Trump says he will introduce 25% tariffs on autos, pharmaceuticals and chips.
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Potato chips are already overpriced!
Really thought they'd grow their own potatoes.
Guess there will be a market in importing whole ones, and cutting them up there.
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You know, just things that nobody really needs to begin with, right?
You forgot your sarcasm tag
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tariffs are just a tax on the plebs. more money for them to funnel into billionaire pockets.
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On the one hand, fostering local production of these goods is positive for national resilience, and also has a chance to reduce shipping around the world, which is bad for the environment.
On the other hand, good fucking luck, lol.
Shipping over water is actually pretty green, since they have huge ships carrying a bunch of containers with relatively little energy.
Building new factories in the States will create a lot more pollution. Concrete is the opposite of green.
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First of all, that's not correct.
Second: emissions aren't the only form of pollution.
Third: the word "shipping", despite the name, includes air transportation;
Fourth: assuming, disingenuously of course, that the factors of the local production process are the same as the remote one, NOT shipping is always going to be more environmentally friendly.Unless, of course, you need to build new production facilities. That's not going to be as green as using the ones that already exist
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No way we're making chips stateside with the Department of Education on the chopping block.
So many schools will close and you sure as shit ain't training people who can make top of the line chips with no fucking schools.
How is the Department of Education relevant? It was created in 1980, and it's not like we didn't have good education before then. It doesn't run schools, and it does a whole bunch of stuff largely unrelated to running schools. Schools are largely funded and run locally, and there really wasn't any standardization of education until Obama's "Common Core," and a lot of states still don't implement it.
Cuts to the Department of Education will largely not impact schools, at least not K-12. Universities could be impacted if federal loans and grants are cut, but that could also be a good thing since it'll cut the cash cow that allowed universities to jack up tuition and dramatically expand administration.
That said, even if engineering departments at universities are gutted, it'll be many years before we see impacts in industry, and there's a very good chance companies like Intel will fund scholarships and whatnot to keep those programs alive.
The Department of Education is one of the areas I think we should make cuts. End the federal student loan program but keep grants (should help cut university costs), end whatever created Common Core (should be an independent nonprofit that states and private schools fund for education research), and keep most of the rest (and probably rename it since it doesn't touch education much anymore). Oh, and investigate university costs to see what else is pushing prices up.
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Japan, Korea, Taiwan and China are not all of Asia. All of East Asia perhaps.
India does too. Not sure about the rest of Asia.
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I was at a hibachi place in December and one of the managers was trying to light a candle. The lighter didn't work and he made a joke that it "must be made in China. It'll cost 25% more soon!" A guy at the table said "well you'll just need to buy one made in Pennsylvania!"
I asked him if he knew of any companies that manufactured disposable lighters in Pennsylvania, and he just said "Trump will make it happen!"
The disconnect is crazy.
Disposable lighters are pretty easy to make though, it's just a lot more expensive to do it here (much more than 25% more). Things will just get more expensive, with maybe a handful of items being made here, but the net result will be more expensive stuff and some new, poorly paying jobs. Yay.
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Except for China-made Tesla right?
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How is the Department of Education relevant? It was created in 1980, and it's not like we didn't have good education before then. It doesn't run schools, and it does a whole bunch of stuff largely unrelated to running schools. Schools are largely funded and run locally, and there really wasn't any standardization of education until Obama's "Common Core," and a lot of states still don't implement it.
Cuts to the Department of Education will largely not impact schools, at least not K-12. Universities could be impacted if federal loans and grants are cut, but that could also be a good thing since it'll cut the cash cow that allowed universities to jack up tuition and dramatically expand administration.
That said, even if engineering departments at universities are gutted, it'll be many years before we see impacts in industry, and there's a very good chance companies like Intel will fund scholarships and whatnot to keep those programs alive.
The Department of Education is one of the areas I think we should make cuts. End the federal student loan program but keep grants (should help cut university costs), end whatever created Common Core (should be an independent nonprofit that states and private schools fund for education research), and keep most of the rest (and probably rename it since it doesn't touch education much anymore). Oh, and investigate university costs to see what else is pushing prices up.
