Summary

A Harris poll reveals that 69% of Americans believe Donald Trump’s proposed tariffs would increase consumer costs, with many planning purchases ahead of his inauguration to avoid price hikes.

Trump has championed tariffs as a key policy to boost domestic manufacturing, but economists and corporate leaders warn costs will be passed to consumers, potentially adding $2,600 annually to household expenses.

While Republicans are more supportive of tariffs, only 51% think they will benefit the economy.

The poll highlights widespread concern over tariffs’ economic impact, especially amid lingering inflation and financial uncertainty.

  • LANIK2000@lemmy.world
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    1 hour ago

    I love how people are debating this as if it’s not a well understood concept. Can’t wait till we get headlines like “1/4 of people belive a bullet to the head might possibly be fatal in some cases”.

  • Maple Engineer@lemmy.world
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    5 hours ago

    GM’s stock price is down 8% today.

    I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate automotive union workers who voted for Trump.

    • ayyy@sh.itjust.works
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      4 hours ago

      It’s not like the actual workers see any of the money when the stock price goes up…

        • ayyy@sh.itjust.works
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          2 hours ago

          Sounds like a pretty dumb system if the people who actually make the product are only exposed to downside but don’t benefit from the upside. We should probably tear that whole system down.

  • islands@lemmy.cafe
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    3 hours ago

    There are 258 million adults in the USA. Almost 77 million people voted for Trump. Which is about 30%.

    I think we can all deduce which 1/3 of Americans are too fucking dumb to understand Trump’s tariffs are a bad idea.

  • dan@upvote.au
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    2 hours ago

    I like how the headline says 2/3 of Americans “think” tariffs will lead to higher prices. The other 1/3 aren’t thinking at all.

    Tariffs are passed on straight to the consumer and the main outcome is that Americans will need to pay more. Demand for products from other countries isn’t going to suddenly disappear. Some things can’t be easily made in the USA, and sometimes the items made overseas are a higher quality product.

    It’s like rebates - they very rarely benefit the consumer. Having a 30% rebate for solar panels is fine, but it means the prices are at least 30% higher than they should be, which is obvious if you compare US prices to European and Australian prices for identical systems.

    • Maple Engineer@lemmy.world
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      5 hours ago

      The illegal tarrifs on Canadian softwood lumber raised the price of a single family home in the US by more than $10,000 while Canadian lumber companies enjoyed record profits because demand remained high. The tarrifs are intended to allow less cost effective American companies to charge more by making more cost effective foreign products more expensive. It’s about raising prices.

      Trump voters voted to pay more to make rich people richer.

  • tunetardis
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    7 hours ago

    It amazes me that Republicans can be supportive of what is a blatant tax grab by the federal government. Trump is basically saying "I’m going to add a federal sales tax on top of the majority of everything you buy to the tune of 25% or more. With China, a lot of that is manufactured consumer goods. But with Canada and Mexico, we’re talking food products, automobiles, natural resources needed by American industries, etc.

      • brucethemoose@lemmy.world
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        5 hours ago

        The plan is to have a disturbing deficit, and interest payments are getting really big now.

        This is like climate change, it’s not apparently hurting anyone tomorrow so… no one cares anymore.

    • DarkFuture@lemmy.world
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      5 hours ago

      Pro Tip: If you have any large purchases to make in your life, now is the time.

      Also, probably buy a gun because there’s about to be a lot more desperate people out there.

    • rumba@lemmy.zip
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      6 hours ago

      2/3 don’t know. They’ve just heard enough negative press to agree.

      • turmacar@lemmy.world
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        6 hours ago

        I mean it’s very simple. A tariff is what you pay the government to get stuff released from the port of entry.

        You buy a $1000 DJI quadcopter that was manufactured in China, if Trump does his “60% on everything from China” tariff the US government says you have to pay them $600 or it goes back on the boat.

        The complicated part of tarrifs is stuff like “are X-men action figures human or non-human toys” because those get different rates. Not what tariffs “are”.

        • rumba@lemmy.zip
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          6 hours ago

          It’s not hard, the country’s just full of uninterested idiots.

          The part they refuse to think about is the DJI is just going to raise the price to $1700 to cover. And the fact that there aren’t going to be any local drone manufacturers for competition.

          • turmacar@lemmy.world
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            5 hours ago

            To cover what? DJI isn’t paying anything extra.

