New Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)

[LevelUP]

Tariffs are essentially a tax, but they can be highly effective in promoting "America First" policies. For example, the tariffs implemented during the Trump administration have been retained by President Biden, and most Americans barely notice their impact. Can you name a product you've purchased from Amazon where you could clearly identify a tariff? Likely not, yet these measures influence trade and manufacturing in significant ways.

One clear success story of tariffs is the automotive industry. Without the 25% tariff on truck imports, U.S. car manufacturing might have been entirely destroyed. This policy has played a crucial role in keeping American manufacturing alive, despite global competition.

Yes tariffs are technically a tax but like I said it depends on how they are implemented. If they are country specific that will simply cause those goods to be manufactured in another country and the "tax" goes away as soon as that is done.

I do not believe protecting the bad labor and tax policies that made American automotive production uncompetitive was a good thing. Instead they should have removed all regulations, laws protecting labor unions and lowered taxes until American automakers could have been competitive on their own. Democratic laws, policies, regulations and taxes destroy everything they touch.

I think pretty much all foreign car manufacturers that manufacture cars in the U.S. don't have unions which gives them a competitive advantage.

Foreign Car Manufacturers with U.S. Plants

1. Toyota
   • Locations: Kentucky, Indiana, Texas, Alabama, West Virginia, and Mississippi
     
   • Union Status: Non-union plants.
     
2. Honda
   • Locations: Ohio, Alabama, and Indiana
     
   • Union Status: Non-union plants.
     
3. Nissan
   • Locations: Tennessee and Mississippi
     
   • Union Status: Non-union plants, though there have been efforts by the UAW (United Auto Workers) to organize.
     
4. Hyundai
   • Locations: Alabama
     
   • Union Status: Non-union plants.
     
5. Kia
   • Locations: Georgia
     
   • Union Status: Non-union plants.
     
6. BMW
   • Locations: South Carolina
     
   • Union Status: Non-union plants.
     
7. Mercedes-Benz (Daimler)
   • Locations: Alabama
     
   • Union Status: Non-union plants.
     
8. Volkswagen
   • Locations: Tennessee
     
   • Union Status: Mixed. Workers at the Chattanooga plant voted against unionizing in 2019, but there is a small subset of unionized employees in areas like maintenance.
     
9. Mazda (in partnership with Toyota)
   • Locations: Alabama (Toyota-Mazda joint venture)
     
   • Union Status: Non-union plant.
     
10. Subaru
    • Locations: Indiana
      
    • Union Status: Non-union plants.
      

Telsa, Rivian, and Lucid Motors are some of the few U.S. manufacturers that don't have unions.

It would be nice for at least the new U.S. car plants from U.S. manufacturers to be free from unions but we have to work with what we got.