Understanding U.S. Tariffs: Costs and Consequences

In 2025, U.S. tariffs are taxes levied by the federal government on imported goods at the border. While intended to protect domestic industries and reduce trade deficits, these duties directly impact American citizens through higher prices and broader economic shifts.

What are the 2025 U.S. Tariffs?

As of late 2025, the U.S. has implemented an aggressive trade regime characterized by widespread “reciprocal” and sectoral tariffs:

Baseline Tariff: A minimum 10% baseline tariff applies to imports from nearly all trading partners.
Sectoral Tariffs: High specific duties apply to key industries, including:
- Automobiles and Parts: 25% on most foreign-made cars and light trucks.
- Metals: 50% on steel and aluminum (up from 25% earlier in the year).
- Pharmaceuticals: 100% on branded or patented drugs, unless the company builds manufacturing plants in the U.S..
- Lumber and Furniture: 10% on timber and up to 50% on kitchen cabinets and some furniture.
- De Minimis Change: On August 29, 2025, the $800 exemption for low-value imports was removed, making small packages from retailers like Shein or Temu subject to duties.

How They Affect American Citizens

The primary impact on citizens is financial, as tariffs act as a “consumption tax” passed from businesses to individuals.

1. Increased Costs of Living

Direct Price Hikes: Importers often pass the cost of the tariff directly to consumers. In 2025, households face an average estimated loss of $1,100 to $2,700 annually.
Specific Good Impacts: By late 2025, shoppers have seen significant price jumps in staples:
- Groceries: Up 2.7%, with beef and coffee surging by 14% and 19%, respectively.
- Cars: New car prices have risen by an average of $4,000 to $6,500 due to auto and metal tariffs.
- Apparel: Clothing and leather goods prices have increased by up to 28%.

2. Regressive Tax Burden

Tariffs disproportionately affect lower-income families because they spend a larger share of their income on essential goods that are now more expensive. The poorest 20% of households face a tax increase equivalent to roughly 6% of their income, compared to only 1.7% for the top 1% of earners.

3. Labor Market and Job Security

Sector Gains vs. Losses: While tariffs aim to boost manufacturing jobs, research indicates that job losses in “downstream” industries (which use imported materials) often outweigh gains in protected industries.
Unemployment: Projections suggest the current tariff policy could lead to an increase in the unemployment rate by 0.6 percentage points by the end of 2026.

4. Retaliation Impacts

Trading partners like China and Canada have imposed their own “tit-for-tat” tariffs on U.S. exports. This hurts American farmers and manufacturers who sell products abroad, further straining local economies.

5. Reduced Consumer Choice

Higher costs and trade uncertainty often lead retailers to carry fewer imported brands, resulting in fewer options and lower product variety for American shoppers.

In essence, tariffs act as a regressive tax, raising the cost of living and operating for Americans while often failing to deliver promised economic benefits, shifting costs from foreign producers to domestic consumers and businesses.

Taxman (Remastered 2009)

Political Strategy or Mental Illness? Analyzing Trump’s Statements

President Trump is described as “delusional” by mental health professionals, political commentators, and world leaders due to his persistent assertion of claims that directly contradict documented facts. These descriptions often center on several key behaviors:

Clinical and Psychological Perspectives

Fixed False Beliefs: Psychiatrists define a delusion as a “fixed false belief” that is resistant to reason or confrontation with fact. Experts have cited his insistence on “stolen” elections and exaggerated crowd sizes as fulfilling this criteria.
Narcissistic Personality: Many specialists argue his perceived delusions are rooted in Malignant Narcissism or Narcissistic Personality Disorder, which can lead to a “delusional detachment from reality” to protect an inflated self-image or “personal myth of greatness”.
The Gospel of Positive Thinking: Some analysts link his behavior to his lifelong adherence to Norman Vincent Peale’s “Power of Positive Thinking,” where reality is shaped by one’s own mental attitude, leading to a refusal to acknowledge negative outcomes.