            If they raise the price to $1700, then the tariff would be $1020 to the US government, again by you, and you would pay $2720 total to get your thing, split between DJI and the port authority.

            After they put it on the boat DJI doesn’t care. They have their $1000. If they feel like it they can add the tariff charge and handle that for you, that’s how it usually happens now, but they don’t have to. You’ll just get a letter from the port authority about the charges needed to release your item.

            • dan@upvote.au
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              5 hours ago

              You’re talking about direct to consumer from an overseas store, whereas I think the person you’re replying to is talking about the pricing at a US store?

              • Windex007@lemmy.world
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                5 hours ago

                What’s the difference?

                Somebody has to pay the tax to get the items off the boat. Spoiler alert, everyone will pass the cost on to the final consumer.

        • rumba@lemmy.zip
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          4 hours ago

          They should have heard about it during his last presidency. They’re too busy playing politics like it’s sports.

          shrug

          Let it all burn. The worse it is, maybe they’ll get a clue.

  • DarkFuture@lemmy.world
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    5 hours ago

    Lol.

    We’re such an unforgivably stupid society.

    It doesn’t matter what politicians we choose. It doesn’t matter if the “pendulum swings back”. We’re stupid. Wherever the pendulum is, we’re still stupid. So we’re still going to trend downward, because that’s the only direction a stupid society can go.

      • LadyAutumn@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        5 hours ago

        Yeah. It will probably suck for Canada too, but hopefully our government does the right thing and strengthens our ties with other markets in Europe, South America, and Asia. Really sucks how the past few years the Canadian government has torpedoed a lot of good international relations that would be really beneficial to have going into the Trump administration.

        • HellsBelle@sh.itjust.works
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          5 hours ago

          Canada’s move to expand our trade agreements began back in 2003 with the BSE (bovine spongiform encephalopathy) crisis when our cattle exports to the USA (and other nations) were shut down.

          But you’re right that we haven’t worked hard enough on further expansions.

        • xmunk@sh.itjust.works
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          5 hours ago

          As per some other thread I hope we seriously consider trying to join the EU (or at least the EEZ/Shegen area)

          • dan@upvote.au
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            5 hours ago

            Do you think the EU would let the USA in? Even Australia isn’t part of the EU even though they compete in the Eurovision song contest.

            • TheRealKuni@lemmy.world
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              5 hours ago

              No way the USA would try to join the EU any time soon. Canada might though. Don’t know if they’d be allowed in.

            • xmunk@sh.itjust.works
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              5 hours ago

              I think the EU would refuse if only because it’d be extremely likely that the US would brexit themselves as soon as the government flipped.

        • xmunk@sh.itjust.works
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          3 hours ago

          The Canadian economy is tied at the hip to the US. A lot of our agri is US produced and while most consumer end products are Chinese a lot of Canadian manufacturing uses US intermediary products. Our resource export market is also US focused right now especially for hard wood, dairy, maple syrup, and oil/natural gas.

          I don’t think we actually have the facilities to handle Alberta’s production through the Atlantic provinces or BC.

          • Grandwolf319@sh.itjust.works
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            3 hours ago

            Right so some industries that sell to the US would see slowdowns but the things we buy from US won’t be affected by tariffs unless Canada retaliates. Right?

            My question was more about our cost of goods, our economy overall is not doing well and tariffs are not the only reason.

            Imo this has been brewing ever since our country somehow decided house price growth means economic growth.

  • Bwaz@lemmy.world
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    5 hours ago

    Doesn’t need much thought. When has a tariff or import tax ever not resulted in higher prices? How could it NOT??

  • ReanuKeeves@lemm.ee
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    10 hours ago

    If 2/3 of people seemingly understand the truth, how tf was he voted back in? Can they get rid of the outdated electoral college system yet?

    • cabron_offsets@lemmy.world
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      7 hours ago

      Most voters are dumber than dogshit. Can’t blame the EC for this one. Blame the fucking dumbass voters.

    • Tinidril@midwest.social
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      10 hours ago

      Electoral college was irrelevant this election. Trump won the popular vote because people don’t think voting is important. Kamala Harris was a shit candidate, but Democratic voters weren’t given a primary to pick a better one.

