>>508959821 (OP)we had tariffs for a long time and they did work. eventually, people realized they are paying higher prices for shit for no reason. the income tax was then introduced in order to make up for the tariffs going away. the income tax was initially only for high income people, but of course, now it is mostly paid by the middle class. (a big reason why women were encouraged to enter the workforce)
now we're faced with a huge wealth gap (the top 1% have more wealth than anyone else), declining population, high housing costs, high childcare costs, and a mostly service and financial based economy. none of this will help domestic production of anything - which Trump hopes will happen with the tariffs - because the US has lost its manufacturing base over the decades. people who work in service and financial jobs do not want to transition to low-paying factory work, and companies do not want to build expensive factories when they know they will need to pay higher wages in order to attract employees.
Trump has absolutely no god damned idea what he's doing and still thinks this is the 1980s