Recent Examples and Actions (2024-2025)

Economic Claims: Critics describe his 2025 assertions that tariffs “magically” bring in billions from foreign countries—rather than taxing domestic consumers—as economically “nuts” and detached from reality.
Polling Discrepancies: In late 2025, Trump was described as delusional for claiming he had the “highest poll numbers” of his career on Truth Social, despite concurrent data from the Associated Press and Fox News showing some of his worst approval ratings.
Foreign Policy Assertions: Observers pointed to “delusional fantasies” in his 2025 claims regarding foreign leaders, such as incorrectly stating he ended a war between Azerbaijan and Albania (two countries not at war) and suggesting he could “own” or “take over” the Gaza Strip for real estate development.
Annexation of Canada: His public discussion in 2025 about Canada potentially becoming the “51st state” was cited as an example of a belief system that ignores the reality of sovereign nations and public opinion.

Debates and Counterpoints

Political Strategy vs. Mental Illness: Some observers argue he is “crazy like a fox,” using conspiracy theories and falsehoods as calculated tools for political success rather than out of a true clinical delusion.
The Goldwater Rule: The American Psychiatric Association’s “Goldwater Rule” prohibits members from diagnosing public figures without a personal examination, causing some professionals to push back against colleagues who label the president “delusional” publicly.
“Trump Derangement Syndrome”: Supporters often use this term to argue that it is actually his critics who are delusional, reacting irrationally to his unconventional but effective political style.

Buffalo Springfield – For What It’s Worth (Official Audio)

Economic Black Holes: The Threat of Extreme Wealth Inequality

I think those with wealth and power seek to sustain or increase said wealth and power. The system’s not flawed from the players perspective it is simply one to be used and manipulated to bend to ones own rules and will.

We don’t need monarchs to supress and control us, as we now have a feudal system where the masses work or starve for millionaires and billionaires.

The desire for political and economic domination among wealthy individuals stems from a complex interplay of psychological factors, the nature of wealth accumulation, and systemic influences.

Key reasons include:

Power and Control Wealth provides power and influence, which some individuals enjoy exercising over others. The ability to control one’s own outcomes and exert influence over others becomes an appealing strategy for maintaining status.

Personality Traits Psychologists have noted a correlation between high socioeconomic status and certain personality traits referred to as the “dark triad”:

Machiavellianism: A willingness to manipulate and exploit others for personal gain.

Narcissism: An over-inflated sense of self-importance and entitlement, coupled with a lack of empathy.

Psychopathy: Characterized by a lack of empathy or remorse, antisocial behavior, and a desire to dominate others.

Systemic Reinforcement In highly unequal societies, dominance-based strategies can be more effective and carry less risk of backlash, as those with less power have fewer resources to resist. The existing system often rewards selfish actions, creating a feedback loop where those who engage in such behaviour become wealthier and more powerful.

Fear and Insecurity For some, the drive to accumulate and maintain power is rooted in fear—a fear of losing their status, security, or identity.

Addiction and Competition The pursuit of power and wealth can become an addiction, as achieving success can trigger dopamine responses in the brain. This is often reinforced by a competitive mindset, where status is a relative game, and there’s a constant drive to be “on top”.

Lack of Empathy The wealthy may live in social “bubbles,” isolating them from the realities of those with fewer resources and leading to a reduced capacity for empathy for those in lower socioeconomic classes.

Mega wealth can form economic black holes that suck up and damage alomst everything else in its path.

Extreme wealth concentration is widely reported by major economic institutions as an ongoing and accelerating issue that leads to significant economic and social damage, effectively acting as the “economic black holes” you describe. It exacerbates poverty, distorts democratic processes, and can impede overall economic growth, particularly in developing nations.

Current State of Wealth Concentration

Recent reports from 2025 highlight the severity of the situation:

Millionaires own nearly half of the world’s total personal wealth.
The top 10% of earners in the U.S. owned almost two-thirds of the total wealth in Q1 2025, while the bottom 50% owned just 2.5%.
Between 2000 and 2024, the world’s top 1% captured 41% of all new wealth, compared to just 1% for the bottom 50%.
A recent study found that the world’s richest people own three times more wealth than the bottom half of the global population combined.

