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Invisible hand forces prices down.

If tarrifs on imported goods are high then people choose non imported goods (which might be substitutes for goods which can’t be made in America) as there are no tarrifs.

They are dangerous though. If country A stops selling to US it sells cheaper to other countries. It also stops importing from the US (and chooses subsidies).

Overall everyone loses out - at least in theory, as everyone uses worse substitutes.



If non imported goods were price competitive with imported goods then tariffs won't be needed in the first place. Tariff's are there for artificially force imported good to be more expensive so the previous more expensive domestically produced products become price competitive.


And if the tariff is set too high domestic goods will become more expensive as well as there'd be no reason for a domestic manufacturer to charge substantially less than the price of the imported goods.


Two domestic manufacturers compete to get more customers by reducing prices, price trends to cost.

All tarrifs do is remove foreign competition who have lower costs for a variety of reasons, some which benefit the country imposing the tariff, some not.

Neoliberal approach is to always require the cheapest goods, no matter the cost. That’s not the only approach.


Right because removing competition generally reduce prices overall? Even if domestic producer compete with each other, prices still go up overall.


Two domestic manufacturers compete to get more customers by reducing prices

Which is hard to do when the idiots in charge place tariffs on the raw materials that both manufacturers rely on.

That wasn't my first clue that a rational and charitable interpretation of the Trump tariffs doesn't exist, but it was a big one.




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