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Shifting Gears

Tariff Talk: A Look Backwards at The Chicken Tax

by Lemmy | May 6, 2025

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Well, the mood’s been a little heavy with all the talk about tariffs as of late. There’s an automotive tax that’s been around for a long time that is a perfect thing to mention if a conversation is getting uncomfortable. And if you’re a car nut, you should at least have some passing familiarity with it—it’s a large part of why the half-ton pickup truck is as common a sight as it is on American roads.

The Chicken Tax is an interesting curiosity that raises plenty of questions. Would the F-150 have been the best-selling vehicle all those years without it, for instance?

They say history doesn’t repeat, but it often rhymes. I wonder if we’ll see any similarly unplanned effects in another sixty years.

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