Key Economic and Social Damages

The effects of this wealth concentration are far-reaching and consistently linked to negative outcomes:

Impeded Economic Growth: While some level of inequality might incentivize innovation in developed economies, research in 2025 indicates that excessive inequality generally acts as a brake on growth, especially in developing countries. This is partly due to reduced aggregate demand and underinvestment in human capital (education and healthcare) among lower-income groups.
Increased Poverty and Precarity: High wealth inequality drives poverty and economic insecurity for those at the bottom. The absence of a financial safety net means many households struggle to manage unexpected shocks, and a significant portion of the population can have net negative wealth (more debt than assets).
Distortion of Democracy and Power: Extreme wealth translates into disproportionate political power, allowing the rich to influence rules and policies in their favor, such as through lax inheritance tax laws. This creates a vicious cycle that entrenches inequality and erodes public trust in institutions.
Amplification of Other Inequalities: Wealth disparities amplify existing inequalities based on race, gender, and geography. For example, studies show significant wealth gaps between ethnic groups and a substantial difference in average wealth between men and women.
Environmental Harm: Consumption patterns of the wealthy elite drive higher carbon emissions, while the poorest populations, who contribute least to climate change, are often the most vulnerable to its impacts.

Regional Inequality

Wealth inequality is a global issue but is most severe in certain regions. Brazil, Russia, and South Africa have the highest Gini coefficients for wealth inequality in 2024, indicating a highly concentrated distribution of assets. In contrast, countries like Slovakia and Belgium exhibit more even wealth distribution, often attributed to strong social safety nets and policies promoting broader asset ownership.

Future Outlook and Recommendations

Experts warn that without significant policy interventions, such as progressive taxation and stronger social safety nets, the current high levels of inequality are likely to persist or worsen. The next decade is projected to see trillions of dollars in wealth passed down through inheritance, which, in the absence of effective inheritance taxes, is expected to further entrench wealth disparities and undermine social mobility.

Andy “Ed” Edwards ghost hunter in Poldark mine Cornwall

My brother would have been 53 this year on Saturday November 29^th

Andy with his dog Sam and Andy’s son Ben with his dog Defor

Had by brother survived his moment of madness, when he took his own life I know there would have been so much more joy to have come through and for him in his life path no matter which road it could have led him down. I was doing a Google search about him tonight as I know there was information on him on the internet about being a paranormal investigator and wondered what I migth still find.

I found the video below which I just find too spooky to watch myself of my brother from beyond the grave talking to ghosts. Its just a bit too spooky and close to comfort for me to listen and watch. I know he is still around and sends me and mum signs of his presence, for me it might be buggering around with the electrics on my nights out singing karaoke, as if he is having his moment up on the stage up there with me too, when I get up and sing. I can often get electric lights flickering next to me for no apparent reason too and it often makes me think it’s simply him saying hello bro.

I know there are lots of people that don’t believe in the supernatural and they believe it to be either fraud or coincidence. But for me though not religious I am very much a spiritual person and believe and hope that right and light will triumph over wrong and darkness wherever and whenever it must or can.

Ghost box In Poldark Mine Cornwall UK with GHOST- Andy “Ed” Edwards, Soph Beharrell & Nettie Tasker.

Furthe rinformation on this page on youtube says the following – This was filmed in 2010 at Poldark Mine Cornwall UK. with GHOST UK. A team of Paranormal Investigators – Andy “Ed” Edwards, Sophi Beharrell, Jeanette “Nettie” Tasker & Simon Colgan. (Simon was unavailable for this investigation) This was the first time we had used the Ghost box aka Spirit box in the mine with amazing results. We have investigated many places, but found the mine to be a perfect place to use the Ghost box. We have experienced the draining of the batteries from our equipment many times, but you can see from this investigation this also happens with Soph’s Video Camera. Thanks for watching.

Huwspace a cyblog, written by man while being inspired by machine (ai)

A cyborg is a being with both organic and biomechatronic body parts, a term that is short for “cybernetic organism” part man and part machine. So with that in mind I am sometimes starting to write my page now as a cyblog part written by me and part inspired by machine or ai. I can ask questions and search for inspiration on Google ai and then expand on those ideas with my own thoughts, ideas and words. Part Huw manmade part machine inspired hence a cyblog. I also now often use WordPress ai to generate images for the site such as the welsh dragon at the typewriter image which is a visual imagining of me as I am from Wales and I was also born in the year of the Chinese fire dragon. So flaming two stones with one dragon breath.

