Hey America, are you ready for a non-tariff solution for balancing your books?

When Trump declared an all-out trade war with the rest of the world by slapping "reciprocal" tariffs on pretty much every country, his message was: the ATM machine is closed! All these countries are ripping America off! It stops now!

In his view, whenever there's a trade imbalance, there's also a power imbalance — the one who's buying more than they're selling is getting hosed. Tariffs are supposed to restore some fairness. "Trade deficits are subsidies, pure and simple."

But that's not true. Not only is it not true, it's not the point. There's a piece of the story that's missing here, and Trump seems to be the only one who doesn't see it. The reason all these countries are selling too much to America is that America is asking for it. It's demanding more and more and more.

It cannot satisfy its appetites with its own home cooking: it's gotta order out.

There's an obvious way to fix this, and it's not tariffs. It's much simpler. But at the same time it's exponentially harder, because it insults "the American way" — that god-given right to scratch every itch, indulge every whim, put everything on plastic and don't pick up the phone when the creditors come calling.

Here's the answer: Consume less. Wayyy less.

Not just that. Consume differently. Buy local. Buy for quality. And as for the crap you've already bought, learn to fix it, maintain it, extend it, and learn to appreciate it, in the way that, say, the Japanese do. Savor the patina and charm and story-value of older things — from furniture to people. Basically just change the way you think about what you buy and have and need. And how much.

That would immediately stanch the hungry-ghost cravings for international take-out. The hitch is, it would of course require a retrofit of an economy that's build on consumerism. Which is to say, an overhaul of Americans' very identity as creatures of entitlement.

Americans would have to rethink who they believe themselves to be. You will have to be a human before you're a consumer. Before you can say no to others, you're gonna have to learn to say no to yourself.

Could this be the end of craftsmanship and the death of our culture's soul?

Fifty years ago, America decided it was the brains of the operation, and needn't dirty its hands anymore. It was moving to a service economy and a financial economy. Anything it needed made, well that could be done in the "shithole countries" for shithole-country prices.

And it worked, just like they drew it up.

But uh oh. Suddenly America found it didn't know how to … make stuff anymore.

Something happens when you stop using your hands: you eventually discover you can't use them. You've forgotten how. You're worse off than a baby.

Funny thing … those hardscrabble places that Trump heaps scorn on — African countries, indigenous communities — they don't have this problem. They still have their hands. And with them, they proudly fashion the things that define their culture.

All these places retained and grew an ethic of craftsmanship. Which is one reason they never bought into consumerism. "The craftsman is proud of what he has made, and cherishes it, while the consumer discards things that are perfectly serviceable in his restless pursuit of the new."*

What can you say about a country that no longer can make the basic things its people count on, from baseballs to wedding dresses … that mortgaged its traditions and folk wisdom? That is a country that has lost its soul.

The craftsman tangles with the problems of a finite earth — solving some, yielding to others, but deeply engaged in life. The craftsman puts the hammer down, makes a choice, churns out a thing of beauty.

The consumer, meanwhile, hastily snatches up whatever's on sale.

Of course now that Trump has slapped tariffs on the world, he put a target on the few American things worth protecting — the few pockets of actual craftsmanship the country left. As Elsewhere hits back, it's boycotting the definitely Yankee things: the Kentucky bourbon and the Harley Davidson motorcycles and the Gibson Guitars.

However this childish bun-fight ends, what's the take-home message? How DOES America balance its books?

Sorry if you missed it the first time, folks: Consume less.