SUMMARY: Explore the economic effects of Trump’s tariffs as they slowly strangle the booming Biden economy. They take billions of dollars out of the economy by increasing prices for middle class consumers, slowing economic growth, increasing unemployment, and curtailing government services. All of this so the Republicans can transfer our wealth to the one percent. Same Republican Tax-Cut and Destroy the Economy Song, different verse.
KEY WORDS: Tariff, Trump, Economy, Middle Class, Wealth Transfer, One Percent, Psychosocracy, Regressive Tax, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Unemployment, Inflation
COMMENT: What effects of Trump’s tariffs have you felt, witnessed, or observed? Does MAGA ever wise up and realize that Republicans are just taking their money and giving it to the one percent?
- That’s NOT How Tariffs Work!
- This is How Tariffs Work
- Tariffs as a Drag on the Economy
- Image Attribution
I’m no expert in economics or government fiscal policy. I don’t even play one on TV. I’m just a casual economics observer trying to make sense of this mixed up, muddled up, shaken up world. So, what I’m offering today is my take on the effects of the Orange Caricature’s tariff policies on our society in the broadest strokes possible.
Here’s the thesis, Trump’s tariffs policy is a massive transfer of middle class wealth to the one percent.
Here’s the thesis, Trump’s tariffs policy is a massive transfer of middle class wealth to the one percent.
That’s NOT How Tariffs Work!
This is How Tariffs Work
Tariffs do indeed pay money into the US treasury. In that sense they can be broadly categorized as a tax. Contrary to the assurances of the Orange TACO Stain and his team, it is a tax paid by the US consumer. By now we all realize that Trump doesn’t understand how tariffs work — because he keeps saying that foreign companies and countries will be paying the tariffs or companies will “eat” the increased costs.
While the importer is responsible for paying the tariffs, they pass the cost on to the consumer, i.e. the people buying the product that was imported into the country. Since the country importing the tariffed goods is the US, it is the increased cost is passed on to the US consumer. The importers are not idiots and are driven by the profit motive responsible like all capitalists. And, like all capitalists, they give no fucks about anything other than maximizing their profits.
Trump’s Fundamental Misunderstanding is Psychosocracy
Trump’s fundamental misunderstanding of the effect his tariffs will have is a prime example of psychosocracy or rule by the psychotic. Trump is not dealing with reality when it comes to tariffs. He’s either lying or just plain stupid. Either way, his rhetoric is wildly divergent from reality.
Because the cost of the tariffs is borne by the consumer, they amount to a regressive tax. This is because lower-income households spend a disproportionate amount of their income on consumer goods than higher income households. Thus, they are paying more of their income — disposable or not — to cover the increasing costs of the tariffs.
Tariffs are a Regressive Tax
According to the lying woke Yale Budget Lab who hates Trump and MAGA because of our freedumbs:
- The average tariff on imported goods is 22.5%.
- Prices have increased by 2.5% or an average of $3,800.00 per US household per year.
- The LOWEST INCOME LEVELS are paying an extra $1,700.00. The people who can least afford it will be paying the most.
Tariffs as a Drag on the Economy
Slowing Job Growth
But, the economic impact on the lower income levels, meaning anyone outside of the highest income bracket, gets worse. Much worse. The revised new and improved Bureau of Labor Statistics newly politically de-weaponized and wokeless just released its jobs report for August. It showed two findings that were thoroughly vetted by its new chief, so you know they weren’t monkeyed with just to make Trump and his economy look bad like they were by the highly politicized woke DEI hire left over from the Biden admin.
- Job growth for August was a very anemic and disappointing 22,000.
- And, the job report for June was revived downward showing a DECLINE of 13,000 jobs, making it the first month to LOSE jobs since the Trump-made fiasco of the #COVID19 pandemic of 2020-2021.
You know these numbers are the BEST BLS monthly job reports numbers in the world. Lots of people are saying so. There are big strong men with tears in their eyes all over the world saying, “Sir! Sir! How did you get those numbers? No one in the history of monthly job reports has ever had such great numbers! We’ve never seen anything like it.”
