06/17/2025
It's Tuesday my Dudes and Dudettes.
We're almost halfway through the week!
We're working on our social media plan and we're going to be throwing some neat history your way. Typically this will come on Thursdays, but today's "This Day In History" is just too fitting.
Let's look at the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act.
Coincidentally, about 100 years ago, the political climate was pretty similar.
In 1930, the Senate passed the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act. Long story short, it raised Tariffs on thousands of imported good at the time. It was advertised to bring the country out of the Great Depression. If you didn't know the Great Depression ended with the start of World War II in 1941 so.. it just took 11 years for this bill to work right? ..right? ..Anyone?
"It did not work, and the United States sank deeper into the Great Depression."
The scene linked from Ferris Bueller's Day Off is how most people feel when legislation is mentioned, but this is serious stuff. Coincidentally, the economics teacher in this scene is also talking about the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act.
Tariffs are the most drastic way to force industry back to the United States. This WILL cause ALL companies to pay more when importing goods.
"Even before its enactment, U.S. trading partners began retaliating by raising their tariff rates, which froze international trade" -senate.gov
Now, regardless of how you feel about business, this will impact everyone. Business' now have a difficult decision to make, do they eat into their profits to pay this higher import fee? Do they raise the price of goods they sell?
Imagine your business isn't importing goods to resell them, just flipping things to make a profit. Imagine it's become every aspect of your business to import. A majority of the things you use in your day-to-day life come from outside this country. Your markers, pens, sticky notes, paper clips, think those came from the U.S.A?
There are outliers of course. There are people who put the effort in, and look for locally made goods and suppliers. But that's just a start. It's not feasible to change up everything. To go all made in the U.S.A is seriously impossible. So what is the solution?
"Nor did the tariff sit well with the voters...The voters also made clear their disdain for the Smoot-Hawley tariff by booting both Reed Smoot and Willis Hawley out of office that year." -senate.gov
I believe this solution comes in two parts. If you want business to thrive in the U.S.A, you should incentivise manufactoring locally instead of penalize importing internationally. Positive reinforcement will always work better then negative reinforcement.
Past that, we need to let go of the idea that imported goods are inferior. Cheap s**t is cheap s**t. There are plenty of goods made right here in the U.S.A that are pure garbage. *cough* Tesla Cybertruck *cough*. There are also plenty of things made all around the world that are just cheap plastic trash. You as a consumer have to be mindful.
When it comes down to it, by purchasing a product you are supporting the entire process chain. Somewhere, deep at the end of the line, a real human being had something to do with that thing you are about to buy. It doesn't matter what country they are in, what language they speak, they put that work in to feed themselves, to keep a roof over their head, to extend their lifespan a little longer.
It's up to you to find the companies and brands doing it for the love of people. The organizations looking to better humanity.
Be mindful with everything you spend your hard earned money on.
-B.
https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/minute/Senate_Passes_Smoot_Hawley_Tariff.htm
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhiCFdWeQfA
Ben Stein as Uber Dork economics teacher in "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" 1986. True in teen comedies, true in real schools and universities to this day.. Sad b...
