Home
/
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
/
The Trump tariffs hurt the poor, increase unemployment, and will cost you $915 a year
The Trump tariffs hurt the poor, increase unemployment, and will cost you $915 a year
Mar 18, 2025 3:24 PM

Would you like the federal government to implement a policy that would reduce GDP, increase unemployment, benefit almost every country in the world except for the U.S., and cost you $915 a year? If so, you’re in luck! Those are just some of the impacts of current and proposed US trade actions under Section 232 and 301 of US trade law, aka, the Trump tariffs.

A new missioned by Koch Industries and conducted by consulting firm ImpactECON, looked at the potential cumulative impact of tariffs. Here are some of the effects we can look forward to:

• In 2019, households suffer losses equivalent to $2,357 per household (or $915 per person) in 2017 dollars.

• Gross domestic product (GDP) would be reduced by a projected -1.78 percent in 2019 (or $365.1 billion in 2017 dollars), and GDP losses are projected to cumulate to a discounted value of $2.8 trillion between 2018 and 2030.

• All countries, except the US and China, gain from US trade actions and responses and increase GDP.

• In 2019, an estimated 2.75 million workers are likely to e unemployed if all trade actions are implemented concurrently. A high proportion of these job losses affect agricultural and low-skilled workers.

• In addition to those unemployed, 665,000 workers are expected to be displaced in 2019 and must find employment in new industries. By 2030, 1.07 million workers will be employed in a different sector because of the trade actions.

Next year the Trump tariffs are expected to cost Americans $915 each—or $2,400 per household—in the form of higher prices, lower wages and lower investment. They could also wipe out more jobs than were created in 2017 (2.1 million).

If a foreign country were to cause us such substantial economic losses we would consider it an act of war. We would never tolerate such an action, especially when it harms American’s most vulnerable, the poor and low-skilled workers. Why then are we not outraged when our own government does it?

Comments
Welcome to mreligion comments! Please keep conversations courteous and on-topic. To fosterproductive and respectful conversations, you may see comments from our Community Managers.
Sign up to post
Sort by
Show More Comments
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
‘Religion will return’ to the West: former chief rabbi of the UK
Some 23 percent of Americans, and a higher percentage of Europeans, say they belong to no religion in particular. Although this is the result of a centuries-long retreat from faith, one of Europe’s most prominent religious spokesmen believes that the process may e full-circle. Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, the former Chief Rabbi ofthe UK and a member of the House of Lords, traced the boomeraging arc of secularization and re-evangelization as part of a lecture on “Faith and the Challenges...
Make Maximilian Kolbe of Auschwitz ‘the patron saint of entrepreneurs’: Petition
Fr. Maximilian Kolbe is well-known for volunteering to die in place of another prisoner at Auschwitz. However, his history as a pioneering entrepreneur, who used the latest technology and managerial techniques to increase his ministry’s outreach, has inspired a new movement for the pope to name him “the patron saint of entrepreneurs and start-ups.” The fascinating history of how the Polish Franciscan used innovative techniques, employed the latest forms munications, and oversaw hundreds of workers is the subject of a...
Haiti’s solar entrepreneurs
Jean-Ronel Noel and Alex Georges began pany in a garage in Haiti, tinkering with solar panels and light bulbs, wondering how their experiments might translate into an actual product. “We have plenty of sunshine, so is there a way that we can harvest energy from the sun to resolve the energy problem?” they asked. The result was ENERSA, pany that brings solar-paneled street lights and a range of domestic solar products to the Haitian market. Since its beginning, pany has...
What Christians should know about vocation
This weekend Protestants around the world will celebrate the 500th anniversary of Reformation Sunday, memoration of Martin Luther’s nailing his ninety-five theses to the church door Wittenberg, Germany on October 31, 1517. As Stephen Nichols says,“when we think of Martin Luther, we think of thesolas, we think of the authority of Scripture, we think of the necessity of justification by faith alone through grace alone in Christ alone. But one of the crucial doctrines of Luther is vocation.” “For Martin...
Americans would probably ban hateful speech—if we could agree on what speech is hateful
A slight majority of Americans oppose banning hateful and offensive speech—but mostly because we can’t agree on what speech is hateful and offensive. That’s a key takeaway from the Cato Institute’s new survey report, “The State of Free Speech and Tolerance in America.” The findings in almost every category are distressing for those who abhor offensive speech but believe it should remain legal to express such sentiments in the public square. According to the report, only 59 percent of Americans...
China’s ‘Social Credit System’: When dystopian fiction becomes reality
Growing up, I was fascinated with authors such as Ayn Rand, Aldous Huxley, Lois Lowry, George Orwell, and others who developed dystopian worlds through their writing. Reading their works was a fun way to explore the extremes that our society would never e. According to a recent article inWiredby Rachel Botsman, some of those fictional worlds ing ever closer to reality, with the Chinese government developing a new algorithm that will allow them to rank their citizens on a so-called...
Venezuelan political prisoners awarded top EU human rights award
The EU has taken a symbolic stance against the worst human rights tragedy in South America, awarding its top human rights prize to the political prisoners and defiant opposition inNicolás Maduro’s Venezuela. The European Parliament announced the recipient of the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought last Thursday, explicitly mentioning the socialist nation’s “political prisoners.” Eugénio Lopes provides the details about the award, named for the famous Soviet dissident, in a new essay forReligion & Liberty Transatlantic. The president of...
Business as a work of justice
Justice is essential to how we go about our work, says Katherine Leary Alsdorf. In this video produced by Values & Capitalism, Alsdorf and others discuss how Christian business leaders can offer a living witness of Christ’s love by utilizing their social and material capital in love and justice. ...
The further reformation of all of life
“One of the famous formulas e out of the Reformation era is that ofsemper reformanda, which means ‘always reforming,’” says Jordan Ballor in this week’s Acton Commentary. “This is a particularly appropriate topic for this observance of Reformation Day, now 500 years after Luther’s publication of the 95 Theses.” The point of departure for the Protestant Reformation was originally a somewhat limited set of topics or doctrines, particularly those related to soteriology the doctrine of salvation. In this sense Luther’s...
How should the church encourage wealth creation?
Earlier this year two evangelical groups, theLausanne MovementandBAM Global, released apaper on the role of wealth creation in the church to address these question. In the paper they note that wealth creation is a godly gift that is frequently misunderstood. Too many Christians still have a rigid divide between the sacred and secular, which causes them to miss that “God’s concerns are holistic, and so is the mission of the church.” Another problem is that many pastors lack any experience...
Related Classification
Copyright 2023-2025 - www.mreligion.com All Rights Reserved