TRUMP’S TARIFFS:

RESPONSIBLE POLICY FOR TODAY

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I like coffee very much. I drink a lot of it.

I also enjoy fine dark chocolate.

I am also a Baby Boomer, beneficiary of an extraordinary legacy from The Greatest Generation, who faced challenges like the Great Depression and World War II.

These three facts are very important to this column.

Coffee and fine chocolate are undoubtedly luxury items. Even though I am slightly addicted to one and thoroughly dependent on the other, the choices and availability of both are a result of an affluent society. Billions of people around the globe get by without either.

In recent weeks, the terror and devastation wrought by the Trump tariffs have collapsed society, or at least proper society, in the United States. A recent report on a local Detroit television station brought to light the dire situation faced by a Texas chocolatier. The humble purveyor of delicious treats lamented that his least expensive product, a chocolate bar with Swiss ingredients that retails for nine dollars, would have to be priced at $11. One can just imagine the anguish of needy families unable to come up with the $11 and sadly going away.

Closer to home, at the Farmers’ market in a small town, I had two interesting conversations. I was behind a man at one of the booths who was complaining about the “Trump Tariffs,” as he loudly proclaimed them. This guy looked to be of Baby Boom age, and he feared rising costs for the imported chocolate that he enjoyed. This enterprising fellow was boasting that he had cleaned out the inventory at a local grocery because he knew the price of his chocolate bar would be increasing. Not sure he realized the self-own in having the resources to buy that much chocolate, coupled with the certainty that the tariffs would be seen as devastating to Americans. I voiced my view that the tariff is a consumption tax, like the European Value Added Tax (VAT), and helpfully offered that he could avoid the tariffs by buying treats made by Ghirardelli, Hershey, or any number of local artisan chocolatiers. Buy local and all that.

Later that morning, still at the Farmer’s Market, I was at a booth where a fellow made his own cheese. Excellent products, ethically sourced, very clean food. I related him to the story of the person complaining about the price of chocolate.

He said he didn’t think there would be any problems from the tariffs until the price of coffee went up. He said the result would be riots. That is the exact word he used, “riots” over higher coffee prices, in a country where affluent Baby Boomers routinely spend $5 on their morning brew.

As he appeared to be a baby boomer like me, I asked if it was time for our generation to grow up and get after this enormous federal debt that we have created. He slowly nodded in agreement when I said that we had been living on a false prosperity of continuing deficit spending. We can leave our children, grandchildren, and future generations the insecurity of an uncontrollable federal debt, or we can face the music and find a way to pay it down.

Boomers, if you’re indulging in a coffee shop, specialty coffee, or good old, plain black coffee, you might need to pay a little more. The truth is that we’ve been paying less money because we haven’t been attending to our responsibilities as a generation.

The federal receipts from tariffs might be the only thing standing between our grandchildren and a poverty-stricken future. While we can’t have any confidence that those we elect won’t waste that newfound money, tariffs are not the end of the world. In fact, they are an element (one element) of trade all over the world.

Our choices are simple. Keep the illusion of prosperity with deficit spending or rein in unnecessary outlays. Choose American-made products or at least pony up for some of the benevolence that we have come to expect based on deficit spending.

Yes, there might be tariffs on our favorite imported products. Boomers, get over your spoiled self and help reduce the deficit. Speak up to your fellow Boomers and challenge each other to rise to the occasion for once. And if you want to whine about the price of your fancy chocolates, especially as a political statement, do a little thinking before regurgitating the partisan talking points.

Onward