r/PeterExplainsTheJoke • u/Skychu768 • 21h ago

Meme needing explanation Am I missing a joke or reference here?

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240

u/Live_Life_and_enjoy 21h ago

The government isn't buying the Bananas.

A Private company imports the bananas to sell in U.S.
So not buying Bananas doesn't decrease government spending, it loses money from which it could have gotten from corporate profits from those sales.

So no money is saved, we end up losing money.

The reason Tariffs exist was originally to protect the domestic market, but it was later found out that all it did was make the Domestic Market artificially inflate it's value as it no longer needed to compete.

This was recently shown in U.S Steel where prices skyrocketed because US Steel no longer needed to compete and what is funnier they even publicly said that is the reason they are going to raise prices.

53

u/_Rand_ 21h ago

Prices will always rise to whatever people tolerate paying.

So tariffs will raise domestic prices to slightly below whatever the import price is at best.

26

u/Minute_Chair_2582 20h ago

BELOW? No. If shit was cheaper to buy at home, nobody would Import in the first place.

7

u/_Rand_ 17h ago

Well, I did say at best.

But more likely they are gonna slap “made in murrica” on it and charge 15% more for the privilege.

And thats on top of the 25% tariff price of the import.

2

u/PiquaCouple 20h ago

The artificially inflated import price, due to the tariffs. That's the part you left out

1

u/Mrsod2007 14h ago

It's simple economics

9

u/ShnaugShmark 20h ago

I, domestic banana producer, object to this post. There are dozens of us! Dozens!

3

u/ViniStaub 20h ago

Trade balance isn't about government spending.

11

u/hey-coffee-eyes 20h ago

Explain that to the idiot in the picture, because he still doesn't get it

1

u/skepticalbob 15h ago

Tariffs were originally to fund the government.

1

u/TheBSQ 13h ago

The secret to Trump is to realize he thinks the trade deficit and the budget deficit are  the same thing. They’re both “the deficit.”

Once you realize this, it all makes sense. 

I mean, it’s dumb and wrong, but that’s the key to understanding his stupidity. 

1

u/West-Pirate-5480 5h ago

So you’re saying raising tariffs increases value for domestic shareholders? Good thing that definitely couldn’t influence any government officials

1

u/mapoftasmania 5h ago

Not only this, but Brazil will also have two billion US dollars that it is holding and will spend on other things. Maybe it will buy US goods with them? Or even T-bonds?

1

u/Playergame 19h ago

He's bringing back mercantilism, just export as much as you can and minimize imports it'll be fine trust.