      • orclev@lemmy.world
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        10 hours ago

        While the Electoral College did not directly factor into this election it could have indirectly factored in due to minority voters in solidly controlled states simply deciding not to vote due to their votes having no impact on the outcome. If for instance you were a Democrat in a state that Republicans have won by double digit percentages for the last couple decades you might rightly assume that whether you vote or not the outcome remains unchanged.

        If we had a straight popular vote rather than the EC then literally every vote would count, unlike the current system where that’s only true in battleground states. In this case the EC is just another in a long list of voter suppression tools.

        • NABDad@lemmy.world
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          10 hours ago

          Make not voting cause you to be chosen first for jury duty.

          Personally, I’ve never minded jury duty, but people seem to lose their minds over it.

          • KoboldCoterie@pawb.social
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            9 hours ago

            I don’t want to potentially be judged by people who can’t even be fucked to vote, thank you very much.

          • CosmicTurtle0@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            7 hours ago

            I never understood the hatred over jury duty. Except for people who work minimum wage or don’t get paid jury duty.

            Jury duty is the most direct way a normal citizen can affect democracy.

          • TheTechnician27@lemmy.world
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            9 hours ago

            I’d agree, except do we really want to emphasize the least engaged citizens for jury duty? That’s still someone’s freedom on the line, and while for some select few people finding a chance to vote is extremely difficult due to registration fuckery in Republican states, with the rise of early voting and vote by mail, the primary demographic of non-voting adults is people who are apathetic or intentionally ignorant to the political process. My fear is: “This is a waste of my time, and 30 days isn’t that long; just send them to jail.” And there won’t be anyone who cares strongly enough to object because the jury is packed with these apathetic citizens. To clarify, I see this as more of a problem with small-fry misdemeanor or less serious felony cases, not like murder or rape trials. But that’s most trials.

            You could argue that politically engaged Republicans can be much, much worse on a jury, that this could help them develop a sense of engagement with politics, and that they might care if they can see their choice directly affecting someone else, but it seems sketchy.

          • WalrusDragonOnABike [they/them]@lemmy.today
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            9 hours ago

            When we don’t get paid because we miss work and are dependent on that money, it can be annoying. In theory, I think it would be cool to be on a jury, but its a luxury to be able to afford to be on a jury.

            • Goodmorningsunshine@lemmy.world
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              5 hours ago

              I guess it depends on where you are. In my city, you get 150% of minimum wage/hour of jury duty, so $18 an hour. Though of course if you make more than that and are paid hourly, it’s a definite loss.

              • WalrusDragonOnABike [they/them]@lemmy.today
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                3 hours ago

                My state pays $20/day. The last time I was summoned, the estimated cost of the commute using the IRS average is $35 (granted, that’s a high estimate) and not reimbursed or compensated. Also the $20 is taxed. So it effectively cost me money to go to jury duty in my old county even before accounting for lost wages.

        • Brokkr@lemmy.world
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          7 hours ago

          While I too want more people to participate, I think we should also recognize that choosing not to vote is protected speech. That’s probably not why people don’t vote, so we should probably find other ways to encourage voting (holiday, more access to polls, etc.) Unfortunately, some repulsive people prefer it when fewer people vote.

          • NABDad@lemmy.world
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            4 hours ago

            For protected speech, I’d prefer if people would go in, take a ballot, and submit it blank. Essentially, making a statement that there is no one on the ballot who would represent them. It would be more meaningful than not going to the polling place at all. It sends a more significant message than just staying home.

            I do agree that we need to make it easier, not harder, to vote.

            Automatic registration, election day holiday, laws forcing employers to facilitate voting by their employees.

      • TooManyFoods@lemmy.world
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        10 hours ago

        The new suppressed it, or the democrats restricted who could run, or anything else, but stop telling me the primary I voted in didn’t happen.

    • tburkhol@lemmy.world
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      9 hours ago

      Less than a third of eligible voters voted for him, so it tracks. Close to half the country not voting suggests they understand tariffs, but either just fine paying 20% extra for everything or don’t believe he’ll actually do the things he’s been most vocal about doing.

  • Grandwolf319@sh.itjust.works
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    4 hours ago

    Would Canada also put tariffs on things made in US? Would things in Canada that are American companies but made overseas be affected?

    • Kecessa@sh.itjust.works
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      3 hours ago

      Hopefully we start doing like last time and put tariffs on discussion things to hurt Republican States only.