Two-thirds of Americans think Trump tariffs will lead to higher prices, poll says - eviltoast

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.

  • orclev@lemmy.world
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    9 days ago

    So 1/3rd of Americans don’t understand how economies work or what a tariff is.

  • ReanuKeeves@lemm.ee
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    9 days 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 Can they get rid of the outdated electoral college system yet?

    • Tinidril@midwest.social
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      9 days 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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        9 days 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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          9 days 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 days ago

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

          • TheTechnician27@lemmy.world
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            9 days 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 days 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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              8 days 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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                8 days 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.

          • CosmicTurtle0@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            8 days 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.

        • Brokkr@lemmy.world
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          8 days 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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            8 days 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.

              • NABDad@lemmy.world
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                8 days ago

                Well, perhaps you should do it in a way that doesn’t appear exactly like you actually can’t be bothered to do anything.

                • Rekorse@sh.itjust.works
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                  8 days ago

                  Matter of perspective. Its not important that you think their action has no effect, its important that they think their action has effect.

                  Neither perspective is really wrong or right absolutely. We won’t know which is right for so many decades that its useless to declare one perspective entirely baseless.

      • TooManyFoods@lemmy.world
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        9 days 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.

        • dhork@lemmy.world
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          9 days ago

          It did happen, it was just irrelevant. No serious competition was allowed (Sorry, Dean Phillips).

        • Tinidril@midwest.social
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          9 days ago

          Was Kamala on your ballot? If the results of an election are ignored, was it really an election?

          • TooManyFoods@lemmy.world
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            9 days ago

            I’m not going to say that people were so stupid that they didn’t realize a vote for Biden was really a vote for Kamala.

            • Tinidril@midwest.social
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              8 days ago

              What a weird reality you live in. Especially funny given that Kamala came in almost dead last in the 2020 primary that Biden won.

              Democracy depends on an informed public. The Democrats concealed Biden’s mental decline so, arguably, a vote for Biden wasn’t even a vote for Biden.

              Also, an election without adequate media coverage and no debates makes a mockery of the idea of an informed electorate. That’s how they run elections in Russia or North Korea, not in a functioning democracy. If you don’t have higher standards than that, you don’t deserve democracy.

    • tburkhol@lemmy.world
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      9 days 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.

    • Chainweasel@lemmy.world
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      8 days ago

      Trump won with less than 20% of the vote if you count all eligible voters, he won because most people stayed home.

  • Maple Engineer@lemmy.world
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    8 days 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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      8 days 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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          8 days 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.

          • berdoo@lemmy.world
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            8 days ago

            They get profit sharing checks. Those profit checks go down when the company is less profitable. Those profit checks go to $0 and their paychecks go to $0 when the company is losing money and has to let people go.

  • tunetardis@lemmy.ca
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    8 days 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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        8 days 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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      8 days 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.

    • PresidentCamacho@lemm.ee
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      8 days ago

      I would guess your amazement is because GOP are understood to be in favor of small government, when actually they are favor of doing w/e the fuck they feel like to enrich themselves because their voter base is so fucking stupid they would vote for a rock if you said it would be thrown through a liberals window once elected.

      My biggest concern is what will happen when the party that runs on christian nationalism and prejudice (redundant), that has majority control of the entire government, and is flush with tax revenue, is going to accomplish over the next 2-4 years…

    • rumba@lemmy.zip
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      8 days ago

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

      • turmacar@lemmy.world
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        8 days 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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          8 days 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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            8 days 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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              8 days 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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                8 days 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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          8 days 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.

  • islands@lemmy.cafe
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    8 days 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.

      • islands@lemmy.cafe
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        8 days ago

        They suck, but not as bad as the people who actually voted for trump? Trump voters are the real evil assholes.

    • bitwolf@sh.itjust.works
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      8 days ago

      I’m still amazed the party that preaches tax cuts, are vocally adding taxes, and they still got votes.

      • ChronosTriggerWarning@lemmy.world
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        8 days ago

        “He didn’t mean it. He was joking.”

        “He’s not gonna hurt me, I’m white…!

        “They’re only going after the bad ones.”

        All quotes come directly from family that will be affected by Trump’s shit. They couldn’t care less though, because they believe the shit they say. They’ll be fine, it’s just everyone else that’s fucked.

    • NιƙƙιDιɱҽʂ@lemmy.world
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      8 days ago

      Tbf, I was very ignorant regarding tariffs as a young adult post highschool. But also, we have the Internet, and Google, and as of now we have fucking AI that can ELI5 literally any topic you are interested in knowing more about if you aren’t an ignorant piece of shit. But here we are, America is full of ignorant pieces of shit. Shocker.

    • timbuck2themoon@sh.itjust.works
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      8 days ago

      No, blah blah blah, not prefect candidate, blah blah.

      Can’t blame them for being lazy shitheads. Of course it’s someone else’s fault.

    • Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works
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      9 days ago

      True… but the non voters are dumber than Trump voters. At least the Trump voters understand that voting matters.

      • TheDemonBuer@lemmy.world
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        9 days ago

        Representation also matters, and it’s understandable why someone might not want to vote for a candidate that they don’t feel represents them.

        Edit: be sure to downvote this comment if you think large portions of people don’t deserve representation.

      • LadyAutumn@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        8 days 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.

        • xmunk@sh.itjust.works
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          8 days 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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            8 days 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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              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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              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.

        • HellsBelle@sh.itjust.works
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          8 days 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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          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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            8 days 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.

    • Sauerkraut@discuss.tchncs.de
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      8 days ago

      And most of them showed up and voted for Trump. 1/3rd of adults voting for fascism is all it takes to destroy a country when 70 million people stay home and don’t vote

    • PresidentCamacho@lemm.ee
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      Well now hold up, a little more than half of the 2/3 knew better but voted for it anyways. Id say they’re pretty braindead too.

        • Ohmmy@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          This has been common for so long and 2020 was a fluke with voter turnout. You’re totally right here, people did just not vote but it’s also a result of not giving people incentives that get them to vote. Voting isn’t really easy in much of the US, especially for those working long hours at the start of the holiday season. Biden ran on stimmy checks and student loan forgiveness, Harris ran on small business tax incentives and building a wall. Just like with plastics, it’s easy to look at individual blame here and get upset with the people who didn’t vote but it’s the system that made them not want to vote.

          • CileTheSane@lemmy.ca
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            8 days ago

            Trump ran on “I’m going to be a dictator” and a third of Americans didn’t consider that reason enough to vote.

            • Ohmmy@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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              Because they voted away the problem in the past right? Hell, it doesn’t even matter that a third of American’s didn’t vote because most of them live in like 4 states. You say that as if it has any real measurable weight when in reality it is a handful of states that had maybe a million or two combined not participate. The type of base you could inspire instead of parading around you’re endorsed by a war criminal.

  • Magister@lemmy.world
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    8 days ago

    New cars coming from Canada or Mexico? 25% more expensive. American cars made final assembly in USA with tons of parts from Mexico/Canada will be $$ too. And about every piece of electronics 10% more expensive too.

    Does Trump know that drugs like fentanyl is being made in USA? Does he thingk drug manufacturer/dealer all come from mexico/canada/china?

    • tburkhol@lemmy.world
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      Does he thin[k] drug manufacturer/dealer all come from mexico/canada/china?

      Yes. That’s the racism.

    • AA5B@lemmy.world
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      While I don’t quite believe this connection, I want to point out that legacy car manufacturers heavily depend on imports, especially from Canada and Mexico …… but Tesla does not