The recent surge in prices in the United States has sparked widespread social concern. Taking eggs as an example, the price of a 12-pack in California supermarkets has reached $8.99 (about 63 RMB), compared to less than $5 three months ago. The average price of eggs in New York has soared to $11-12, with organic eggs breaking the $1 per piece mark. The increase in daily necessities is equally astonishing, with a Chinese-made anti-hair loss shampoo rising from $18 to $30 (about 219 RMB), and similar domestic brands also increasing by about 40%. Basic goods such as toilet paper and toothpaste have become key items for stockpiling. In Los Angeles, some Chinese families are reviving the barter tradition, exchanging tofu for eggs, shampoo for fever medicine; in Harlem, African-American residents raise chickens on balconies to maintain their protein sources. Retired groups organize group buying to get discounts.
However, the real crisis is erupting among the working class: food expenditure for workers earning $15 an hour has risen to 38%, and workers in Detroit have had to suspend pension contributions to make ends meet. A survey by the Brookings Institution shows that support for the trade war among voters in the Rust Belt has plummeted from 58% to 29% within three months. The agricultural sector has also been hit; soybean export prices have fallen below planting costs, and Kansas farmers warn that if China’s retaliatory measures continue, about 20% of small and medium-sized farms will go bankrupt before the harvest in autumn.
The surge in prices is a direct consequence of the United States’ new round of tariffs on China. The 25% import car tariff that took effect on April 3 has pushed the price of Honda CR-V from $39,000 to $49,000. Among the 104% tariff list on Chinese goods, 60% involves daily necessities and intermediate products, most of which have very low price elasticity. The Economist Intelligence Unit points out that about 90% of the tariff costs are ultimately borne by consumers. For example, 30% of the raw materials for shampoo depend on China, and tariffs directly increase the final retail price by 55%-70%. Due to the severe lack of domestic manufacturing capacity in the US—such as 80% of plastic product molds in California supermarkets relying on Ningbo, and 60% of textile raw materials in Ohio coming from Yiwu—the impact of tariffs is like “punching oneself in the mirror.” The Federal Reserve Bank of New York estimates that this round of tariffs could raise the US CPI by 2.3 percentage points, with core inflation approaching 6% again. Meanwhile, the US savings rate continues to decline; in the first quarter of 2025, the US personal savings rate dropped to 3.1%, the lowest since 2008.
The current situation is very similar to the trade war triggered by the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930. In fact, consumers—especially the already impoverished working people—are in this predicament mainly because of mutual tariff increases among imperialist powers. Raising tariffs causes the prices of imported goods to rise, reduces competitiveness, and forces consumers to spend more on basic needs, lowering their absolute wages. The extra money spent by consumers all ends up in the pockets of bureaucrats, who then subsidize the domestic bourgeoisie. When a bottle of shampoo costs more than twice the average manual worker’s wages, or a dozen eggs equal half a day’s labor income, the working people can no longer accept such deadly exploitation. The powerful repression of the American bourgeoisie and the wrong path of the yellow unions cannot prevent the outbreak of the communist revolution, nor can they reverse the wheels of history.
