Smallville has population 100 and 3 factories each employing 33 people that make ooo's aah's and Whoopdedos. There people earn 10K a year and unemployed recieve 3k a year unemployment. Smallville people buy the output from the 3 factories and everyone is very happy. Government taxes are 10%. They have 1% unemployment.
Smallville GNI is 99*10k = 990,000.
Gov't Revenues are 99,000
Gov't Expenditures are 3,000.
Gov't surplus is 96,000.
Scruyank has 300 people and they are dirt poor famers barely feeding themselves.
Scruyank offers the owners of Factory #3 $300 employees instead of the $10k smallville workers if Factory #3 is relocated to Scruyank. Scruyank management agrees.
Notice what happens to Smallville
Smallville unemployment jumps to 34%.
GNI is now 66*10k = 660,000.
Gov't Revenues are 66,000
Gov't Expenditures are 33*3k = 66,000.
Gov't Surplus is now $0.
However the 66% that still have jobs, can now buy Whoopdedo's for 1/3 the price that they could before. They are a little bit better off and begin to look down their nose at the lazy 34% that don't have jobs.
Now Scruyank approaches Factory #2 with a similar deal. Factory #2 agrees.
Smallville now has 67% unemployment.
GNI has fallen to 330,000.
Gov't Revenues are down to 33,000
Gov't Expenditures are up to 67,000
Gov't now runs a loss of (34,000).
However the 33% that still have jobs can now buy both aah's and whoopdedos at 1/3 the cost that they could previously. They look down their noses at the 67% unemployed and think if gov't unemployment wasn't so generous these people would have jobs. They worry that their taxes are going to go up because of all the gov't red ink.
This is a simplified version of the economic warfare that China is waging against us.
Finally the last factory relocates to Sruyank. The gov't goes bankrupt and fails. A dictatorship is installed it begins to offer employees for $100 to other countries. The people can not afford to buy ooh's or aah's or whoopdedos. They look back on the days when they had money and could buy cheap aah's and whoopdedo's and blame their lazy countrymen for ruining everything.
If tariffs on imports were the solution, then every Trashcanistan in the world would simply put tariffs on all their imports and turn themselves into economic powerhouses.
Continue to live in ignorance, but don’t expect me to waste my time with your ignorance.