Tariffs are a consumption tax on the middle calls and don’t bring jobs. Tariffs make the rich even richer at the expense of the middle class. As history in many countries, including the USA, Germany, and China teaches us, government funding of education and innovation bring jobs.
In his address to Congress, Trump said the Golden Gate Bridge was a great example of the USA as builders and innovators. What he failed to say, because he’s an ignoramus, is that the Golden Gate Bridge was built through government funding, not private enterprise, during FDR’s great period of using a socialist-capitalistic model of government for building US exceptionalism and creating jobs.
The notion that tariffs can restore American manufacturing jobs is a persistent yet flawed belief among right-wing, undereducated, middle-class Republican. Historical data and new computer models yield important evidence. The U.S. imposed aggressive tariffs on steel and aluminum under the previous Trump regime, yet manufacturing employment remained largely unchanged. Trump’s tariffs on aluminum and steel also raised the prices of the two metals, and hurt those industries that are dependent on buying steel and aluminum. Between the Trump years of 2018 and 2020, manufacturing jobs in the U.S. increased by just 0.5 per cent, despite billions in tariffs, but these tariffs do increase inflation, which the middle class pays. The first Trump regime imposed tariffs on thousands of products valued at approximately $380 billion in 2018 and 2019, amounting to one of the largest tax increases in decades. Again, these tariffs are a consumption tax, which drastically affects the middle class who are the main consumers. Wealthy business owners and stock holders on the hand, profit from tariffs. But middle-class Republicans, who tend to be non-college educated and very religious, are raised to believe conservative authority figures, and they believe their newly elected authority figure, Donald Trump, that tariffs are great for them. Little do they know that Trump will be picking their pockets and filling his.
Michael Keating, an economist writing for John Menadue’s Public Policy Journal, points out that U.S. manufacturing employment has been in decline since 1979 (but not true in California), yet manufacturing production has remained strong, especially in California. This disconnect highlights the real issue: it’s not that jobs are going overseas—it’s that fewer jobs are needed due to technology. As Robert Atkinson, president of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF), explains: “Tariffs are a political placebo. They don’t cure the disease; they only distract from the real issue—automation is replacing jobs, not China.” If the data are so clear, why do tariffs remain a political tool? Because they create the illusion of economic protection. In reality, they often accelerate offshoring, disrupt supply chains, and increase costs for domestic manufacturers.
Automation doesn’t have to cut jobs: Reskilling the US workforce for automation
- Germany has successfully integrated automation without mass layoffs by heavily investing in apprenticeship programs.
- South Korea leads the world in robot adoption per worker, yet maintains a robust manufacturing workforce due to upskilling initiatives.
- California is the leading technology innovation hub and has the world’s greatest university system (University of California) to train these workers, and importantly, create the new technologies.
Tariffs and the great economic divide: Offloading taxes to the middle classR
So if tariffs don’t work, why is Trump implementing them? To support tax cuts for the wealthy. It’s that simple. Cut taxes to the wealthy, as Trump did in 2017, and then increases taxes on the middle-class – as Trump did in 2017. And middle-class Republicans still vote for him!! So now, the new Republican bills will cut more taxes on the wealthy, and to make up for the lost revenue from millionaires and billionaires, you place tariffs so that you can tax the middle-class, thus making up for the lost revenue from billionaires. The tariffs don’t bring jobs, they just place more taxes on the people that do have jobs- the middle class.
Manufacturing good, innovative products increases jobs
When Martin Eberhard (U. Illinois grad) and Mark Tarpenning (UC Berkeley grad), two engineers, founded Tesla in Berkeley, CA (Martin was born in Berkeley and Martin and Marc were both living there at the time) and developed all of the cars up until the Cybertruck, Tesla was an innovative company and in short order was selling cars throughout the world. Their manufacturing plant in Freemont, CA was greatly expanding year by year. Their cars were desired though out the world, including Germany and China. They didn’t succeed based on tariffs; they did succeed with the help of government subsidies and other programs by both California, Illinois, and the US Federal Government.
Why is California the leading manufacturing state in the USA and growing every year? It’s not because of tariffs; it’s because of government support, especially by the State of California. Yes, there are many other factors, but California is the world’s leader in higher education and because of this key reason, the state is the world’s innovation leader and creator of new high-tech and high-tech related jobs. As these new companies innovate and bring new technologies to the market, California educates those people needed in the new high-tech jobs. New York and Massachusetts also do a good job at this, and, of course, China’s success is now based on its highly educated people. But China lacks the freedoms we have here in California and therefore doesn’t innovate as well at the market level. If Trump doesn’t interrupt the great success of the State of California, we’ll remain in the technology lead. However, being as ignorant and belligerent as he is, I think the USA is in deep trouble and he’ll cripple California. Let’s hope I’m wrong.
Stem Cells, Health, Technology 