You may not realize it, but your household is “getting ripped off” by the rest of the US economy. That’s because you run a trade deficit with respect to everyone else. Unless you are an owner-farmer, or make your living as a self-employed crafter, you import more goods into your household than you export. You run a trade deficit. You likely work for a business of some sort and supply labor in exchange for wages. This means you run a service surplus. But the measure of being ripped off apparently depends on the value of tangible goods you purchase vs the value of those you sell. So you’re almost certainly being ripped off.
I’m willing to bet that the manufacturing base in your household is close to non-existent. You may cook meals, clean your home, and do some small DYI jobs, but these are services, not goods. You should have a vibrant manufacturing sector where you make your own soap, grow your own food, raise your own cows, pigs, and chickens for meat (if you eat meat). You should not buy a car or car parts, but make and build your own. Your house should be one you have built yourself and any additions as well. This is the definition of prosperity. This is the way your great, great grandparents lived with such high standards of living.
How can you achieve this lofty goal? By imposing tariffs on purchases of goods outside your household. How much does the local grocery store sell to you? How much do they buy from you? The larger that difference, the higher the tariff you should impose. For every dollar you spend on groceries, you should charge your household a minimum of 10 cents. And using the exemplary formula released by the White House, probably something closer to a dollar, or even more! Continue using your current budgeting, but for every purchase you or any family member makes, impose this tariff. Don’t worry, the grocery store pays for it.
This will incentivize your household to return to the good old days when households were great and almost all production of goods and services occurred there. Should these measures prove insufficient to raise your standard of living, look a bit further afield. Start with you local community. Tariff and other trade barriers could bring the benefits of protectionism to you and your neighbors. Do you make cars in your town? If not, you are all being ripped off. Impose a tax on all cars that are not built in your town. Ditto for all other manufactured goods. Then look further to your state. Do you produce your own oil, your own electricity, your own food? Or do you import these things from other states? Don’t let those devious out-of-staters keep ripping you off. A tariff on goods from another state may be unconstitutional, but it appears there are way around such a minor inconvenience.
You may be reluctant to begin this journey to prosperity because you are addicted to the vice of cheap goods from outside. In the pursuit of freedom, perhaps the government should begin imposing this household tariff regime on your household, your town, and your state.
Tariffs are truly the key to prosperity not only for nations, but for states, counties, towns, and households. Onward to economic greatness!
Below is a translation provided by ChatGPT of the above text into Elizabethan English for anyone struggling with modern English. ;-)
The Right Honourable Benefits of Tariffs
4th
Day of April, Anno Domini 2025
Perchance thou know’st it not, yet thy household is most grievously “cozened” by the whole of the realm’s economy. Forsooth, thou dost run a trade deficit with all others. Unless thou art a husbandman of thine own lands, or makest thy livelihood as a free craftsman, thou dost import into thy household more goods than thou dost export. Yea, verily, thou dost run a trade deficit. It is like that thou servest a master, be it merchant or lord, and dost labour in exchange for wages, whereby thou dost hold a service surplus. Yet the measure of being thus beguiled is reckoned not by thy labours, but by the worth of the tangible wares thou dost purchase set against those thou dost sell. In sooth, thou art well nigh assuredly cozened!
I dare wager that the manufacture of goods in thy household is nigh unto naught. Perchance thou dost prepare repasts, cleanse thy dwelling, and make shift with small labours of thine own hand, yet these be but services and not goods. Shouldst thou not hold a most prosperous manufactory within thy house, where thou dost fashion thine own soap, till thy fields for sustenance, and raise kine, swine, and fowls for meat (if such be thy diet)? Shouldst thou not forsake the purchase of coaches and their parts, and instead hew and forge thine own? Should not thy house be built by thine own hand, and each stone and timber placed by thee alone? Lo, this is prosperity indeed! Thus lived thy great-grandsires, who, by their own industry, did attain a standard of living most high.
How mayst thou achieve this most noble end? By placing tariffs upon all goods brought into thy household from without. How much doth the grocer sell unto thee? And how much doth he buy from thee? The greater this unbalance, the weightier must be the tariff thou dost levy. For every shilling spent upon victuals, thou must demand, at the least, a tenth part in tariff. Nay, by the reckoning of His Majesty’s Council, it were better yet to demand a full shilling more, or even twain! Continue in thy current accounts, yet impose this levy upon each purchase made by thee or thy kin. And be not afeared, for the grocer himself shall bear the burden thereof!
Thus shalt thou be moved to return to those halcyon days of yore, when households were puissant and all the fruits of industry were wrought therein. Should these measures yet fail to lift thee unto prosperity, cast thy gaze further. Look first unto thy neighbours. Let tariffs and trade barriers bring forth the blessings of protection to thee and thine. Doth thy town forge carriages? If not, then thou and all thine are despoiled! Lay a levy upon all coaches not wrought in thy town. And so with all manner of goods and wares. Then look unto thy shire. Dost thou produce thine own oil, thine own candles, thine own sustenance? Or dost thou import these from other shires? Let not these cunning foreigners beyond thy borders make sport of thee! A tariff upon wares from another shire may be set at odds with the law, yet there be ways to circumvent such trifling hindrances.
Perchance thou art loath to embark upon this journey toward prosperity, for thou art ensnared in the vice of cheap goods from abroad. If so, then in the name of liberty, should not the Crown itself impose this noble household tariff upon thee, thy town, and thy shire?
Tariffs are, in sooth, the key to prosperity, not only for kingdoms, but for shires, boroughs, hamlets, and even the meanest of households. Forward unto economic majesty!
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