I have seen a lot of know-it-all democrat voters posting in the last few days about how Trump's economic strategy is bound to fail and those who voted for him for economic reasons are fools. Obviously I am extremely sceptical of these people, as economic literacy has never been a strong point of progressives (not to mention how they are all suddenly experts, like how they were for virus propagation, climate change, etc.).
Nonetheless, I myself am no economist. Can somebody with a better understanding explain the strategy to me, and also any potential ways in which it COULD backfire in the way progressives are suggesting?
I think tariffs are a good thing, but they must be gradually implemented. There may also have to be a change in mindset. If the goal is to tax Chinese imports by 60%, then the mindset of disposable Chinese garbage may need to be set aside in lieu of more expensive repairable longer-use items. It's a huge change in mindset though, and really something that needs to be tread lightly to make it actually work, and it's a long project.
Simple things like oil can be done more quickly, as it's something we can ramp up domestically much easier as it's been done before. Oil imports were already very low end of Trumps last visit.
Yeah, I think the shift from a hugely globalist economy to a more protectionist one has the potential to cause some serious short term pain for the US, but it's definitely the right decision in the long run. The issue is that you know if any economic hardship occurs during Trump's presidency, it will be laid at his--and by extension, the Republicans'--feet.