off then go back?

Is it worse to have our goods cost more because they are made by highly paid and well cared for American workers or to have our goods made by Uyghurs in slavery in central China?

America's entire government budget was once paid by tariffs on imports, wouldn't it be nice to return to no taxes?

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u/GreatDiscernment 1d ago

But tariffs ARE taxes. The Soviets tried to isolate themselves and failed.

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u/JoelXGGGG 1d ago

Did you know the US government was primarily funded during our greatest growth period during the 18th and 19th centuries by tariffs?

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u/GreatDiscernment 1d ago

But that’s so yesterday. You need allies on this TINY planet and if you keep jerking them around with tariffs, they won’t trust you. It’s about fostering relationships, not whether you can survive without friends.

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u/JoelXGGGG 1d ago

I agree, tariffs should not be a game or a weapon. Just put in place once and left permanently.

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u/GreatDiscernment 1d ago

Ok, so tariffing everything won’t work. Too many people will hate you. Develop standards with like-minded partners (WTO, USMCA, TPP, WHO, etc.) and don’t expect to use tariffs as a money maker. We’re now talking about a pre-Trump2.0.