Because the BLS is now dedicated to accurate data collection and analysis, we can be very confident that they are truthful, honest, and accurate, make Trump look good, and put him in the best light possible. Finally, some honesty and truth from a government economic agency. Finally.
Tariffs: Transferring Middle Class Wealth to the One Percent
Now, that the lucre is flowing into US coffers by the billions and trillions and, I’m sure, by the time the most proliferate liar in the history of the world is done telling it, quadrillions of dollars, what’s being done with that money?
We have trillions of dollars pouring into our coffers. I’m getting calls from people in government saying where did I get the $29 billion from? And I said, “Why don’t you try the tariff shelf?” And you know, we have, as an example, the European Nations, we made a great deal. They pay us literally trillions of dollars. Japan, so many. And you know what? They like us better. They respect us. They didn’t respect us. They were paying us nothing. Nothing.
Interview: Sean Hannity of Fox News Interviews Donald Trump in Alaska – August 15, 2025
We already are cutting trillions from the US budget, most notably Medicaid expenses, but also tens of thousands of federal employees and grant money. So, what is that money being spent on? Tax cuts for billionaires. It’s going to fund the insane tax cuts his BassAckwards Baneful Bill have enshrined in US law.
Trump’s Tariffs: Same Republican Tax-Cut and Spend Destruction Song, Just a Different Verse
Like Some Mo’Ron and Poppy Bush and W before him, he is going to destroy the US economy by handing the wealth of the nation to the one percent, but instead of crushing us just with national debt, he’s going to crush us with national and personal debt.
Consider these findings:
- Household debt hit a record high of $18.388 TRILLION with a T in 2025!
- That’s an average of household debt of $105,056 in 2024 or an increase of 13% since 2020.
- $1.209 TRILLION in credit card debt, which is enough to drown just about any government in.
People are using credit cards to keep up with increased costs, but that’s not a tenable long term solution. As Trump pushes for lower interest rates — not going to see lower rates on your credit cards, though — inflation will rise even faster.
What happens a long about Christmas when we’ve all maxed out our credit cards and prices continue rising because of greedflation and the magical “get out of jail free card” provided by the Trump tariffs? The American consumer spends less, which slows down the economy.
Quarter one of 2025 saw a contracting economy (a growth rate of -0.5%). However, quarter two rebounded to a relatively healthy 3.3%, but that was based on consumer spending as the initial shock and confusion of Trump’s first one hundred days in office was wearing off and all of his TACOness began to settle. Now, we’re have real tariffs to deal with and their effects are just now beginning to be felt. Don’t expect the economy to continue growing.
The Felonious Rapist Traitor’s second administration is just a continuation of all of the previous Republican administrations, but with more obvious grift, corruption, and authoritarianism. They are still transferring as much of the country’s wealth to the one percent as quickly as they can. This time they’re using tariffs and not the tried and untrue trickle down economics voodoo.
The rate at which the tariffs are taking money out of the economy signals that likely disaster is just ahead, especially if Trump successfully takes over the Fed and can get the interest rates he wants.
Image Attribution
This image was found on The Week’s 5 July Editorial Cartoons page using a Creative Commons Google Search.
The Psy of Life 
The 20th anniversary of Katrina also marks the 20th John Scalzi’s seminal post about poverty “Being Poor” which remains possibly the best way to describe how much work it is to be poor.
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What would we do without John S also?
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As always, when looking at economic policy, it comes down the question, “Who is the economy for?”. In this case, the policy is clearly intended to squeeze as much as possible out of the consumers, including any generational wealth they may still have.
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Howdy Bob!
One thing all dictators have in common is the looting of the country. They personally take the lion’s share but also give their supporters enough to keep them satisfied. It is one of the many reasons that the standard of living has remained so low in Africa and other select countries, like Russia and China.
Now that I live in North America again, I marvel at how comfortable, convenient, and commodious life is here. Canadians pay a lot in taxes, but they get a lot for them. We will never save like we did when we lived in the developing world again, but we won’t need to, either.
When I lived in Kenya, especially, but also in Cambodia and Viet Nam I marveled at how little was made there for the population. And, anything made and sold in the country was of such poor quality that no one wanted it. In Kenya, the store clerks all warned us away from the piece of crap Chinese made goods that were foisted on them by their “relationship” with China, too.
