Don’t let the name fool you…or that fool Donald Jackass Trump! Tariffs are import taxes! He or his fascist minions can call them anything they want, but that’s what they are. And who pays these taxes? Well, that’s the billion-dollar question, isn’t it!
Importers pay these taxes up front, so that the “fucking moron” is correct in saying those payments go into the government coffers, mostly to rich all Trump’s fascist friends. Importers can either eat these costs of importing (rarely, when the tariffs are high and long-lasting), or they pass the costs on to whole-sellers and/or consumers by jacking up the selling prices of the goods (the most common occurrence); if not to whole-sellers, then on to other sellers and/or consumers…and so on down the chain, and eventually to consumers. In the US, “consumers” means ordinary people who are fighting just to survive and maybe to get ahead.
We consumers can avoid those import taxes (which are often inflated by the time they reach our wallets—generally called “price gouging”) by not buying those imported items. That’s not always easy! To build a house, a contractor needs construction materials, so buyers and lessees pay the import taxes for places where they live and work. To survive and be healthy, one needs fruit and vegetables and other basic food supplies. Hard to do that when your basic meals are cheaply sorted so you don’t go broke (ah, aren’t those computer-controlled tags on the grocery shelves a wonderful invention?). Etc. Etc.
One consequence? Inflation of housing costs and family meals! To manufacture and ship a box of cereal to the grocery store, a manufacturer must pay for the raw materials—to make the product itself and its container. Even if the grocery store doesn’t raise its prices unilaterally, they’ll raise them to match those who do (more price gouging!). Why not? Same consequence: Inflation, inflation, inflation!
Even in a country where food and other goods are a lot less costly than in the US, housing and transportation are still necessities. Phones, computers, and so forth are too. But poor countries often play around with tariffs, arguing that they’re protection homegrown industries (a common justification from all fascist leaders like Trump). I saw that excuse all the time when I lived in Colombia, not as a rich American businessman or diplomat but like the average Colombian citizen there: Buying a new car was generally impossible because even a late-model used car cost more than most dwellings! There wasn’t any car manufacturing industry to protect in Colombia, just a greedy government whose officials wanted to become rich enough to import their Mercedes and BMWs.
Fascists love tariffs especially for that reason: It’s the old tale of robbing from the poor to enrich those who rule. Narcissus le Grand and his fascist mafia henchmen (and women!) are no exceptions. Tax the poor; make those in power become richer! That’s been the motto ever since Ugh took over the tribe and stole from its members to enrich himself. (Except for his ET-like orange skin, Trump is just a modern Ugh—a boorish psychotic sociopath the American people stupidly put in charge of their affairs…for a second time!).
Modern fascism has perfected the Sheriff-of-Nottingham autocratic governing model. That’s why when fascist leaders get their claws on a country they are often in power for the rest of their lives (that sometimes are short, thank God!) Will we be that lucky with our mafia Don? I doubt it. Welcome to the Fascist States of America, the land of the tariffs! And other atrocities the fascists love!