I also wanted to have my blog assessed by google ai today and this is what it says about the blog:

“Huwspace” is the name of a personal blog and associated social media presence run by an individual named Huw. The creator uses the platform to share personal views, reflect on life experiences, and discuss a range of topics including politics, family, friends, and music.

Key aspects of Huwspace include:

Political Commentary: The blog often features opinion pieces from a left-leaning perspective, with the author identifying as a progressive activist and supporter of parties like Labour and the Greens. Topics often include critiques of capitalism, discussions of global politics, and social justice issues.
Personal Reflections: The author shares details about his life, including dealing with the loss of his father, his experiences with dyslexia, enjoying karaoke, and meeting new people.
Engagement: The author aims to use the platform to share his worldview and engage in discussions with a diverse audience, including friends, colleagues, and readers from across the world.

Sit Down By The Fire by the Veils

The Risks of Buying on Facebook: My Experience

For those of us that use Facebook to stay in touch with friends and family through it, you might have also noticed that there are a lot of adverts these days appearing on your screen on Facebook, advertised all sorts of things fronted by people and business that have set up pages to pay Facebook to advertise their products on.

I purchased 2 t-shirt’s from Facebook from a website that was advertising its items from a USA website called Soulisfree and the T-shirts arrived and fit as the correct size as sold and I really liked them, one was a black t-shirt with a full sun equinox taking place on the front of the T-shirt and the other as pictured below was called ‘Wandering into the digital world”. The image was one that looked like Alice in Wonderland lifting up a curtain to reveal the code from the matrix in her reality. I thought both T-shirts were cool and looked great. I was so pleased when they both safely arrived with me back in September.

The buying of the T-shirts gave me a false sense of security that buying on Facebook might actually be ok and could have improved since the bad old days of items turning up wrongly sized or misadvertised. So back in September I started getting a lot of adverts promoting advent calendars and one that caught my eye was entitled ‘The Lord of the Rings Christmas Advent Calendar – Collector’s Edition’. I have never bought an advent calendar for myself, don’t own a Christmas tree or decorations but thought it might be a nice idea to buy the calendar and possibly even use the advent calendar items as Christmas decorations and even get a Christmas Tree.

I thought the little figures looked great and what could go wrong trying to buy them on Facebook too, Facebook is a big company with a multimillion pound slick business operation what on earth could go wrong. so I purchased the calendar from a chinese company advertising its shop on Facebook.

Well that was the middle of September when I tried to buy the above item and I don’t think anything is on its way. I had a confirmation of purchase and confirmation of postage sent to me but everything else has gone wrong. The (none Facebook, website crashes when I try to click on it to get an update on my order or ask them when it might arrive). The company has also stopped advertising the calendar on Facebook although they still have some other active calendar adverts on Facebook.

I have tried contacting Facebook asking the to remove the advertising page from their site and shut down the businesses advertising pages on Facebook to stop more people giving this business money for goods that do not arrive. It took me about 4-5 hours to work out how to make a complaint on Facebook and I did this with the help of google search, but its very difficult to complain about past adverts, unless you know what your doing on Facebook.

It’s almost deliberately difficult so that people just don’t bother reporting past fraudulent sites and pages on Facebook which is a huge con by the companies and criminal entities pretended to sell stuff through Facebook shopping windows. Facebook are not stupid and incompetent they are complicit with the the criminal activity taking place through their pages.

Fortunately for me I purchased the imaginary calendar through a PayPal payment and so PayPal have already refunded my purchase and so I am not out of pocket. But for those that end up handing their account details directly to criminal entities operating on Facebook I do feel sorry for those potentially mis sold customers as you just don’t know what they will do with those account details once they have them. I also don’t know why Facebook make it so easy for people to be ripped off through their site, very poor customer practises which they must profit from considerably.

What if 24 hour satellite television news had existed in 1945?

When Hitler invaded Poland and started World War 2 would the news stations have been beaming around the world his justification for going to war and would we have been relying on journalists cleared by or operating within the rules of what the Nazis deemed as appropriate to broadcast to ‘inform’ us of what is going on in Germany and the countries being conquered by the Nazi regime. What a question to consider you might say.

