> Mostly the tariffs are/were very inconvenient for US business that manufactured in China.

So you’re generalizing your experience from a “company you run” to a country with a $19.39 trillion GDP....

The burden we do pay isn't so bad. It can substitute for other taxes. We used to do this in a big way, funding the country without an income tax. The local employment is pretty good too. Those industrial jobs, for example steelworkers, are reducing income inequality.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2019/05/07/trumps-st...

In that case what about Forbes?

https://www.forbes.com/sites/ikebrannon/2018/07/02/steel-tar...

This isn't even a political conflict along the liberal/non-liberal axis though, so Forbes doesn't change a thing. I'm sure you've heard of the uniparty, demipublicans, republicrats, and so on. The leaders of multinational corporations have a globalist mindset. Aside from desiring regulatory capture to suppress competition, they also have a libertarian mindset. Very few media sources and very few politicians break from either mindset by much, except some hot air from some politicians. Politicians don't last long if they anger the large multinational corporations.

There is almost nobody with interests aligned with the American worker. Of the few who are, many would admit to loving the tariffs only if somebody like Bernie Sanders had imposed them. Generally, all of those with a big voice (media and politicians) would gladly wipe out American jobs in exchange for greater profit. This is short-term thinking, ignoring the slow collapse of the nation and the changing balance of world power.

Are you also in favor of laws in some states that don't allow people to pump their own gas to save jobs?

Brilliant.

That's because tariffs aren't a traditionally right wing, "free market" position. This is actually an economic view that Trump shares with Bernie Sanders.

"The Trans-Pacific Partnership is a disastrous trade agreement designed to protect the interests of the largest multi-national corporations at the expense of workers, consumers, the environment and the foundations of American democracy. It will also negatively impact some of the poorest people in the world."

https://www.sanders.senate.gov/download/the-trans-pacific-tr...

And Trump seems to have agreed with that as well.

"China ... dumps its excess aluminum and steel on the world market at super-discounted prices. The United States, in conjunction with European allies and others, has repeatedly over the past decade negotiated with China to stop defying the rules it agreed to abide by when it gained entrance to the World Trade Organization in 2001. China repeatedly has said it would. And then it doesn’t."

http://inthesetimes.com/working/entry/21027/union_steel_tari...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2019/05/07/trumps-st...

There are other inefficiencies in the US economy, jobs that are preserved or are high paying solely because existing laws limit competition, limit participation by potential additional workers, etc

The real issue here is not "Have these tariffs caused our economy to deviate from pure efficiency?" It's "Which special groups are allowed to have their own interests protected and extended by law and by government action?" This stuff is happening all over the economy.

http://www.aei.org/publication/2009-tire-tariffs-cost-us-con...