For too long, we’ve been willing to take on blind faith that the US was the best country, but I don’t think that it is true, at least, not any longer.
Huzzah!
Jack
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Part of the reason so many people from the “Third World” try to migrate to the US and other countries of the industrial West is in that difference, that even the poor (most of them) here have so much more (so far) than even the well to do where they come from. Even an undocumented farm worker here can often send enough money home to build a decent house and pay for the children’s education.
Thinking about the looting and the upward transfer of wealth in general, there is this item that reminds of a long term pattern. It certainly happened to the “Okies” during the Great Depression”, and is in the more localized disasters currently, but it also is not coincidental that the Trump administration is attacking FEMA and de-funding or slow walking aid to the victims of disasters.
https://www.wired.com/story/disasters-destroyed-their-homes-then-the-real-estate-vultures-swooped-in/?utm_source=nl&utm_brand=wired&utm_mailing=WIR_Daily_090625_PAID&utm_campaign=aud-dev&utm_medium=email&utm_content=WIR_Daily_090625_PAID&bxid=5bd6730124c17c1048004ec8&cndid=31950619&hasha=f928381c17165d018c0bf4c042428f4f&hashc=ebe61e290ff5f6dab2702263b67c4c485180ab2deb59e026490fcd63c88404f5&esrc=AUTO_PRINT&utm_term=WIR_DAILY_PAID
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Howdy Bob!
As terrible as fast fashion is and sweatshops are, they have allowed a generation of workers to buy houses and send their children to university. Having lived in several of the countries where manufacturing has expanded to, I’ve seen the improvement in the lives of everyday people.
One of the issues that the US isn’t dealing with is that we can’t continue our growth until the rest of the world catches up to us. Because it is cheaper to outsource jobs and manufacturing — or had been until recently — we had to endure a slower rise in hourly wages and job growth, except in the service, retail, and healthcare industries. While wages in China and India aren’t quite where they are in the US, it is now no longer advantageous to outsource jobs to them.
It is that unacknowledged, indeed unaddressed — Do you remember Al Gore’s statement that we should prepare loggers in the northwest for new jobs because environmental regulations were making profitable logging more difficult? That remark helped him lose the election — changes in our working environment that is biting us in the ass right now. Had we accepted that the world was changing and we either change with it or suffer from it back in 2000 when Gore gave us that opportunity, then middle class rural white America wouldn’t be experiencing a shortening of their life expectancy due to drinking, drugging, and shootings.
As far as the housing thing goes, they really do want us all to be renting from corporate America.
Huzzah!
Jack
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The coal miners were given the same message and rejected it. And some of that was also in the dream of the services only economy (of which the fantasy of the AI only economy reminds me). That left those jobs that do require hands-on making (or harvesting) stuff to immigrants and the unschooled. One of the concerns expressed about bringing manufacturing back to the US is that skills have been lost, which may have something to do with the fact that ICE found 500 South Koreans working at the factory in Georgia.
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Howdy Bob!
Having lived for ten years in South Korea, I am not at all surprised that there were five hundred Koreans working there. It sounds exactly like something Koreans would do. Korea is for Korea, and if given the opportunity, they would take over the world and subject us all to their rule rather like the British were trying to do.
Be that as it may, change is hard. It is risk. Promising that things can and should continue as they are now, especially in an age when technology is evolving and the climate is devolving so rapidly, is a crime against humanity and the ruthless exploitation of that fear. The authoritarian promise of returning to the glorious past, which never really existed in the first place, is just another version of exploiting the principle of people resisting change, except when faced with a sure loss.
Huzzah!
Jack
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It really isn’t a surprise that the Korean companies would bring their own people, rather than try to train poorly educated, MAGA hat wearing Americans in the technology and company culture. Now, there are reports of other Korean companies pulling their people home and shutting down projects. It’s interesting that the raided plant was to be making electric car batteries. Would it have been raided if they were drilling for oil? At any rate, it’s a heck of a way to encourage foreigners to invest in America.
“Orangutans are skeptical of changes in their cages, and the zoo keeper is very fond of rum” [Paul Simon – “At The Zoo”]
Fear of change is one of our species greatest vulnerabilities to all manner of wickedness.