I think you're underestimating the Department of Education's role in preventing red states from destroying public education. They can now do whatever they want with their education system and there is absolutely zero federal oversight coming their way. And you better believe Republican state legislatures are chomping at the bit for this one.
Edit: "champing at the bit" per u/slumberlust
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Disposable lighters are pretty easy to make though, it's just a lot more expensive to do it here (much more than 25% more). Things will just get more expensive, with maybe a handful of items being made here, but the net result will be more expensive stuff and some new, poorly paying jobs. Yay.
In the off chance that domestic producers can make those goods at a price cheaper than overseas_cost+25% guess what they'll charge? The same high price.
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I was at a hibachi place in December and one of the managers was trying to light a candle. The lighter didn't work and he made a joke that it "must be made in China. It'll cost 25% more soon!" A guy at the table said "well you'll just need to buy one made in Pennsylvania!"
I asked him if he knew of any companies that manufactured disposable lighters in Pennsylvania, and he just said "Trump will make it happen!"
The disconnect is crazy.
I know you're talking about disposable lighters but the funny thing is that Zippo is from PA. I doubt they still make lighters in PA and also as a company they only survive off nostalgia because their lighters are pretty bad. You can't leave one sitting in a drawer for more than a few days before the fuel dries up.
I bought a knockoff Zippo lighter insert from China and it's so much better because it's sealed and the fluid doesn't evaporate.
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As the standard of living and pay in the USA quickly tanks and becomes less desirable than where they're from, those people will stop applying for those positions.
They can't force foreigners to sign up for H-1B visas. The whole point is the salary is currently and the USA is currently a desirable place to live. Won't stay that way long. They're literally tearing down all the things that made it desirable to begin with.
Someone commented here yesterday that just as NAFTA allowed manufacturers to export jobs and find reasoning to squeeze blue collar workers, creating a general shift to white-collar work in the U.S., this move is designed to squeeze those higher paying white-collar jobs, so that even more money goes into corporate and investor coffers.
My own addition to that thought is that it seems the natural end product is that the only way to make money once that system has done it’s evil deeds is to have money and be a member of the investor class.Or, in other words - they aim to do to all of the U.S. what Walmart did to small towns across the U.S.
Without a care in the world, obviously. I think the people wealthy enough to not be impacted by this will thrive on exploitation until the U.S. economy is sucked dry to the point of unsustainability for their grift (or revolution occurs), then, like the parasites they are, will take their grotesque wealth and move onto other economies they can exploit.
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Someone commented here yesterday that just as NAFTA allowed manufacturers to export jobs and find reasoning to squeeze blue collar workers, creating a general shift to white-collar work in the U.S., this move is designed to squeeze those higher paying white-collar jobs, so that even more money goes into corporate and investor coffers.
My own addition to that thought is that it seems the natural end product is that the only way to make money once that system has done it’s evil deeds is to have money and be a member of the investor class.Or, in other words - they aim to do to all of the U.S. what Walmart did to small towns across the U.S.
Without a care in the world, obviously. I think the people wealthy enough to not be impacted by this will thrive on exploitation until the U.S. economy is sucked dry to the point of unsustainability for their grift (or revolution occurs), then, like the parasites they are, will take their grotesque wealth and move onto other economies they can exploit.
I've been saying this for years now. The wealthy here are now international wealthy. They don't care about borders. Musk hops his private jet and goes wherever the fuck he wants whenever he wants and no governments seem to be in his way.
They are done with the high standard of living in the US. They think we're coddled and don't deserve it. They're done trying to bring up international living standards to match America and are all-in on bringing American living standards down to match the rest of the planet.
This is the strip-mining stage of American capitalism. They've turned all the economic tools that they used to subjugate South America (Chile for example), using Milton Friedman's Economic Shock Treatment here at home in the US.
They really don't give a damn, they're done with us. We're being dropped like a jilted lover.
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As the standard of living and pay in the USA quickly tanks and becomes less desirable than where they're from, those people will stop applying for those positions.
They can't force foreigners to sign up for H-1B visas. The whole point is the salary is currently and the USA is currently a desirable place to live. Won't stay that way long. They're literally tearing down all the things that made it desirable to begin with.
