The New York Post reports that Republican senators in key battleground states are now facing political turbulence from a trade war with Canada — a country that shares not only a border but the better part of a continent's commerce with the United States. Experts cited in that report suggest the tariffs could cost the party control of the Senate. I find myself less interested in the electoral arithmetic than in the household one.

Here is what I know of trade from a long life near the counting-house and the print-shop: a tariff is a tax. It is collected at the border, yes, but it is paid at the store. The farmer who sells grain north and buys Canadian lumber south is squeezed from both ends. Call it a negotiating lever if you like; the lever still lands on the working person's back.

The Post notes that this is, in their words, "a trade war of their own making." I will not assign blame by party — parties are instruments, not principles — but I will observe that a government which imposes costs and then hopes the voter will not notice them has misread the voter entirely. Working people are excellent accountants of their own pain. They may not read the tariff schedule, but they read the price of softwood at the lumber yard and the cost of a new roof.

I spent years as a colonial agent arguing that trade restrictions imposed without the consent of those who bear the cost are a form of tyranny, however dressed. The direction of the restriction — whether it flows from a distant parliament or from one's own capital — changes the politics but not the economics. The household still comes up short.

What should a sensible citizen do while governments play these games? First, understand that the price you pay today already contains yesterday's policy. Second, where you can, buy in bulk before further rounds hit the shelf. Third — and this is the counsel I'd press hardest — make yourself heard. Write to your representative. The postal road, or whatever network serves in its place today, exists precisely so that the governed may instruct the governors. Silence is consent, and consent here is expensive.

A nation, like a household, grows wealthy by producing more than it consumes and trading the surplus honestly. A trade war is two households throwing crockery at each other and then tallying the broken dishes as a victory. Neither is richer for it. I trust the voters in those battleground states understand this, even if the strategists do not.