> Protecting workers from that kind of competition seems fair. Tariffs aren't bad in itself. They are just a tool.

At the cost of consumers paying for goods/services?

Your take is as reductive as the take in the comics.

People in a nation working 5 days a week for 8 hours are getting paid less and less over time. Heck lot of people now need double shifts to make ends meet totaling up to 12 hr or even more. They can only afford a Christmas light from the nation mass producing it by working 6 days a week, 12 hr shift.

And lets not pretend this was only about protecting workers. There were multiple agendas:

1. Bring back jobs 2. Remove trade barriers between countries 3. Make US rich by collecting huge amount of tariffs

All three can't be true at the same time. If jobs are brought back then you aren't going to collect huge amount of tariffs because nothing is being produced outside. If trade barriers are removed then that comes at a cost of slashing tariffs so you can't really collect huge amount of tariffs.

The foolish reasoning highlighted in the comics is the reason there is so much trade war.