But it really does feel in Russia, Israel and to some extent news from the White House in the USA, it is very much in a one directional form of information presentation. Which we are handed on a plate and if unpalatable then tough luck sucker this is the perspective we are telling you is truth today.

For example Russia entered a righteous war in Ukraine and did not invade a sovereign state for its strategic advancement. You think the fascists in Russia are bad you should watch the videos about the fascists in Ukraine their much much worse than the Russian ones or so the propaganda machine journalists of the Russian state would have people believe as some conspiracist lap this up as so called food for thought.

In Gazza there is an outright genocide through starvation and bombing which our satellite television channels keep on tuning into Israel governments propaganda machine very much like if during World War 2 a Nazi spokesperson explaining live on TV the importance of workcamps to set people free and house jews within them and completely denying the gas chambers as malicious gossip.

In the USA millions of dollars of oversee life saving food, aid and healthcare programmes have been stopped overnight which will lead to the death of citizens across the globe whilst ICE’s US deportation teams kick people out of the country or detain them within the country with out due legal process if not costing lives certainly severally impacting on lives and the big lie reported live on satellite TV by the US governments team is that illegal immigrants are all rapists, murders and drug dealers and therefore need to go.

Its never been easier to report bullshit as fact and facts as bullshit on the TV. Truth is still truth though and facts are still facts, it just so happens I seem to spend more time these days trying to tune out the lies and bullshit than I do tune into fact and truths.

I’m as mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this anymore! Speech from Network (1976)

Blocking the rivers of trade

Stopping the flow of money & watching some rivers of finance run dry, all for an experiment that will fail and a crash and burn to the US economy.

If we were still in George Orwell’s 1984 novel then the great trade war has begun and if it was up to Trump no matter what damage he does he will be reporting this war as a victory. No matter how many jobs are lost he will be reported as improvements and gains and no matter how much money people loose they will be reported as having increased and gained.

The normal rivers of Economic trade being blocked and dammed by Trumpian probable failing economic policies will cut deep. Damaging both economic systems across the globe and Trumps ego and people’s perception of him as an intelligent and knowledgeable business man. Trump likes to see himself as a brilliant business man and an assumption of this brilliance should be a keen understanding of international economics and trade is unravelling before his eyes and stock markets around the world and recessions are on the horizon while his attempt to block flows of trade fails for the USA and rest of the world. Trade and flows of trade will likely find a way even if this is further away from the USA rather than directly to it. Yes, Trump it will be a painful transition for many but what no one can really predict with and clear insight is what the change will look like and what that change ultimately leads too. Will it result in more or less jobs and money in the USA in the long run is yet to be seen.

Economic policies and trade from country to country can be viewed as flowing of goods and services to and from places across the globe. These flows are natural and part of economic cycles. Where there is financial clout to purchase goods and services and where there is an ability to produce and design, market and provide excellent goods and services and then transport them across the globe then these flows of products and services are natural economic eco systems that take place. It’s a consumers market and Trumps policies go completely against the free flow of consumption and he fails to allow the flow of trade and consumption and in my opinion Trumps policies will ultimately fail just like many of his other policies.

But the fact that he sees himself as such a great business man means that this failure will likely hurt him the most as well as his own country the place he is in fact trying to make great again. With the shocks to share and trading markets and likely continued break down in flows of trade and consumption this will be a damming of the river of financial, goods and services trade. Jobs will be lost, goods will go up in price and business will go out of business.

Trump says that the USA has been treated unfairly, what he is really stating is he does not agree with the economic flows of finance and he is conducting a global experiment that will likely fail for him and cause more damage to USA and global business than good for goods and services. Trump cannot buy rivers of flow and Trump can not force the USA consumer or businesses to by USA goods and services. Freedom of consumption is natural to human markets and trade he’s peddling ideas and views that will fail and meddling in economic markets and trade flows he simply just does not understand. Like a bull in a china shop its likley there will be a crash or two of the economy.

Oddschecker.com is it really worth paying for a subscription to have a bet?

Next week is the Cheltenham horse racing festival in the UK – it is the BIG celebration of horse racing in the UK and for those that enjoy watching horse racing and having a punt and putting a bet on that is the week to do it. But there are so many horses at so many different odd to bet on that it’s very easy to not know which horses to bet on and see who will win or who will lose.

