A tariff is defined as a financial instrument imposed by a government as a tax to produce revenue for the economic engine. Tariffs can be a fixed percentage, or variable, based on the rate or quota of the designated items. Ostentatiously, a government levies a tariff to produce income for the GNP or reduce the traffic a foreign item generates in the economic cycle. Politicians say a tariff protects intrinsic industries from foreign competition that monopolizes or undermines retail prices. In Wikipedia, the authors declare that tariffs are overt protectionism and undermine free competition. The result of a tariff summates as consumers pay more for their products and less is bought because they cannot be afforded. Foreign countries simply add the tariff to the price of their commerce.
We the people see a tariff as a thumb in a leaking dam that only delays the inevitable. Why in the first place were the manufacture of goods outsourced to a country that pays low wages and has their citizens work in sweatshops? Why in the name of ethos do we, an enlightened and chosen people let non-democratic foreign governments exploit their people so the twenty percent at home can harvest kickbacks and profit that normally and necessarily would never happen? From a statistical point of view, the most efficient way to vote in a contest or game is to go with the money. At least that is what the oddsmakers in Vegas tell me. It always is the money.
Where is the tariff money going? Does the government expense the money to the social security system? Does the government use the funds to replace aging infrastructure? The consumer eventually pays for the tariff because the added costs tack on to the retail price of the item in question, and this is poignant for citizens who are addicted to foreign electronics. Does the tariff apply to subsidize local hard industries and businesses associated with national security? We the people have a right to know what the government does.
The myriad of container ships crossing the Pacific Ocean laden with goods and contraband make landfall in California. The volume of traffic is impossible to police. Is outsourcing merely a ploy of organized crime to bamboozle the authorities with volume like the British did to the Axis powers before they stole the enigma device? Is outsourcing making foreign warlords incredibly wealthy and causing the employment of a tariff that mainly benefits old money and politicians? Who pays the United States of America to police foreign waters so the decadent warlords can exploit their people in safety and avoid an overthrow or revolution? Do all the trading partners pay the United States government for protection, so their heroin and illegal guns make landfall in a safe place? We the people want a piece of the action and we want it deposited in the social security bank account.
The twenty percent are well connected. Most of them are related by marriage or money. An inheritance tax is not a luxury tax. Isn’t it more reasonable to tax second homes, second cars, boats, planes, and rocket ships and have a progressive income tax without a cap, so the rest of us can afford to live in peace in our own homes? We want a flat tax so the twenty percent cannot annotate endless deductions. A tariff may help our heavy industries but it is merely Hans Christian Anderson holding his thumb in the dike. A tariff is not a panacea to our economic woes. A tariff is merely a ploy by a politician seeking to bolster popular support from people who mostly do not have an education in economics or management. Most people do not have an education in business administration, We the people deserve the right to know what is being done to us without stuttering or explanation. No one wants their son or daughter to die in a war to save a decadent foreigner who does not believe in God.
My grandfather said that if you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problems, so intrepid Americans with push must strive to right the multitude of wrongs that affect humanity. And us mostly!
Make America first.