If you’ve read the headlines lately, you’d think the United States just declared war on its own consumers. That’s the message being peddled by much of the mainstream media in response to the new tariffs on Chinese goods. We’re told these policies are “chaotic,” “baffling,” and sure to trigger a wave of inflation. The implication is clear: Americans would be foolish to pay more at the checkout aisle just to make a political point.
This narrative is not only wrong, it’s dishonest. It pretends that the goal of tariffs is a mystery, as if the concept of strategic independence were some arcane theory from a quantum physics journal. In reality, it is basic economics, basic statecraft, and basic survival.
China is not our enemy, but it is our economic rival. And over the past 25 years, it has consolidated control over the global supply chains for critical materials and products: rare earths, semiconductors, pharmaceuticals, batteries, solar panels, and more. The problem isn’t that we trade with China — it’s that we depend on them for things we should never outsource.
Yet today’s journalists and many elected officials, who wouldn’t last ten minutes in a high-stakes business negotiation, feel fully equipped to scold Americans about tariffs. They posture as enlightened experts while demonstrating an alarming ignorance of both economics and industrial strategy. Worse, they pass off this ignorance with smug certainty, feeding the public a steady diet of fear: your prices will rise, and you’ll suffer for it.
Yes, tariffs on Chinese goods will raise prices on some items, especially where rates are high — 25% or more in many categories. But the idea that the full burden will be passed directly to consumers is flawed. Importers, retailers, and manufacturers have options: shift suppliers, absorb part of the cost, or innovate. Some categories will see noticeable increases — but that’s not a glitch; it’s the cost of restoring balance. Americans deserve to know the difference between paying more and investing in national strength.
And here’s the real hypocrisy: the very same voices who lecture Americans about “ethical consumption,” racial justice, and environmental sustainability suddenly panic when there’s talk of reducing imports produced under brutal, exploitative conditions. It’s not lost on thinking Americans that many of these cheap goods are made with child labor, near-slave wages, and zero concern for pollution or safety.
The Left will happily ban a plastic straw and pat themselves on the back — but they mourn the loss of a $9 appliance made in a Xinjiang factory with no rights, no unions, and no environmental oversight. That’s not morality. That’s performative consumption — and a refusal to confront the consequences of economic dependence on a repressive regime.
Let’s be honest about the bargain we’ve been making: low prices in exchange for lost jobs, shuttered factories, and growing reliance on a country that’s building its economic and military strength with our dollars. Tariffs don’t solve everything — but they’re a start. They signal to the world that access to the American consumer is a privilege, not a given, and it comes with expectations.
Rebuilding supply chains, reshoring production, and reestablishing sovereignty won’t happen overnight. It will require patience, investment, and yes, sacrifice. But the alternative — continued drift into dependence and irrelevance — is far more costly.
So let the media call it chaos. The rest of us know what it really is: strategy.
Rick McDowell is a writer of political philosophy, economics, American history, and essays on the mind at: http://americanperspective.today
Pexels” height=”600″ src=”https://images.americanthinker.com/eg/eglhzboto1hmeichyezx_640.jpg” width=”400″ />
Image: Pexels
This article was originally published at www.americanthinker.com
