Neighborhood Ministries

Many people see the price increases resulting from the new tariffs, and don’t bother to understand the reasons behind them.  The United States prospered after World War II because the manufacturing plants in Europe were destroyed and the United States was supplying the manufacturing products to the world with no competition. In addition, many of the homes and businesses were destroyed so they needed a lot to rebuild. Our manufacturing was not destroyed in the  war and had greatly expanded to produce a lot of the war materials for the Allies. They were quickly converted to peacetime production. Without competition, unions forced pay increases which greatly increased the cost of goods and companies did not bother to modernize equipment to cut production costs. With the newfound prosperity, Americans could afford to pay the higher prices. When Europe began to rebuild its manufacturing, they built the most modern facilities.  Their  wages were far lower and with new cost saving equipment, they were able to sell far below our cost. In addition, Europe imposed tariffs on goods from the United States to protect their manufacturers from American competition, but the United States did not impose tariffs in return. As a result, we lost the overseas sales and our retailers began importing goods from overseas because they were cheaper than American made goods. It destroyed our manufacturing and forced many manufacturers to move their plants overseas where they could produce goods cheaper.  It not only cost us jobs, it also reduced the money received from taxes on the goods produced. In addition, it made us dependent on foreign manufacturers which was evident after 9-11 and after Covid when our borders were sealed cutting off goods from other countries, because our manufacturers were not ready to produce what we needed. By President Trump imposing tariffs on other countries, he increased the cost of goods from overseas so our manufactures could compete.  It also forced other countries to reduce their tariffs on our goods. More important, it encouraged manufacturers to move their plants back to the U.S bringing the jobs and the money from taxes with them. It will raise prices some because we will no longer have low cost foreign goods available but that should have been done a long time ago before we became addicted to low cost foreign goods. It boils down to which you want more, a job, or low cost foreign goods you can’t afford.

Critics accuse President Trump of causing price increases by instituting tariffs. They forget  some critical things. President Biden raided the treasury in the last three months of his term to give out trillions of dollars, which were not in the budget. A lot of those funds were untraceable. The huge government spending further fueled the inflation beyond that from his previous spending.  In addition, it added a tremendous amount to the national debt. It was designed to break the bank and force the country into a depression which they would blame on President Trump. He also added a large number of new workers which vastly increased the cost of government. Many of those workers were assigned to  spy on and harass those who opposed their socialist policies. We have no record of any previous President going so far to ensure that his successor failed.  To avoid a financial meltdown, President Trump had no choice but to make drastic cuts in spending to offset the trillions of dollars that President Biden spent. In addition, he had to lay off many of the workers that President Biden hired since they served the Democrat party and not the country.