Are You Anti-American If You Buy Goods From China And Other Countries To Save Money Amidst Trade War?

We don’t need trickle-down, we need bottom-up economics.

With the United States’ latest isolationist approach by dramatically ramping up a tariff and trade war with the world, Americans and economists fear that prices will rise dramatically and put further stress on their bank accounts.

There is still this often repeated ruse that the Trump administration keeps using, which claims ‘other countries are going to start paying these tariffs,’ as to pay down the national debt and narrow the hefty trade deficit. This is of course not true as it is the importer who pays the additional tax - and that’s all that it is, a tax - and those additional costs are then passed onto the consumer. Per

World Affairs in Context

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And yet the propaganda ministry is still out to convince the masses and the MAGA crowd of this very same message. Just yesterday, Patrick Bet-David (Valuetainment) published a video called “How China Killed America’s Middle Class - And How Trump’s Tariffs Will Bring Jobs Back to the U.S.”; shifting blame on China and not the corporations that sold-out the American people. But the gaslighting was taken to a whole new extreme when Bet-David tried to argue that BlackRock’s attempted purchase of a number of ports in the Panama Canal - which was recently blocked by China, a deal that was supposed to officially be signed on this “Liberation Day” - would actually bring back jobs to America, which would then translate to happier husbands and fathers, which would then create safer cities. Fortunately, a lot of people in the comments called him out for this, especially considering that it wasn’t even that long ago that groups such as Valuetainment would lambast BlackRock as an evil entity, but are now framing them as the good guys.

I’ve covered this a number of times already and what specific industries and items would be affected by these tariffs, so feel free to check those out if you would like more context or need a refresher:

Here We Go Again: Fed Chair Powell Warns That Inflation Is 'Transitory' Because Of Trump's Tariffs

'We’re Ready To Fight Till The End' - China Gives Serious Rebuke To US For Implementing Tariffs, Mexico And Canada Implements Reciprocal Tariffs

Trump’s order out of chaos approach - threatening tariffs and then backtracking on them - has indeed been a hassle to try to keep up with.

These tariffs, if they remain in place, will probably even cause the price of Trump paraphernalia to go higher, as so much of official Trump merchandise is produced in China or other countries such as Vietnam or Bangladesh. YouTube channel WHAT'S INSIDE? FAMILY pointed this out when visiting the gift shop at Trump Towers.

Tomorrow begins what the Trump administration has dubbed as “Liberation Day” which instigates previously touted tariffs and a round of new ones, though there are still some unknowns as Trump intends to announce more specifics on April 2nd.

Trump, however, has already backtracked on the severity of some of these tariffs in the lead-up to tomorrow.

Earlier this month, Treasurer Scott Bessent made interesting remarks saying the American dream isn’t “let them eat flat-screens” or “cheap baubles from China.”

“Access to cheap goods is not the essence of the American dream,” Bessent said during a speech at the Economic Club of New York in March. “The American Dream is rooted in the concept that any citizen can achieve prosperity, upward mobility, and economic security.”

Bessent was pressed on this in a later interview NBC, the host asked, “Are you saying that the Trump administration is comfortable to have consumers pay more for goods in America?”

He replied,

“Not at all. What I’m saying is the American dream is not ‘let them eat flat screens.’ If American families aren't able to afford a home, don't believe that their children will do better than they are [doing], the American dream is not contingent on cheap baubles from China, it is more than that. And we are focused on affordability, but it's mortgages, it's cars, it's real wage gains.”

Trump has also said that he is not too concerned with the price of vehicles rising. CNBC reported:

He wants to announce import taxes, including “reciprocal” tariffs that would match the rates charged by other countries and account for other subsidies. Trump has talked about taxing the European Union, South Korea, Brazil and India, among other countries.

As he announced 25% auto tariffs last week, he alleged that America has been ripped off because it imports more goods than it exports.

“This is the beginning of Liberation Day in America,” Trump said. “We’re going to charge countries for doing business in our country and taking our jobs, taking our wealth, taking a lot of things that they’ve been taking over the years. They’ve taken so much out of our country, friend and foe. And, frankly, friend has been oftentimes much worse than foe.”

In an interview Saturday with NBC News, Trump said it did not bother him if tariffs caused vehicle prices to rise because autos with more U.S. content could possibly be more competitively priced.

“I hope they raise their prices, because if they do, people are gonna buy American-made cars,” Trump said. “I couldn’t care less because if the prices on foreign cars go up, they’re going to buy American cars.”

