What Tariffs Do
Say we create a tariff for chicken. Locally, the chicken costs $1.50. For Germany to export chicken, it’s $2.25. The goal is to protect the local price, but it incents the local price rising to competition. Why? Because your competition cannot sell for less because of the tariff (otherwise it’s a business loss). So local chicken raises to $2.24. The government sets the market rate now. Local capitalist make bank for the market being set. The cost is passed to consumer.
Worse, countries can impose counter tariffs. That can penalize US economies, hence tariff “trade wars.”
The tariff is supposed to raise money for the government, which is turned into lower taxes for citizens (since the government is generating a revenue receipt from the tariff). But the cost to GDP is often worse, and there’s no guarantee the government passes the cost on to the citizen.
They also claim to raise jobs because local economies are more favored. Like, Samsung can export from South Korea or make a plant in America. However, that behavior doesn’t usually happen because the cost of labor & doing business in the US is more expensive than just exporting from elsewhere.
Tariffs aid local capital owners while intervening on the market and hurting consumers.
Source: I work on game economies for a living & enjoy reading about economies.
People are saying it’s related to a book by a similar or same title (depending on the reporting of the 3rd word). The book is about health care being a scam, so seems to be a rallying cry to read the book and unseat traditional “health care” in America.