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Perspective Shift

You read this story from where you sit.
Want to read it from somewhere else?

We'll re-present the same story as a thoughtful proponent of the tariffs-aren't-working frame would. Not to convince you. To let you actually meet the argument.

Choose a vantage
Tariffs-aren't-working frame
The independent data is in: tariffs haven't reshored jobs or cut import dependence — they've just rerouted supply chains from China to Vietnam and India while raising costs and creating the uncertainty that actually deters factory-building at home.
Reshoring-takes-time frame
Capital investment in U.S. manufacturing has tripled since 2020 and major firms are committing to American factories; turning that money into operating plants takes years, so judging Liberation Day tariffs by one year of jobs data misses the actual trajectory.
China-decoupling frame
Even if domestic factory jobs haven't surged, U.S. imports from China fell roughly 10 percent in a single year — a meaningful strategic decoupling from a geopolitical rival, which was always part of what the tariffs were meant to do.
Retold from the other vantage
Steelman · slot A
The trade-economist's verdict
A trade economist surveying the Kearney data would argue —
A year in, we have something better than rhetoric: independent measurement. Kearney finds capital spending on U.S. manufacturing has tripled since 2020 yet domestic capacity rose just 1.5 percent, while imports simply rerouted — down $135 billion from China, up $193 billion from 13 other Asian countries. That isn't reshoring; that's a transshipment shuffle from Shenzhen to Hanoi and Chennai. The tariffs raised input costs for American factories, contributed to inflation, and — Kearney is explicit on this — destroyed the policy stability that any rational firm needs before committing to a decade-long plant build. If your stated goal is factories in Ohio, you cannot achieve it by making the cost of building them less predictable every ninety days.

If this read like a fair rendering of the argument — even when you disagree — it's doing its job. Steelmen aren't aimed at persuading you; they're aimed at what the other side actually believes when they're thinking clearly.