Especially as foreigners learn how much we seem to want to exploit them. Whether in agriculture, housekeeping, or nuclear physics, the common denominator is taking advantage of foreigners who we constantly profess our hatred for.
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I was at a hibachi place in December and one of the managers was trying to light a candle. The lighter didn't work and he made a joke that it "must be made in China. It'll cost 25% more soon!" A guy at the table said "well you'll just need to buy one made in Pennsylvania!"
I asked him if he knew of any companies that manufactured disposable lighters in Pennsylvania, and he just said "Trump will make it happen!"
The disconnect is crazy.
Here's what I would tell someone that thinks manufacturing is coming back.
Say you're a factory owner and goods are costing too much to import from China. Your trusty Excel sheet tells you that, with the tariffs, you can make your widgets for the same price in America.
But you're a smart capitalist! You know these tariffs are going to end up wildly unpopular and will be rescinded sooner rather than later. In any case, the economy may tank and no one will be able to afford widgets.
Yet another problem is that tariffs will make American widgets toxic on the international market. Canadians are already looking to shed American imports.
Now are you, Mr. Smart Capitalist, going to risk building an American factory and get left holding the bag?
Alternate:
"Know what the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act was?"
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I know you're talking about disposable lighters but the funny thing is that Zippo is from PA. I doubt they still make lighters in PA and also as a company they only survive off nostalgia because their lighters are pretty bad. You can't leave one sitting in a drawer for more than a few days before the fuel dries up.
I bought a knockoff Zippo lighter insert from China and it's so much better because it's sealed and the fluid doesn't evaporate.
That's the thing that the person in the made up story doesn't understand:
Even the majority of "made in america" products are actually "assembled in america". Just like the majority of "chinese knockoffs" are after hours runs at the same factories that make the real thing. Sometimes crappier and sometimes actually better because they sourced better materials from a different factory.
And... that is why we are so fucked. Because there will be the "Well, product A costs more because of tariffs so product B can sell for more too". But also? Product B's profit margins will go down because they are paying for tariffs too. Which gets passed on to the consumer.
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That's the thing that the person in the made up story doesn't understand:
Even the majority of "made in america" products are actually "assembled in america". Just like the majority of "chinese knockoffs" are after hours runs at the same factories that make the real thing. Sometimes crappier and sometimes actually better because they sourced better materials from a different factory.
And... that is why we are so fucked. Because there will be the "Well, product A costs more because of tariffs so product B can sell for more too". But also? Product B's profit margins will go down because they are paying for tariffs too. Which gets passed on to the consumer.
I have no way to prove it obviously but nothing in that story was made up.
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On the one hand, fostering local production of these goods is positive for national resilience, and also has a chance to reduce shipping around the world, which is bad for the environment.
On the other hand, good fucking luck, lol.
If that's the goal, you announce tariffs are coming in a few years so that people scale up local production to avoid the higher costs.
In this case, there was like 4 months notice where all of it was undefined, so of course nobody did anything and now we still don't have local production. Now, prices will go up and local producers (if they even build up) will match the new prices instead of keeping them low.
Congrats, worst of both worlds! We still have no local production and prices have gone up! Yay!
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I was at a hibachi place in December and one of the managers was trying to light a candle. The lighter didn't work and he made a joke that it "must be made in China. It'll cost 25% more soon!" A guy at the table said "well you'll just need to buy one made in Pennsylvania!"
I asked him if he knew of any companies that manufactured disposable lighters in Pennsylvania, and he just said "Trump will make it happen!"
The disconnect is crazy.
BIC probably produces lighters in the US, they have a couple of locations there. It could also be razor blades or ballpoint pens though and the lighters are coming in from Mexico. Or surfboards. Still can't believe they produce surfboards.
Or BIC might exit the US market, the French aren't exactly known to be forgiving or accommodating. If you make their US factories pay 25% on the flints they're importing from another factory elsewhere they might just say fuck it, let's burn this place down, we'll go somewhere where these lighters aren't hit by 25% retaliatory tariffs.
