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PaperclipPerfector  20d ago (text post)   33274 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of March 31, 2025

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It's really unconvincing that all the arguments for tariffs I see are so contradictory. It's "Hey we can have our cake and eat it too!". You can't use them as a negotiation tool that gets lowered, a consistent tool to reduce imports and build up local supply chains, and a reliable means of taxation all at the same time.

Given I started with a list of dangers to tariffs I'm not sure why you think my post was an unmitigated endorsement for tariffs. I enumerated potential dangers and benefits. Not all outcomes can or will be realized. Tariffs "can" be used to raise revenue. Tariffs "can" be used for statecraft. It is unlikely that they can be used for both, especially long-term.

You have to be extremely dominant that international corporations will choose you exclusively over the rest of the world combined and you need some way to assure them that it won't be undone anytime soon.

The US is rather dominant. The world wants access to our markets.

Just imagine a world where all countries want everything done on their own land and they all enact high tariffs. We'll just have a less efficient system where everyone tries to achieve autarky and then we'll wait for another Adam Smith to come around and tell us all that this is stupid and we should just trade with each other.

And yet most countries already have protectionist policies. If we can use tariffs to push the rest of the world to a more efficient system (by forcing everyone else to give up their protectionist policies in exchange for us dropping tariffs), I'm assuming that would be a good thing in your eyes? (I'm not saying Trump will do this, but it is one way to use tariffs).

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