Trump promised voters tariffs are a panacea for the economy, but Walmart finance chief John David Rainey warned they will be inflationary for customers.
But the question is, will American manufacturing make up for the costs? Or, will American manufacturing just raise their prices to match the tariffs and lump the profits into their executive bonuses. They deserve it after all for being smart enough to raise prices.
"Harris outperformed Biden’s 2020 numbers among white voters with college degrees. Meanwhile, exit polling from NBC News gave Republicans a 9-point gain with voters who never attended college."
Turns out, a lot of consumer mood is literally just people's social media feeds. Even if prices go up and QoL goes down, on average, consumers might feel better simply because Trump being in office makes them feel good.
I am not going to point out how monumentally problematic this is... Nope. There's definitely no bad precedent for that.
There are two bright sides to this (and dark sides as well):
-This will decrease demand of Chinese goods in the U.S., hurting a country that is ... problematic to say the least. (Anyone remember the Uyghurs? The O.G. Gazens?) It probably won't shift demand back to the U.S. factories, but maybe it is time for another country to become the slave-labor-ish manufacturing capital of the world.
-When the prices skyrocket, along with food from all the missing immigrant farm hands, Trump will get blamed. I just hope this wasn't the plan all along and those "fake" inflation hikes back after covid weren't to cover for the real ones down the road.
So nice of them to say this after the orange fuck was elected. Heaven forbid they tell their customers that when their customers could actually do something about it.
Folks, listen closely, okay? Nobody understands tariffs better than me. Believe me, they’re tremendous, tremendous tariffs. And now Walmart – yes, Walmart, great company, big stores, huge – they’re telling you that YOU, the great American people, will be paying for these tariffs. And you know what? That’s fantastic news. Incredible. Let me tell you why.
First, it’s about sacrifice. The greatest country in the world doesn’t rise without its amazing, hardworking patriots chipping in a little bit more. And trust me, when you pay a little extra at Walmart for your cheap, uh, Made-in-China toasters, you’re not just buying a toaster. You’re buying FREEDOM, folks. You’re sticking it to the Chinese economy. No one else could get that deal done, okay? Only me.
Second, we’re BUILDING here, okay? When American families dig a little deeper into their pockets, that’s money going back into our economy. It’s like… MAGA economics, so smart you wouldn’t believe it. All of a sudden, Americans will say, "Hey, why am I buying Chinese stuff? Let’s buy American!" And BOOM – jobs. Factories humming. Steel, coal, maybe even wood, I don’t know. Beautiful stuff.
Third, let’s talk winning. When we pay these tariffs – our tariffs – we’re showing the world who’s boss. China thinks they’re so smart. So clever. Well, joke’s on them. We’re so good at tariffs, we’re making YOU pay them instead of them. Genius move, right? They won’t even know what hit them. Tremendous strategy. They’re probably shaking in Beijing.
And look, folks, I hear you. “But sir, sir, what about the prices?” And I say this: are you willing to pay a little more at Walmart to make America the GREATEST it’s ever been? I think you are. And if you’re not, then maybe you like China too much. Sad!
So remember, every time you spend a little extra at Walmart – and it’s a GREAT store, by the way, I love it, fantastic – just think of it as making a donation to America. To freedom. To ME – your favorite president – who is bringing the best tariffs, the best deals, and the best America you’ve ever seen.
God bless tariffs. God bless Walmart. And God bless the United States of America. MAGA!
Realistically though, that's how tariffs just work. With products costing more, theoretically that should drive demand down and eventually lead to fewer imports. Of course, if there's still no competing product or the product is a basic necessity, then it'll likely just result in people paying more.
Don't worry, at least Americans are, on average, in possession of endless piles of extra money after the last decade. Elon says it's time for all of us to tighten our belts. We're just so fat with all that money we've all been saving!
I'm so glad he and the other rich chucklefucks trickled so hard on us.
Hearing more and more stories about companies cutting bonuses this year so they can buy more supplies now at cheaper prices. They know the prices will go up and they'll have to pass the increase to the consumers. But how much you wanna bet these companies will still raise prices even before they have to pay their tariff increases? They're gonna get extra money on the supplies they paid the lower prices on.
Mango Mussolini's tariff plans will increase prices across the board. The corporations earned record profits during the so-called inflation and the US consumers that voted for Cheeto are fucking clueless about the inbound out of control freight train.
Cool. Places like Aldis will continue not-fucking their customers while walmart will continue doing the same shit it always has, fucking over poor people and small business owners.
Dont shop at walmart if you can help it. Or kroger. Or any other shitty american company thats profit driven.
Cool trick y'all can do: if profit is the clear main goal, that company is garbage no matter what they do.
That's how it works. Imported products will be much expensive and local products will be able to compete and people will buy them instead of the ones coming from China.
That is the theory, but are there local products for the things that the US is importing? I don't think so. Also local companies may just align their prices with the imported stuff.
American companies will pay for the tariffs, and then we the consumers who buy their products will pay for the tariffs via price increases.
This is money that we will invest. It is a tax. It is the government causing us to spend more money.
It is not a usual tax in the sense of money paid to the IRS. But it is an economic cost that we will pay in order to support a government policy.
The cost is paid to enact a certain outcome. The outcome is less importing of goods, and more of those goods being provided by sources within our borders. It will cost money to make this change. That cost will be paid by us.
We are being forced to pay money to enact a policy. That’s how it’s essentially a tax.
Except this policy is basically:
More stuff that American consumers consume, will come from American companies
There will be more manufacturing capability to meet this demand
There will be more demand for American labor, improving the lives of American workers
We will be more militarily capable due to being able to build more things in-house
That is a set of changes being targeted by this policy. We will pay for this policy by paying higher prices. The intention, the hope, is that the policy will pay for itself in terms of the third bullet point: more manufacturing in America means more jobs for Americans. More demand for American stuff means better bargaining position for American workers, means more income.
In the short term it’ll suck. Just like any other heavy tax can suck in the short term, before the benefits can manifest and make it worth it.