This San Francisco tax agent is scared he’ll lose his job if Trump replaces income taxes with tariffs. Dave Ramsey said this is his ‘wake-up call’

Wake-up call

Raj and Ramsey agree that the odds of income taxes being replaced by tariffs are low, as tariffs alone would not come close to replacing the trillions in income-tax revenue the U.S. collects annually.

The Peterson Institute for International Economics estimates that Trump’s proposed tariffs would deliver $225 billion per year. In contrast, the U.S. Treasury collected $2.43 trillion in individual income taxes plus $500 billion in corporate income taxes in fiscal year 2024.

“The chances, three days after he is sworn in, that you don't have a job are zero, so we don't have to worry about this today,” Ramsey told Raj.

But he added that Raj should consider this moment “as a wake-up call to go, ‘Hey, maybe I want to do something with my life that's more than just taxes; Maybe I want to broaden my horizons.’”

Ramsey recommended that Raj take a professional course to add new skills or experiences allowing him to work in related fields like finance or accounting.

Diversifying your skills and upgrading your professional expertise is always a good idea.

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Lifelong learning and upskilling

As the economy continues to evolve, the skills workers need to find and retain employment are expected to change more and more rapidly. In 2024, 58% of workers surveyed by the World Economic Forum said they believed the skills they need to do their jobs would change significantly in the next five years.

Meanwhile, 90% of workers in a Deloitte survey said keeping up with changes in their industry would require that they update their skills annually, at a minimum.

With this in mind, the best way to bolster your career and enhance your value in the workplace is to adopt the perspective of a lifelong learner. Add skills and seek out experience in new fields whenever you have the chance.

These moves can also mitigate the risk of your role becoming obsolete when the market shifts or, as Raj fears, government policies change.

Proactively boosting your talents is better than desperately seeking out employment if your job or industry becomes redundant.