this post was submitted on 20 Jan 2026
176 points (99.4% liked)

World News

52150 readers
3651 users here now

A community for discussing events around the World

Rules:

Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.


Lemmy World Partners

News !news@lemmy.world

Politics !politics@lemmy.world

World Politics !globalpolitics@lemmy.world


Recommendations

For Firefox users, there is media bias / propaganda / fact check plugin.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/media-bias-fact-check/

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
top 21 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] ZoDoneRightNow@kbin.earth 64 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Why was a study needed for this? That's just how tarrifs work...

[–] TheChargedCreeper864@lemmy.ml 21 points 1 day ago

Any tax imposed will always be split between seller and buyer in the market. If the buyer needs to pay a higher price they will buy less, but due to the increase being spent solely on the tax none of it ends up at the seller and they also earn less.

The degree to which each party "pays" for the tax depends on things like their ability to pivot to alternatives. Turns out that if you impose blanket tariffs on every single thing ever made anywhere on Earth all at once, and you have nowhere near the capabilities to produce all of that domestically in the short term, that you end up having to suck it up if you plan on buying anything (using parts) from abroad.

And I doubt such bold ideas as "let's upend entire global supply chains that have been built over decades on the vague notion that somehow the entire world collectively has been able to inflict harm upon the United States unnoticed and unpunished and I, the acting president of Venezuela, am the first American to ever notice this" uttered by someone who the rest of the world expects to be replaced by someone less... "imaginative" as this guy in less than 4 years (Lord what a long sentence) are enticing entrepreneurs to invest in moving every supply chain for every product on Earth to be entirely produced in the US.

As long as the rest of the world keeps producing as they are, you're dependent on American firms popping up to do it instead. But any businessowner of the scale required to be up for the task knows that proper international trade creates maximum wealth (which is extra nice for them because America is not traditionally known for redistributing this newfound wealth) and would prefer that. And if anyone willing to start one anyway despite all that also believes that this will all be over in 3 years, they'll never bother to engage in any process longer than that to start a business. And even despite all that, there's no guarantee that any American good will be of equal or better quality or price than a foreign good just because it was made fully in America. Especially if the idea is that this will be the case for everything on Earth. It's fully possible that you'll "hurt" the foreign companies (they'll just sell amongst themselves, it's the entire rest of the world, they'll figure something out) and end up in a situation where Americans have inferior goods at higher prices.

TL;DR: Tariffs do not necessarily lead to consumers paying for most or all of the tariff. Blanket tariffs just because are profoundly stupid and lead to consumers shouldering the burden.

(I don't know why I was moved to write such a long comment for such a minor technical difference)

[–] justOnePersistentKbinPlease@fedia.io 16 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Because Magats and the GOP insist everyone else is eating the tariff costs.

[–] SuiXi3D@fedia.io 9 points 1 day ago (1 children)

And will still do so despite this study.

[–] fizzle@quokk.au 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

You can't reason someone out of an unreasonable position.

[–] somethingsnappy@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

You can't use logic to get someone out of something they didn't use logic to get into.

[–] fizzle@quokk.au 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

That's what I said but I said it more eloquently.

[–] somethingsnappy@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Your creative and beautiful language astonishes me, and is by all measures more astute. Good for you.

[–] fizzle@quokk.au 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

The words just flow though my hands as they dance across the keys like I'm a conduit for some divine inspiration. I'm pretty amazing really.

[–] somethingsnappy@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago

Yes, yes. Your hands may be good for some things.

[–] Rothe@piefed.social 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

But they have never read studies.

[–] SuiXi3D@fedia.io 1 points 1 day ago

Of course, if they had that would imply they read at all.

[–] aesthelete@lemmy.world 15 points 1 day ago

Published by no shit magazine first

[–] markz@suppo.fi 26 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Tariffs are just an extra tax. It might force some companies to lower their margins, but of course most of it falls to the consumer in increased prices.

[–] tyler@programming.dev 24 points 1 day ago (1 children)
[–] Akasazh@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago
[–] fizzle@quokk.au 12 points 1 day ago (1 children)

The real surprise, as someone who is not living in the US, is that people just seem to be able to pay the extra ?

I'm sure there must be people under extreme hardship, but it doesn't seem to be having any effect on the political dialog, or support for Trump?

Like he's totally fucked so many Primary Producers, but there's no outcry.

[–] aesthelete@lemmy.world 8 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

In America, every once in a while the people seem to vote based upon the economy. They, for a time, seem to acknowledge that the statistics may even be wrong, and that way too many people in the country live in abject poverty. Then, they elect a Republican, and they forget they ever gave half a shit about poor, working poor, or homeless people.

We are a deeply unserious country full of deeply unserious people.

[–] muxika@lemmy.world 18 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Grass is green, water is wet, and retaliatory tariffs are fucking stupid.

[–] nogooduser@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago

I always thought that it would be funny for a country to add an additional tariff onto items that they sell as retaliation to Trump putting a tariff on them.

[–] Jimbel@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

The study also says while the amaricans pay the tax at the same time the imports also drop.

Now I would also like to know what are the americans buying instead? Are they buying lower quality? Or higher prices elswhere? Are they no longer not buying those products at all, hence no replacements?