Who Pays?

I am a tariff man, standing on a tariff platform.

-William McKinley

It's 21 and snowing lightly out there on Canandaigua Lake this morning, with a big blob of snow creeping up from down around Naples.

I was supposed to be in a Zoom hearing right now, but the judge unilaterally moved it by an hour because of a scheduling conflict he knew existed several weeks ago. We found out when we logged into his Zoom room. I love my job.

Rather than writing about Genghis Don conquering all of our neighbors like he's playing Risk on an adderall bender, this morning I find myself thinking about another facet of American policy that echoes the end of the 19th century: tariffs.

I became interested in the topic based on a comment by Senator Roscoe Conkling in the wonderful Netflix miniseries Death by Lightning, which carries through James Garfield's nomination and election to the presidency, through his assassination by Charles Guiteau, aided by Garfield's generally incompetent doctors. Conkling was one of New York's senators, powerful, venal, arrogant. His leverage over the entire federal government flowed from the importance of the U.S. Customs House in New York City, which he observed more than once accounted for well over half of the tariff revenues of the entire country. Recall that there was no income tax until 1913; these tariff duties were what funded our federal government back then.

And what sort of government and society does one fund when import duties are paying the bills? Necessarily, a pretty small one, given that it's not enough money to bankroll a social safety net or any sort of regulatory state that ensures a safe environment and workplace. In turn, the society is going to have a Gilded Age feel, because the burden of funding government falls not on those who can afford it but on those who rely on imported goods for their employment and daily needs. A tariff is, in the end, a consumption tax borne by whoever buys the product subject to the tariff. If you're wealthy enough for a chunk of your spending to be discretionary, you never feel it. If you're scraping by and need a functioning stove or food grown outside the U.S., you're handed the bill.

So this is why DJT says "tariff" is his favorite word. There's no money for the modern administrative and welfare state, and the cost of whatever meager services the fed provides is paid not by those hanging around Mar A Lago, but the folks serving their drinks.

Time for that rescheduled hearing.