Trump vowed to cut food costs, but experts warn metal tariffs may raise prices in a matter of months
Canned foods make up a big part of 20-year-old Cale Johnson’s diet: tuna, corned beef hash, beans, chicken soup, Spam and fruit. They’re affordable and have a long shelf life, which is essential for many people in the US like Johnson, who earns a low income and works two part-time jobs in addition to being a full-time student in Omaha, Nebraska.
In the days after Donald Trump’s recent decision to double tariffs on steel and aluminum, Johnson says he’s worried.
“I know that some people have been resorting to stocking up only on non-perishable goods now before they get more expensive,” said Johnson, who has used the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (Snap) to make ends meet. “There’s a feeling of panic and having to prepare in the coming months.”
Getting us comfortable with shortages. That way, when we stand hours in line for whatever slop Walmart is willing to sell us, “oh well folks we just sold out, try again next week and god bless,” Chris Commuter and Mary Minivan will blame themselves…or Democrats.
It’s not about shortages, it’s about labor. They’re bringing back the “company store”, they’ll get import excemptions and similar and force people to them and lock them into a system they can’t escape.
It makes it so people can’t save money, can’t move, can’t rise in the class system, etc… They can only work.
Edit for clarification: Around the 1900s and earlier, some companies would pay salaries in company credit, not cash. The credits could only be used in the company store, not the general store, or other company stores. So they were literally unable to save up any money or do anything but keep working for the same company until they died. And this would be easily implemented now, by giving company stores special benefits in terms of tariffs and regulations. Forcing less fortunate people into was if effectively servitude.