(Warning: amateur economics!) Thinking about the Trump tariffs. I know enough about economics to know that tariffs are bad, despite their facile appeal, and "do to our country in peace time what other countries seek to do to it in war time". And I think Trump wants them because — specifically because — he doesn't know/believe that. (See, for example, https://x.com/mattyglesias/status/1839443238421467235). So, that's bad. However A tariff is still just a tax. (Unless I've missed something about the Trump tariffs.) Like all taxes, it's bad for some productive part of the economy, but we let the government do it because the government needs to get money somehow. And I don't think it's really consistent for, say, democrats, or really anyone who endorses the current USA tax regime, to get mad about the Trump tariffs. It seems like he's intending on tariffs from 20–60%. Domestic labor of any sophistication already has a 40% tariff on it; it's called the income tax. So I think it's great that We All Agree: Tariffs Are Harmful. It's good and true to hold this. But actually the same goes for all taxes, which we have oodles of.