You Know Tariffs Are Bad When Even My Wife Notices Them

The damage of tariffs often measures in the billions of dollars, but sometimes the most telling proof of their absurdity arrives in a small cardboard box, or, in my wife’s case, fails to arrive at all.

My wife has never been particularly interested in politics or economics. She politely endures my rants about the Fed, tariffs, or the minimum wage, but her eyes glaze over somewhere between “marginal utility” and “Cantillon Effect.” That all changed last week when her shampoo didn’t arrive.

She opened her email to find a polite but apologetic message from Calia, a Canadian company that makes natural hair products. “Due to new U.S. import requirements,” the email explained, “we have had to place a short hold on your order.” Brokerage fees, customs paperwork, and border bureaucracy had clogged the pipeline.

“Why can’t I just get my shampoo without the government interfering?” she asked, “These tariffs are nothing but a distortionary tax that creates deadweight loss, misallocates resources, and robs both consumers and producers of value in the name of politics.” …

Well, I mean, that’s not exactly what she said, but I know that is effectively what she meant. Really, she just wanted her darn shampoo. But the point still stands that when a policy turns even my wife into a tariff hawk, you know something’s gone wrong.

Tariffs Are Taxes

Politicians sell tariffs as a patriotic policy. They claim tariffs protect American jobs, punish unfair competitors, and safeguard national security. That is what is seen.

What is unseen is that tariffs are simply taxes—taxes on trade itself—“legal plunder” in the words of Bastiat. It is a tax hike by another name. In fact, a report from the Peterson Institute estimates that U.S. tariffs on Canada, Mexico, and China alone cost households on average over $1,200 per year. Like any tax, they create deadweight loss, resulting in higher prices, fewer choices, and exchanges that will never occur. They distort incentives, shift resources into politically favored industries, and shrink the overall economic pie.

They invite rent-seeking and political favoritism. They prop up industries that could not survive, or at least not on their current scale, without government protection. Like Bastiat’s broken window, they mistake destruction for stimulus. They even raise constitutional concerns when imposed unilaterally by the executive.

The true burden of tariffs is concealed behind political slogans and promises. Politicians boast that they are taxing foreign producers. In practice, the burden falls on domestic consumers and firms. They pay more for inputs and goods. This impact is regressive: working families, who spend a higher share of income on tradable goods like food, clothing, and household supplies, shoulder the heaviest burden.

There is even a subtler tax that tariffs impose: a tax on time. They clog supply chains with forms, fees, and compliance checks that create weeks of delay. That wasted time is as real a cost as money out of pocket, though harder to measure. Consider what is at stake: each day, about U.S. $2.5 billion in goods and services cross the Canada-U.S. border. Even minor disruptions ripple across that volume.

If tariffs really made us richer, the reductio is simple. Why stop at 10 or 25 percent? Why not 100 percent? Why not close the borders entirely? The record of history is clear: such autarky produces not prosperity, but scarcity. Yet here we are, repeating economic fallacies that should have died decades ago.

Always Act Naturally

Calia’s company motto is “Always act naturally.” It’s a tagline for shampoo, but it works just as well for economics. Trade is natural. Exchanges that benefit all parties are the logical outcome of the spontaneous order of cooperation. People have always exchanged across borders when it made sense to do so. Tariffs force us to act unnaturally by raising barriers, wasting time, and shrinking choices.

When even my wife (usually blissfully ignorant of policy debates) can feel the damage, it is past time to admit that tariffs are not a clever strategy or patriotic protection. They are a self-inflicted wound, a double tax in money and in time that ripples through every corner of the economy.

If we want a truly free economy, one that respects people’s time, money, and choices, the solution is simple: no tariffs, not more.