Maybe dumb people who bought the Trump line on tariffs think that, but most people know it’s not true.

All the talk about bringing back manufacturing is just a smoke screen to cover the fact they’re intentionally tanking the economy so the oligarchs can buy the dip and get even richer when the economy recovers. That’s all it is.

I think the supply-chain issue is often forgotten about. Sure, we can open manufacturing businesses here to make whatever, but where do people think the materials will come from? Do they think we’ve had all the materials we need to manufacture goods here in America all along and we just haven’t been because everything is cheaper to make overseas? Just look at this list of major exports by country. Does the US have SOME of this stuff? Sure, but enough to make enough goods for US consumers on a regular, as-needed basis? No way. We will need raw materials, and there won’t be enough to go around.

The problem is you appear to have an IQ greater than that of 6 and so you’re probably not a MAGA supporter. Trying to apply logic to these idiots is a waste of time.

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If Nike shoes go from $200 to $300 from tariffs, there is a big opportunity for crossborder shopping in Canada or Mexico, where in Canada they would be $226. And then more opportunity to smuggle them with volume discounts for US ebay listings. A peer to peer smuggling network takes away from “backbone of retail economy”, and then lowers value of US official market such that making $300 shoes inside the US costs a big investment, and still loses to smuggling.

Apparel industry jobs tend not to be as glamourous as Boeing, Catterpillar, Deere jobs which are pretty much only US manufacturing export sector than defense. Losing export markets from hatred of US, doesn’t get replaced with good jobs in apparel, or exports of expensive US apparel.

There’s also a good chance that competing global brands take massive market share from US aligned companies, and less scale will mean less marketing budget.

It is a simple solution to a complicated problem. For a segment of society, it sounds good enough.

Assume that, for the first time in his life, Donald meant what he said. Pretend that he won’t change his mind or panic, and assume that the same GOP which keeps missing Speaker of the House election layups won’t break and let the Democrats take the tariff power away

The midterm congressional elections are always a swing to the other party. The Democrats are more likely to take at least one chamber of Congress than Trump is to say something dumb. But let’s assume that for some reason they only take one, and you get gridlock enough to preserve the tarrifs until the next POTUS takes office in January 2029.

A factory would need to break even by that time to be worth a quick investment. And not just break even, but leave you with more wealth than if you just bought a bunch of crypto and stayed home until this all passes. And if you signed an deal today, your break even points might be as soon as only 45 months away.

You can’t even get a car loan with a team that short.

Shawn Fain is the president of the United Auto Workers union. He successfully negotiated higher wages and better benefits for his member in 2023 after calling for and receiving authorization for a strike. He continues his efforts to unionize more shops and floated the idea that other unions have their contract expire in 2028 when the UAW contract expires.

He was on Meet the Nation this past week and when asked “Let’s start very simply on the question of tariffs on autos and auto parts. Fundamentally, and quite simply, why do you believe those are helpful for your membership?” This is what he said:

[A]ll you have to do is look at the history of the United States, especially in auto manufacturing in the last 30 years, with the inception of NAFTA and unfair trade laws. We’ve seen over 90,000 manufacturing facilities leave the United States. We’ve seen- in the Big Three alone, in the last 20 plus years, 65 plants have closed. You know- And so look, tariffs aren’t the total solution. Tariffs are a tool in the toolbox to get these companies to do the right thing, and- and the intent behind it is to bring jobs back here. And, you know, invest in the American workers. The American working class people have been left behind for decades, and they’re sick of it. You know, it’s a massive struggle. People are struggling just to get- to survive right now, to get by. And so, you know- you know- you know, there’s two parts to the tariffs though. I mean, the tariffs are a motivator. We have to fix the broken trade laws. And the other thing to me is, you know, these can’t just be just, you know, as with the Biden administration, when they did the stuff for battery work and EV work, we had to come in and say, no, these can’t just be union jobs or- or jobs. They got to be good paying union jobs that set standards. So the big part of this that gets left out a lot of times is, if they’re going to bring jobs back here, you know, they need to be life sustaining jobs where people can make a good wage, a living wage, have adequate health care and have a retirement security and not have to work seven days a week or multiple jobs, just a scrape to get by, paycheck to paycheck.

He goes on to agree with “Peter Navarro, a top adviser to the president on trade, says currently, automobile manufacturing plants are at about 60% capacity. He argues that there’s lots of untapped capacity, meaning jobs could be created relatively easy, and you didn’t have to need- you wouldn’t need to spend two or three or maybe five years building new factories.”

So I’m glad to hear that the UAW and their membership may be well positioned, but the increase in prices will result in inflation and that’s bad for all people including his members. Guess what we don’t buy when we aren’t sure how much groceries or everyday items will be … Cars? Yep. Cars.

Why would you move to the u.s, and have to pay tariffs to every other country, except for just one?

I agree, this is bad logic. That said, that’s not what I hear from the current regime when I hear them talking about tariffs. What I hear is them thinking this will force countries to lower barriers to Americans doing business abroad. Once those barriers are lowered, tariffs are reduced or go away altogether. For the record, I do not think this is good policy, but the intent of the policy (at lease as I read it) isn’t to suddenly move all manufacturing back to the United States.

only the trumpers think so, and no its not, its actually more expensive, you have to build up your own factories, manufacturing plants which cost billions and years to build, and luring TALENt, is going to be very difficult

Creating a single permanent job costs about 100k in investment. Any potential profits will only hold as long as the tariffs are in place, and as the tariffs are as volatile as Trump, nobody is going to spend that amount of money on an idiots folly.

Trumpers are actually dumb enough to believe that factories and jobs pop from the ground overnight and without any costs.

You can solve our issues with investment, like Democrats do. Our economy does better under Democrats than Republicans.

Republicans seem to think this is how things work and that may explain the consistent economic downturns you see under most Republican admin’s.

Until the American people figure this out, things will suck.

Democrats may not be your cup of tea, but it’s undeniable the country does better when Republicans are not in charge over the past century or so.

Not to mention any new factories will have drastically fewer jobs than the factories that left due to newer factories being highly automated. The cost of retrofitting existing factories has stopped many companies from upgrading to keep higher their quarterly profits for investors. If they are forced to build, they will invest in money saving long run cost savings like automation.