this post was submitted on 01 May 2025
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He might be rude and orange... He might also have done all this with no plan, he might be driving up the cost of virtually everything, he might be driving many small businesses into bankruptcy, he might have created instability that's going to make everyone reluctant to start new businesses, he might have driven away all of America's trading partners, he might have handed the 21st century to China on a silver platter, he might have ended the dollar as the global reserve currency and all the perks that come with that... I could go on.
How much more damage will Republicans do to the US before enough people accept that, by and large, our manufacturing days are behind us? And that manufacturing leaving our shores is not the reason the working and middle classes are poorer than they used to be?
The tariffs were planned. Presidents generally roll out the 'eating your vegetables' policies in their second term. Of course its going to drive up prices, that is the point. The small business that start making domestic goods will make good money. The small businesses that just dropship crap from Temu and Alibaba will go out of business. The dollar was already disappearing as the global reserve currency before Trump.
We need to NOT accept that manufacturing is behind us. NEVER accept failure.
How is manufacturing being behind us failure, exactly? Does an engineer fail when they pay to eat at a restaurant? The service industry jobs that make up 3/4 of our GDP pay better than manufacturing jobs. Tariffs are like adding a restaurant tax to incentivize lawyers and doctors and engineers to cook at home.
Transitioning from low paying physical work to high paying mental work is success, not failure.
You assume service industry means everyone is doing high paying mental work? Not everyone is capable of being a doctor or a lawyer. For most people working in the "service industry" they are providing services to the upper class. Maids, waiters, cleaners, cooks, delivery drivers. We don't pay teachers living wages. The country only needs so many accountants. Anything tech or customer service related that can be outsourced is sent to India.
Just like a stock portfolio, the economy is healthier if it is diversified. That means we need to bring back manufacturing. Maybe then, people besides just lawyers, doctors, and engineers will be able to afford to go to a restaurant.
We have a diversified economy, including manufacturing. We have plenty of high tech, high skill manufacturing that pays well. There is no benefit to trying to claw back low low skill, low tech factory jobs that pay even less than teachers. No one's portfolio is healthier because they move their investments from blue chips and Treasury bonds to penny stocks and meme coins. Blind, non strategic diversification for the sake of diversification is dumb.