Trump has also suggested that he will be flexible with his tariffs, saying he will treat other nations better than they treated the United States. But he still has plenty of other taxes coming on imports.

The Republican president plans to tax imported pharmaceutical drugs, copper and lumber. He has put forth a 25% tariff on any country that imports oil from Venezuela, even though the United States also does so. Imports from China are being charged an additional 20% tax because of its role in fentanyl production. Trump has imposed separate tariffs on goods from Canada and Mexico for the stated reason of stopping drug smuggling and illegal immigration. Trump also expanded his 2018 steel and aluminum tariffs to 25% on all imports.

Trump yesterday said in a separate press gaggle on Air Force One that U.S. automakers are going to be making a lot of money because of these tariffs.

But the President clearly understands that this will be inflationary and will force Americans to pay more. Citing a report by the Wall Street Journal, Adjunct Professor at Queensland University

Warwick Powell

pointed out how Trump is asking U.S. auto manufacturers to raise their prices. Powell says Trump’s statement reveals five things:

1. That Trump is actually aware of the inflationary effect.

2. He may have the view that the anticipated price hike is not warranted, so he’s issuing the warning, which validates theoretical arguments about “seller’s inflation” (ie., not a function of money supply growth but a result of corporate decisions).

3. Alternatively, he knows the anticipated price increases are warranted as a response to increases in input costs, but wants automakers to absorb the impact rather than pass it on.

4. It tells us that the inflationary implications of the tariffs are actually complex because while they are meant to “level out the relative price disadvantage” of American automakers, the automakers could in fact match the increase in imported prices with their own price rises (back to my first point).

5. Let’s also recall that the tariffs will impact auto parts, which means point 3 holds. Points 2 and 3 aren’t mutually exclusive.

This brings me to the question asked in the title of this post: Are You Anti-American If You Buy Goods From China And Other Countries To Save Money?

YouTube channel Our Life In Trees has a channel dedicated to showcasing his Chinese skid steers and excavators on his Oklahoma property, and in February he had a video go viral discussing the effects of tariffs on buying this type of equipment in comparison to American name brands.

The channel has made subsequent videos discussing this topic since then, but as the homeowner points out (to make a long story short), is that even with the tariffs the Chinese machines are still significantly cheaper and are easily on the same if not better quality level as the American ones.

The simple reality is that most American goods, not just machinery, are too expensive.

“It’s a capitalist society, we want to make money, our businesses want to make money - well so do I. So, I can either not have anything or I can buy these [Chinese machines], and I’m making money with these,” he said.

And most people who watched would agree.

And so I ask the question myself: capitalism for them but not capitalism for us?

In a subsequent video, the channel did a more thorough breakdown of the prices. The Chinese skids and excavators, even with the new tariffs, are still only going to cost around $6,000-$15,000 with shipping. Whereas with the American brands - CAT, Bobcat, Ditch Witch, Kubota, Toro Dingo, etc. - are going to cost at a baseline at least $35K to over $40K, and that’s before attachments and add-ons; and some of the prices are for used items with heavy hours put on them.

But this brings up this ‘moral dilemma’ that you are a “traitor” and you are un-American if you don’t buy American; even though, as the channel and the commentators point out, these American products are mostly made with foreign parts and components which means the prices of these products are only going to go up. Furthermore, the people who are complaining are the same people who regularly purchase cheap goods from Walmart, Costco, Amazon, etc. which are from China or other countries.

I am not telling anyone what to do with their money, but I also am simply asking the question, why should we support these corporations with these exorbitant prices? If anyone is "anti-American” it would be these multinationals that out-sourced domestic jobs to cheap foreign labor, and then hike up the prices so the board of directors can live a more than handsome living standard, and then had the problem exacerbated when the last several administrations (Trump twice and Biden) implemented tariffs that only made things more expensive for all of us.

I want to support domestic companies and products, which I do (if the price is manageable and of quality) such as local regenerative farms to get my food; but it gets touch to support American brands when not only are the prices astronomical but quality is shotty at best.

Like it or loathe it, these protectionist and isolationist measures are not helping us.

