Yeah, but before global trade people had way less stuff. And what I don’t get is who is this ominous “us” that are overpaying and undercharging. How do developed nations “pay” for that?! Like, if I buy cheap stuff from abroad, it’s me paying for it. No one else. Like, we can buy so many things cheaper than ever before. I still remember the first flatscreens being $30k some 20-30 years ago. I don’t think it’s that we never relied on other countries to produce what we consume. I think we simply consume way more and at wonky able to do that because some poor guy somewhere in the middle of nowhere produces the stuff for $3 a day.
I for one am very libertarian. Let people do and buy whatever they want, it’s their money. Why should I pay the IRS 140% just because I wanna buy something from a guy in China?! Cause in the end it’s me paying it (or being prevented from buying what I want with my own money).
Yeah there are certain strategic good we have to make sure to never rely on others so go for tariffs on those to make sure we’ll always have people that make them and control over those. But for regular consumption stuff? Let people buy what they want. Goes both ways of course so if there are real tariffs imposed by other countries yeah, get them to abolish them and if that means we have levy the same $ for $ to get them to lower them then I understand that. It also burdens the consumer but it may be necessary to level the playing field. But claiming that trade deficit is because of unfair practices and tariffs and calculating reciprocal tariffs on the basis of trade deficit is just… overburdening the consumer and not doing any good?! At least imho. But the long story short is I just want to buy stuff from abroad without paying the government

plus I sort of want the economy and the stock market to do well I guess…