Naturally individuals can cross the border and get cheaper stuff. But in the grand scale of things, that's irrelevant.
IMO tarifs are preferable to subsidies. Subsidies encourage over production, plus still places the industry at risk. Tarifs just incentivize purchasing local. Plus for whatever revenue there is, it's an income to govt coffers. Whereas a subsidy is an expense.
And ultimately the cost is born by the consumer of that product, not the wider tax base.
So, well targeted, it's a more effective tool than a subsidy, and much less prone to waste or corruption.
Put another way, a tarrif is much cheaper than a subsidy (and tarrif makes for a better outcome.)
That's largely acceptable, and certainly preferable to underproduction, for resources that we simply can't do without. Dairy was (and still is) considered one of those resources as a superfood. Now maybe milk might not hold up anymore as being so critical to childhood nutrition (though I'm skeptical), but I think the reasoning behind it makes sense.
> Tarifs just incentivize purchasing local.
Sure, they also incentivize not eating. But commodification of basic resources is nothing new to americans, I suppose.
Some things are worth everyone pitching in for. Tariffs place the burden of living here on the individual. I don't really see any benefit from this.... fuck local businesses if they can't compete. The entire pitch of living here is that we'll let the market determine every aspect of our lives; why would we not double down when it came to letting businesses fail?
IMO tarifs are preferable to subsidies. Subsidies encourage over production, plus still places the industry at risk. Tarifs just incentivize purchasing local. Plus for whatever revenue there is, it's an income to govt coffers. Whereas a subsidy is an expense. And ultimately the cost is born by the consumer of that product, not the wider tax base.
So, well targeted, it's a more effective tool than a subsidy, and much less prone to waste or corruption.
Put another way, a tarrif is much cheaper than a subsidy (and tarrif makes for a better outcome.)