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Howdy Bob!
I understand that Marco Rubio kept the chartered flight returning the Koreans to their country on the ground while he tried to wring investment concessions out of their foreign minister. I swear these people do not understand anything.
Koreans are incredibly proud, nationalistic, and stubborn. They may have been forced into making some kind of concession to get their people out, but I wouldn’t count on them for much beyond what they absolutely have to do. I was in South Korea at the height of the anti American movement (the Korea Japan World Cup), and it was pretty ugly at times. It only quieted down when Rumsfeld — the only thing he ever did that I agreed with — threatened to pull the troops.
They’ve severely damaged the relationship with a key geopolitical ally in the region. The fucking idiots.
Huzzah!
Jack
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I remember the reputation, among US troops in Vietnam, of the ROK Marines. Yes, tough, proud people. Korea has dealt with the ambitions of every Chinese Emperor in recorded history, the Mongols, the Japanese, and their separate country folk in the North. And they are, along with Taiwan and Japan, our front line facing China, North Korea, and Russia, could even be called the point of the spear. Only idiots would chance damaging that relationship, but Trump is insulting and jacking around all or best friends and clients.
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Howdy Bob!
Whilst living there, I was surprised, awed, and more than a little frightened by how quickly, enthusiastically, and thoroughly the entire society coud latch onto an idea and push it forward. During the financial collapse of the late 1990’s when the IMF bailed them out, there was a move on to gather gold to donate to government. People were pulling their gold crowns, giving up wedding bands to donate. They would send people up and down the streets with a loud speaker asking them to bring out their gold, and they were literally chased by folks who were finding every little scrap. All for what? It didn’t really help the country.
They started a curbside recycling program while I was there. They quickly overwhelmed the system with everything that they tried to recycle.
They had a software company that made a Korean version of the Office suit of programs. Of course, this was in the heyday of pirated software, CDs, and DVDs, so everyone had a copy, but it was all pirated. The company announced that it was bankrupt, so everyone scrapped their pirated copies and bought several additions of the original.
The fervor with which they will pursue a national goal is unmatched. And, the ease with which it can be activated left me more than a little concerned and thankful that it was such a small resourceless country.
Huzzah!
Jack
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And, just recently, when they decided that a President had crossed a red line, he was quickly, and decisively, gone. I wonder, does a nation have to have experienced dictatorship to be able to see it coming and stop it?
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Howdy Bob!
What is the old saying, familiarity breeds contempt. I think we’ve presumed that we are the greatest country in the history of human kind for so long that we cannot conceive of that mantle ever being endangered. As I’ve said for a long time, as long as white people can vote, white people will believe we live in a democracy. As long as white people have privilege, white people will believe that we have civil rights.
White Americans are so afraid of the cognitive dissonance of not living up to our ideals, that we’d rather rationalize, deny, and minimize rather than make the hard changes necessary.
Blog On, Sibling!
Jack
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That fear is so clearly on display in Trump’s order to cleanse the historical displays of any reference to the reality of slavery. The just not wanting to know is there too in the resistance to reparations. I tend to think that if Democrats hope to durably win, it has to be on the kitchen table issues. Campaigning on “FREEDOM!” can’t work, because the other side does that too. They just have a different vision of what it looks like and who gets it.
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Howdy Bob!
The buying of disaster damaged homes on the cheap is another example of middle class white America not connecting the dots between their votes, the politicians winning elections, and the policies and laws that allow such things to happen. Not dealing with reality has very real consequences.
Huzzah!
Jack
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That technique may possibly equal or surpass in the coming years even the one in the financial crisis of the 2000-2008 period, selling mortgages to unqualified people on the promise that home prices would always go up and they could always either flip the house or refinance on a higher value. And the banks were selling the loans in unrealistic kinds of bonds. The whole thing was wildly out of touch with any reality other than the transfer of wealth to the top.
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Howdy Bob!