Last year, Congress passed a bill that would ban Chinese DJI drones, the world leaders in quality in drones, under the pretense that they are spying on Americans. The bill was blasted by American drone companies as it is clear the bill is designed to limit competition. Prior to the bill’s passage, Drone DJ cited remarks by Travis Waibel, CEO and founder of Advexure, one of the largest drone dealers and integrators in the country, argued this had zero to do with safety but constraining competition. He wrote in a statement on LinkedIn:

“H.R. 2864 isn’t about security; it’s about stifling drone competition. It’s time we, as an industry, confront the real motivations behind these policies and advocate for innovation and a free market over politics and protectionism.

“I encourage you to have a read and make your voices heard. If you’re unsure how to voice your opinions, please feel free to reach out—happy to help! Our lawmakers appreciate hearing firsthand accounts of how drones are being used across all industry sectors.”

These policies, this protectionism both parties are fancying, do not help us, they help the corporations: Trump admitted it himself when he proclaimed that he does not care if prices on cars go up, and that the American auto manufacturers are going to make more money.

“America First” refers to big business and multinationals; and lest you still doubt this, then consider what Trump said in December that he and his administration are going to be favoring big business, both domestically and implicitly with hefty foreign investment.

“Any person or company investing ONE BILLION DOLLARS, OR MORE, in the United States of America, will receive fully expedited approvals and permits, including, but in no way limited to, all Environmental approvals. GET READY TO ROCK!!!”

So basically, if you have sick money (which is none of us) and you are willing to invest it in America, Trump will let you run buck wild and bypass previous regulations, including environmental stuff. In other words, for example, if Big-Ag and Big-Pharma want to start investing even more into GMOs and gene-edited crops – which, the last time Trump was in office, he extensively deregulated GMO crops and plants – then based on this vague post, Trump’s administration will allow anything of the sort to occur, across any sector for that matter. In other words, if the likes of, say, Larry Fink and BlackRock (which manages around $12 trillion in assets) want something done, they are going to get their wish because they have bottomless blank checks they can write.

Couple this with the fact that Trump wants to cut the corporate tax rate some more later this year and keep pressuring the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates (as Trump has repeatedly said he likes a weaker currency), this ultimately hurts us the American homeowner and whatever is left of the now-eradicated middle class.

We don’t need trickle-down, we need bottom-up economics.

It was never about investing domestically by Americans for Americans, no, no, it’s all about cheap labor and widening the burden on us all so the few at the top can exact even more wealth for themselves. This is how American goods could be much cheaper and be better quality, but that option is not being explored even though that was sold to the voter base.

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I have mentioned this before but I will say it again,

George Gammon from Rebel Capitalist I think adequately explained why it’s not just the tariffs in and of themselves that are the problem, but the fact that the U.S. purposefully ties its hands and feet together making it much more difficult for domestic workers and companies to do business here that is both fair and equitable:

To me, that little gaggle succinctly explains why doing business in the U.S. is a joke, unless it is a foreign company investing here but brings no real benefit to homeborn American taxpayers. The tariffs make zero sense in this context. And I continue to keep hearing this oft-repeated ruse that, ‘well, the U.S. government used to be funded from tariffs’ - then drop income tax and stop nickel and diming me for everything on top of it! But the way the U.S. is structured, it allows for megacoporations and foreign investment to make a killing, import cheap labor and export jobs overseas, while we Americans have deliberately been made into fictionally illiterate feudal serfs on a giant plantation. That’s why small business is dead and corporations rule this country; and because this country is so stink’n over-unionized it incentivizes laziness and malaise, being overpaid for menial labor: what company wants to invest here? Other countries have nowhere near the amount of regulations the U.S. has here.

So we’ll see what happens with these tariffs. It could just be more bluffing, or the Trump administration might just be serious.

Ecclesiastes 5:12 The sleep of a labouring man is sweet, whether he eat little or much: but the abundance of the rich will not suffer him to sleep. [13] There is a sore evil which I have seen under the sun, namely, riches kept for the owners thereof to their hurt. [14] But those riches perish by evil travail: and he begetteth a son, and there is nothing in his hand.

Proverbs 22:7 The rich ruleth over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender.

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[7] Who goeth a warfare any time at his own charges? who planteth a vineyard, and eateth not of the fruit thereof? or who feedeth a flock, and eateth not of the milk of the flock? [8] Say I these things as a man? or saith not the law the same also? [9] For it is written in the law of Moses, Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn. Doth God take care for oxen? [10] Or saith he it altogether for our sakes? For our sakes, no doubt, this is written: that he that ploweth should plow in hope; and that he that thresheth in hope should be partaker of his hope. (1 Corinthians 9:7-10).

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