When writing this we are about 3 weeks away from the change in power from standing president Joe Biden to former president Donald Trump. The former president plans to change a lot of the polices and changes set by the former administration, one of the major issues that Trump touched upon was the struggling economy that was held under the Biden administration.  

During Trumps campaign for office, he constantly mentioned the need for higher tariffs on other countries importing goods to the US. With the goal of this being that American industry sees a boost and the country becomes more self-dependent. 

Critics of Trump have mentioned that the tariffs would cause a rise in the prices of goods, something that Trump promised to lower during his presidency and that many small businesses would struggle to pay tariffs to other countries, widening the gap between the 99 percent and the 1 percent.  

While Trump hasn’t gotten into office yet, many companies have started to prepare for the price hike that they may receive with higher tariffs. Steel companies have started to cut Christmas bonuses from their employees to better prepare themselves for the higher import costs .Even in our local community we could be seeing a hit as small businesses who are going to have to pay a lot more for bulk products from other countries, making it harder for them to compete with bigger companies when it comes to making products that people can afford. 

At the end of the day only time will tell, and I can’t say for sure whether the effects will be positive or negative until we see the country in a couple of years.