The 2008 Great Recession is a really GREAT example of ignoring reality and having it bite you in the ass. I don’t know if buying damaged homes on the cheap from homeowners still in shock and abandoned by FEMA is ignoring reality or just collusion between our government and the private sector, though. That’s more of an exploitation of reality. However, when the vast majority of the population is renting, we will all be at the mercy of the corporate-government ruling body. It will be like our food is now, killing us slowly so it can milk as much money from us as possible before allowing us to die, maximizing profits from our labor.
Huzzah!
Jack
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Predatory capitalism at it’s worst.
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Of course, capitalism is predatory in it’s essence, which is why it needs to be regulated and restrained by the state. To me, the classic scene demonstrating that is of Teddy Roosevelt at breakfast reading “The Jungle” by Upton Sinclair about the meat packing industry in Chicago, looking at his sausage, and going off to create the FDA.
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That’s a great anecdote about Teddy Roosevelt. I wish I had known that when I read “The Jungle” in university. Really enjoyed the book when I read it then. Perhaps we should all give it another look just to understand our future better.
Jack
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It does describe well a time of no unions, no benefits, and no regulation. If it were not history being portrayed, it could be taken for dystopian fantasy.
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But it is also the model that our would be oligarchs would like to return to.
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Yes they would, although they might like universal indentured servitude even better. Privatizing education and health care and housing would go a long way to achieving that.
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Howdy Bob!
Company towns and other forms of indenturing people are what they’re hoping for. Some conservative pundit suggested doing away with property taxes to fund local government and begin charging people for toll roads and 911 calls instead, you know, pay for the services you actually use and not for the ones you indirectly, but greatly, benefit from, so the burden of funding local government is shifted more squarely on to the shoulders of the lower classes.
Huzzah!
Jack
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Labor creates wealth. The wealthy suck it up. Simple.
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Howdy Bob!
There is a love-hate fear based relationship between labor and ownership. One that many of the European socialists solved by allowing labor a seat at the management table. It created a partnership that both clearly benefitted from and a stake in making the company profitable and retaining a healthy workforce.
The US solution is look for that break-even point where further investment in an individual worker — read older worker — no longer yields the profit ownership is looking for and engineer an early quick death for that person.
I’m pretty sure that is the paradigm of worker relations US culture promotes.
Huzzah!
Jack
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The bosses always say that letting a union in will kill the business. The truth is that part of the point of contract negotiation is not to kill the goose. But that means opening the books and dealing with the real numbers, which is what the management schools teach they must not ever do, often for good reason, lest the workers find out what is really going on.
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Excellent post! I wish more people could see what these tariffs are doing to their so-called ‘safety net’….Keep up the good work chuq
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Howdy Chuq!
When I was a child, my mother divorced my father. This was back before divorce was popular and accepted. We lived in poverty because of it. We qualified for food stamps and section eight housing, but my mother wouldn’t take it because pull yourself up by your bootstraps.
For her, it was easy to connect the dots that connected her to low paying dead end jobs and social attitudes. Her boss told her that he would not recommend her for a promotion because she’d be taking a job from a man who had a family to provide for, knowing full well that she was a single-head of household with two children. How were we different than that man? The bank wouldn’t give her credit, including a credit card, because my father wasn’t available to co-sign for the debt.
The causes of our poverty were clear.
It is the same for any marginalized group.
For the average white person in America, though, the causes of their misery aren’t so clear. The dots and the connections between them are deliberately obscured. I don’t know how to overcome that. The cognitive dissonance necessary to maintain that disconnection has been well and firmly established. The distance between party platform, candidate promises, voting, laws, and policy is too great. When rural hospitals close in 2027 because of the bill passed this year, will anyone put two and two together and come up with Republicans screwed us or will they blame the Democrats, liberals, and the takers?
Huzzah!
Jack
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I know what you mean I was raised by my mother and grandmother…..in today’s political world it will to blame the Democrats. chuq
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Howdy Chuq!
The path of least resistance…
Huzzah!
Jack
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Well done, perfectly understandable, with evidence easily seen if one will simply look. Thanks!
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Thank you for your kind words, Ali.
That’s the problem with the human brain, it is too easy not to look when the thing you’re going to look at will disturb your comfortable belief system too much. Confirmation bias, cognitive dissonance, and illusory explanation all make it too easy to keep us stuck in our presumptions about how the world is.
Huzzah!
Jack
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