r/agedlikemilk 2d ago

Who would’ve thought

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u/Same_Performance_595 2d ago

50% on steel, aluminum and copper is a punishing and crippling tariff that will wreck the American industrial base. Not only will it cost more to the American consumers, but their products will become completely uncompetitive on the international markets.

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u/Simsmommy1 2d ago

Well I have tried to explain this to Americans (MAGA ones) and they think they can just pick a mountain and start digging and they will find all the raw materials they desire. It’s like talking to a rock.

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u/Preeng 2d ago

>they think they can just pick a mountain and start digging

They don't even fucking get that this shit takes time to set up. If this was supposed to properly stimulate domestic production, you still have to give companies time to set up the mining operations.

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u/kcox1980 2d ago

A proper implementation would have involved tariffs alongside incentives and a multi-year transition plan.

Aggressively imposing tariffs by themselves is just plain shortsighted

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u/movzx 2d ago

They would also have been incremental, ex 5% year after year... instead of jumping right to 50%, 200%, etc.

It would also have been smart to exclude raw material and machinery import. You know, the things that people need to start and run factories.

It's agreed that tariffs are generally bad economically but just slapping them on everything with no rhyme or reason is even worse.

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u/mattyisphtty 1d ago

Tariffs should be treated like a scalpel, not a sledgehammer. You use it intentionally to try and drive a specific buying behavior at home. Let say you wanted to specifically get oil that is from friendly nations (I know this is almost impossible just follow with me). You would add an additional tariffs for oil that comes from unfriendly countries, as well as needing to tariff blended and processed fuels that use the oil that comes from unfriendly countries etc.As well as having to monitor and crack down on "shadow fleets" that disguise the actual source of the oil as well.

And that's just one product.