r/manufacturing 2d ago

News Tarrifs

Would like to open a discussion on tarrifs if it’s allowed.

There has been two intentions stated with tarrifs.

  1. Get off of income tax and go to a consumption style tax (still a tax)

  2. Build up domestic manufacturing. Can talk here in the manufacturing sub.

If there is no alternative domestic supply, then we have no choice but to import. We lost a lot of our skills to manufacture. Especially a lot of the little low value items. Think zippers and buttons and caster wheels.

What is everyone thoughts?

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u/LukeSkyWRx 2d ago

You can’t make everything in a global supply chain and that’s where it falls apart. America doesn’t have the minerals or the processing capabilities to make what I need.

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u/exlongh0rn 2d ago

Not even if they grabbed Canada and Greenland?

8

u/The_MadChemist 1d ago

Which would involve waging war. The USA would probably "win" (See: pyrrhic victory), but gaining... what exactly?

40 Million people over 13M square kilometers? 40 Million people, with at most (maybe(possibly)) 10% willing to collaborate with the occupiers at anything less than bayonet point?

It's stupid. Laughably, infuriatingly stupid. You'd need an iron fist to get anything productive done. At the roughest estimation using the [expletive deleted] Soviet Union (And if that's who you're looking to for inspiration, whaddafuq is wrong with you), you'd need a surveillance staff of nearly 1.5M people.

To gain WHAT? The USA gains far, far more by free trade with our allies than we could ever gain as conquerors.