Tariffs 30 years ago possibly could have stopped the manufacturing base from being destroyed, but they're not sufficient to rebuild it. Taxing imports sufficiently that building locally is cheaper will keep your local companies in business, but it's still a very unappealing investment. There's no guarantee that the tariffs will stay in place long enough for you to make money, and even without foreign competition your prices are still limited by demand elasticity. Outright subsidies can work better as they effectively let you raise your price above what people are willing to pay, but there's still plenty of long-term problems.
> Tariffs 30 years ago possibly could have stopped the manufacturing base from being destroyed, but they're not sufficient to rebuild it. Taxing imports sufficiently that building locally is cheaper will keep your local companies in business
Tariffs are like sandbags. If you expect flood surges from an upcoming storm, or even an ongoing storm, sandbags and many hands might well keep your stuff dry for a day or two or even three.
If your shoreline property is going to be under-sealevel due to climate change, sandbags are a ridiculous "solution".
By example, the US car industry famously got fat, dumb, and lazy on a captive market... until the consumers did something unthinkable and bought something that was both cheaper and better made from abroad.
Not every change to US production can legitimately be blamed on politics.
