With all the talk of tariffs, I’ve seen more or less this argument:
“Once the tariffs go in place, companies will start manufacturing in the USA and that’s good thing.”
However, when I think about being able to manufacture something like a laptop computer, or a car, these are both operations that require a lot of things:
- the input components to build the thing
- skilled labor that can manufacture the thing
- supply-chains that are in place from initial build all the way to retail
The premise seems to be: “OK, tariffs go in, someone INSTANTLY sets up a company that manufactures X, then USA wins”.
However, for someone to want to take the “bet” on setting up a really expensive factory, they’d have to believe that the tariff will be in place a long time, because if it is NOT… then they have made a terrible investment and the new factory will be instantly non-viable.
Am I crazy? Am I missing something? I understand that it would be great if we had domestic manufacturing but it seems like the people that are behind tariffs think you just snap your fingers and there is a factory cranking out laptops, when in my understanding this is a process that requires a huge amount of money and time.
My thinking is that the amount of people / companies in the USA that have enough capital to start up a manufacturing company like this want to make sure it’s a relatively safe bet before pulling the trigger, and if past tariff behavior from Mr. Trump is any indication, we can’t count on these tariffs being present for a long time.
MAGA Morons are fantasizing that all these new high-paying manufacturing jobs will be coming back, but thats not the plan.
The new factories will be sweat shops without safety/ health/ environmental regulations, paying minimum wage (or less, if they can end it). They will primarily rely on teenage child labor, using young people who are desperate for jobs after all the fast food jobs have been automated.
Thats the Sociopathic Oligarchs’ dream.
only the trumpers think so, and no its not, its actually more expensive, you have to build up your own factories, manufacturing plants which cost billions and years to build, and luring TALENt, is going to be very difficult
We have a very difficult time recruiting workers to existing manufacturing plants that have very competitive salaries.
IMO there is something more at work here. I believe he is collapsing the economy on purpose and evaporating everyone’s savings, forcing them back into the labour force under any means. They want to go back to factory towns where workers have zero agency and are at the mercy of their employers. That is the end goal here, the rest of it is just the hand waving show to keep everyone distracted.
It’s not that complex or Machiavellian.
Look at what rich people have done after every recession of the past 40 years and how what’s happened to their wealth after the recovery. The economy crashes forcing middle-class people to sell off what scant assets they own. Even people on the lower end of upper-class tend to sell off assets when the stock market crashes. Super rich people who have enough money to weather the economic downturn buy the dip, gobbling up all those assets people are selling. Then when the economy recovers the rich people make out like bandits (which they are).
That’s all that’s happening. He’s tanking the economy so Musk and his other rich friends can buy the dip and increase their wealth even more when the economy improves.
I don’t get it. Why would anyone be forced to sell their assets? Do they invest with money they actually need? They shouldn’t. Just wait out the storm.
Two things:
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People see because they see the markets going down and want to get out before it hits bottom.
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The bigger issue, though, is that a hell of a lot of people will lose their jobs and have no money. Remember the Great Recession? When the job market is that shitty and you lose your job, there aren’t other ones available. No job means no income. You can apply for unemployment insurance, but that only covers a fraction of the income from your last job. So people can’t afford to pay their bills. When you can’t afford utilities, rent, gas, etc, but you have a 401k sitting there, it becomes the only option to pull money out of that. It’s a super shitty decision to have to make, but when it’s a question of losing your home or sacrificing your retirement, short-term material needs win out.
That would be after their emergency funds run out, which should be at least a year in. But yeah, when it lasts many years…
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Time will tell. It’s all about the layers, but if you look at the current situation at face value, it makes very little sense, ergo something more sinister is a foot 3-4 steps down the road.
It makes complete sense if you are looking at it from the perspective of an oligarch. They are just trying to tank the economy to hoover up even more assets. They’re banking on an eventual recovery, after which they’ll be even richer and more powerful than they are now.
As with most things in life, assuming some grander Machiavellian scheme is usually wrong. People don’t think and plan like that outside of movies and TV. Most people, especially the very rich and powerful, only plan for the short term.
There is no 3-4 steps down the road. They’re just trying to repeat exactly what they did during/after the COVID recession. And the Great Recession. And the '01 dot-com recession, etc, etc, etc.
Except he is using a playbook built by other people that we’ve only seen the gist of. This is manufactured, not eventual. He is also removing all consumer and worker protections. There is more too it, but keep turning a blind eye to just “more of the same” and see where that gets ya. I am saying the same thing as you, but I am alluding to it being a byproduct and not the simple end goal. They want housing under their thumb as well as worker protections and healthcare. There is malicious intent there, I’m sure of it. It is more than the accumulation of wealth.
I find it increasingly hard to tell the difference between a mastermind playing 7D chess with the world, and someone just acting randomly and implementing all kinds of policies at a whim.
Putin is doing the planning, Trump can’t think
Trump was so proud of himself for using the word “reciprocal.” He likely didn’t know what it meant earlier this week.
Do people really think…
Imma stop u there
The problem is you appear to have an IQ greater than that of 6 and so you’re probably not a MAGA supporter. Trying to apply logic to these idiots is a waste of time.
Why would you move to the u.s, and have to pay tariffs to every other country, except for just one?
Also because these tariffs are so overreaching they also include component parts. So you can’t build your laptop because all of the chips are built outside the US so by being in the US you actually increase your exposure to tariffs. Outside the US you can build your laptop without having to deal with tariffs on every single component, then let Walmart pay tariffs to import.
Trumpers are actually dumb enough to believe that factories and jobs pop from the ground overnight and without any costs.
And without immigrant labour. Just good old obese workes who keep the gears spinning.
I work in a Canadian manufacturing company that is owned by a large American conglomerate. When Trump started all these shenanigans, there were rumors floating around that head office was going to move the shop to the US to save money.
Apparently they did a cost/benefit analysis and determined that it would cost them far more than they stood to lose, by moving the operation South, and the returns wouldn’t even begin to come in for at least a decade. They decided that raising their prices to absorb the tariffs, was by far the better option. Even the projected losses were manageable compared to the cost of disrupting their supply chains.
All these tariffs are going to do, is make everything.ore expensive. Nothing else is likely to change.
Trump’s notional plan is to replace income/gains tax (on the wealthy) with tariffs. I have not heard of any meaningful uses being reserved for other nation’s retaliatory tariffs. Logically and morally they should be going to relieve the burden of the US tariffs, but I have never heard how that might be intended to be accomplished.
The last time Trump did this in his first term his tariffs ended up causing businesses to move out of the United States.