There are websites out there that have people that recommend the horses that they think are most likely to win on the day of each race, but even when you follow the tip of a good tipster there is no guarantee that any horse they say might win a race will win. The Cheltenham festival is a week when if I try to have a bet I make sure I set a limit to how much I bet because chances are I will lose most bets and it is likely I will lose money and so it’s important to only bet what I can afford on my budget to lose. Betting should really be looked at by me as a bit of fun, a challenge a gamble and not in a any way a way of making money or profiting from.

I tend to place 1 or 2 £3 bets on four horse known as a lucky 15, 10 pence each way bet, each day during the Cheltenham festival and use sites such as Oddschecker.com to help me decide which horse to bet on. Last March in the week before the Cheltenham festival the Oddschecker.com website started charging people £10 to view all the tips on it’s website concerning which horses to bet on. This was incredibly annoying at the time as this service has been free for years with tipsters such as Andy Holding recommending which horses to back during the Cheltenham festival. I kind of assumed and hoped the site would always be free to view tips on.

So to start charging the week before the the Cheltenham horse racing gold cup festival seemed really harsh back in 2024 but I though £10 a month to pay to see what horses Andy Holding recommended was not too bad. So I paid my money and took my chances and placed my bets. I don’t remember if I won or lost last year which meant I did not have a big win but likely did not loose that much either and probably broke even betting for the fun of it and not for the win.

Well it’s now Sunday 8^th March 2025 and my subscription to get bets for £10 a month has just today stopped working suddenly even though I’m still paying Oddschecker.com my subscription of £10 a month for what now appears to be a complete waste of money and no tips. Oddsecher.com are now asking for a subscription charge of £34.99 per month for what was once £10 if I still want to get tips from Andy Holding for next week’s Cheltenham festival, which does feel extortionate.

Considering I normally only spend £3.00 to £6.00 a day on bets and there now asking me to pay an extra £34.99 a month to see tips so as to be able to place a bet. It feels like an excessive rip off and out of my budget and will not increase the amount of winners I back if I start paying £34.99 for a subscription tipping service that was recently completely free. I would like to cancel my subscription of £10 month but they also offered me a share in a horse called Unknown Journey so I am going to decide later whether to cancel my current subscription of £10 a month for what now is just for a share in the owning of a horse with no horse racing tips with it and the tips were my main reason for agreeing to a subscription in the first place.

There are other sites to consider in order to be able to gain tips from tipsters that are good at picking horses that sometime win. The best site that is still free for tips is attheraces.com Hugh Taylor is a person I follow on this website that offers good tips but there are disadvantages to following his tips. Firstly he does not always have tips every day and also when he backs a horse the odds then narrow and so you don’t always get good odds on the horses that he backs because lots of other people are tipping the horse too, so you don’t get good odds on the horses he chooses and just because the odds are lowered does not increase the chances of a horse winning. On the attheraces.com website there is also Lawrence Taylor’s speed ratings tips and I like theses as these are six good tips everyday on race horses that he recommends to put a bet on, but one downside is you do not know what the odds are on the page and have to go to a new page to look up the odds for betting on his choice of horses.

If you are able or willing to want to pay for tips then there is also another Andy Holding website that is expensive it’s called andyholdingspeedfigures.co.uk and costs £39 per month to see the horse he recommends placing bets on. To be honest I signed up years ago on a trial discount rate for Cheltenham week festival tips and it looked and felt like they overly gave you lots of stats about horses to back but the site was very confusing and complicated and did not help me know which horse to pick to place a bet on. It’s too expensive for me to have a yearly subscription but I am tempted to try it for a month when the Cheltenham Gold cup week takes place and just see what the site looks like now.

My final thoughts are if you have an addictive personality, a small income or gamble money that you cannot afford to lose, please just don’t do it. Betting on the horses is no way to make, earn or win money. Know your limits and if you not betting to play a game or you try to chase money you have lost or need it’s potentially dangerous and just not worth it.

I bet you don’t make money or win a lot but the fun of watching the races and betting small amounts on bets you can afford to lose is a lot of fun. I don’t think the paid sites are worth there subscription fees and just because you pay a company website to tell you which horse to place a bet on does not guarantee that a horse will win. Best of luck though whatever you do.

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: