this post was submitted on 07 Apr 2025
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Something like sixth or seventh generation American. How dare I desire a setup where other nations exploit us less?!
Welcome to Lemmy. It sounds like you either come from a place of extreme privilege or you're not actually sure how the tariffs will affect the people.
The idea behind the tariffs is fine. They want to drive union Members (fun fact, did you know that that's how the founding fathers referred to citizens?) to buy and trade locally. However, many of the products we use in our day to day life come from industries that don't exist in the US yet, and it will take years to create the required infrastructure and factories and farm land in order to create those industries.
Effectively, the tariffs would have been fine. If the US had actually been prepared to take care of itself. But it's not, and it won't be for a long time. So, the tariffs only exist as an extra tax right now.
Dead broke son of a low middle class family. There's no privilege here. I'm not here for political debates. Ultimately, I'm here for gaming (particularly of the retro variety), open source software, Linux, that kind of stuff. That being said, I am going to say this much.
Unlike other comments here, I actually do somewhat agree with what you're saying in the sense that it's gonna be a little harder because we don't have those industries here at home. The problem is, if we didn't take drastic action, we were just gonna continue on the current path. Countless properties, companies, and assets are owned by foreign companies. If we don't put tariffs on the countries that are already tarriffing us hard, then we would just continue the cycle of economic failure.
Moreover, we're seeing plenty of foreign countries already caving to these tariffs. Sure, you might see bigger ones like China resisting for a while, but it's not going to last very long. They don't have enough economic power to be completely self-sufficient, especially considering the fact that the majority of their wealth has been made on our expense. Without America buying up all the cheap crap that their corporations peddle, their economy will fall apart. What they need to realize is that if they want to be economic partners with our country, they're going to have to pay their fair share.
Honestly, that whole concept just seems like common sense to me. If another country is going to do business with us, they should have to be conducting fair business and not taking advantage of us at every turn.
At the end of the day, much like a majority of political discourse on the Fediverse, I'm pretty certain it just boils down to a shared hatred of our current president. And honestly, I just find that very sad. It's one thing to have an objective perspective or to at least try to have an objective perspective. That's why, of all of these comments, yours is the one I'm replying to. But in general, the main reason I'm not replying to the others (other than the fact that I don't want to waste time on politics) is that they are already showing their colors and I know for a fact that I could not have a proper adult discussion with them even if I tried.
I think you're bringing up good points about important issues. However, what the current US administration is doing doesn't seem to solve any of those problems in any capacity. In fact, the previous administration did a lot more on that front, without collapsing the entire global economy at the same time. Also, as some other comments pointed out, almost nobody on the planet is 'caving in' to the tariffs. The vast majority of the world is simply cutting trade with the US wherever possible, resulting in Americans paying several times more for various goods, for no apparent reason or benefit.