Literally inflation and prices was one of the biggest factors in the last presidential election, yet now those same people complaining the world was broken are ok with higher prices for years. Tell that to seniors or people living paycheck to paycheck, that they can just put up with it? What happed to the promise of lowering prices in a week that many bought into and promoted? Many have to put up with this, because of ignorance.
13 Likes
I also want somebody to make a serious argument for why we should be trying to eliminate our trade deficit with every single country. (For simplicity letâs ignore that we make a lot of it back on services from Americans like me that foreign entities buy)
How the heck are we going to not have a trade deficit with a desperately poor country like Cambodia? They canât afford stuff that costs enough to make it worth paying American wages to produce. But we are putting a 97% tariff on them because of the trade deficit?
15 Likes
Make America like Russia, where all their domestic products suck (but they do it due to sanctions)
10 Likes
Donât forget, Russia has no tariff⌠because America and Russia are besties.
Comrade, maybe youâll drive a GAZ or Aurus if the lease is cheap enough? An Aurus is basically a misspelled @Ursus. Very quality.
7 Likes
You know what ultimately inspires genuine onshoring efforts?
Global War.
1 Like
All you gotta say was âcheap enoughâ
1 Like
The GMC Terrain would like a word.
1.5L. 
2 Likes
Some of the onshoring stuff just blows my mind, like should we all have chickens in our back yards to grow eggs and a loom to produce T shirts , would that be a better structure for society where we are all somehow better off?
5 Likes
This is just one of many things you should have lol
2 Likes
Im mean you should grow some of your own food its healthier and teaches you a skill.
1 Like
Along with this after you have grown and processed your own cotton, called Eli Whitney to run it through your own cotton gin, used the water wheel in the stream outside to power your cotton gin and the loom because your leg is tired and then find the seamstress to make your shirt:
5 Likes
Thread is too long, so not sure itâs been mentioned before.
It took 20-30 yrs of near-slave labor in China for it to reach its manufacturing dominance and expertise. A whole generation was raised to be experts in manufacturing. China is no longer cheap for manufacturing, but they provide expertise for a very low cost comparably.
These things donât happen in 4 years, they take a long time. Combine that with automation and robotics, manufacturing jobs where thousands are employed is not happening.
Unions, wage laws, benefits, etc, itâs cheaper to invest millions in automation than deal with human labor.
White collar jobs are going away with AI, blue collar jobs will go away with automation.
The best case scenario with these tariffs is the reciprocal tariffs come down.
8 Likes
In the past this has not been the case after the IRA was passed a lot of companies announced that they will start production in the US and now we have the cars on the road.
Hyundai for example announced in May 2022 their new Georgia plant and by the end of December 2024 they started production there.
Thank you for laying the ground work for changing the goalpost. Hey, at least youâre not trying to gaslight people that tariffs will bring the price down. 
3 Likes
The secondary and tertiary effects are often negative and widely unacknowledged by proponents.
Sugar tariffs decimated the candy manufacturing industry in the states. The effect was trading tens or hundreds of manufacturing jobs for every job âsavedâ in the sugar industry.
And industries that rely on artificial economic barriers such as tariffs, subsidies and regulatory hurdles to be profitable donât attract many competitors so they are vulnerable to becoming monopolies or duopolies. So one or two plants go offline and then almost immediately shelves are empty. Nobody who needed formula and couldnât find it has forgotten the panic they felt or how every buyer became an immediate hoarder. This is also how black markets start.
This had been in the works for a long time before it was announced. Nobody can make this kind of investment without studying the long term feasibility very seriously.
7 Likes
Agree with first part, 2nd part disagree. I donât think thereâs really any âinterestâ in a deal - and the market seems to be implying this today. This was clearly billed as a way to âget backâ at the world for perceived trade imbalances, which, btw, are not actually âbadâ. It just means we buy more from somewhere than they buy from us. There will be significant tit-for-tat escalation, especially on the part of the chinese and likely Europeans. At the end of the day, even if, and itâs a big if, these are negotiated away, the damage has been done. Even with no trade barriers, US goods and services are now considered toxic to many of these nations. They are, if you will, Tesla, for a majority of US ev buyers.
7 Likes
A post was merged into an existing topic: Off-Topic Landfill 6
I think if manufacturing moves back to the US it is with AI, robotics, automation, etc. with more tech/engineering/technician jobs than working-class ones.
Iâve been deeply involved in Animation/VFX/gamesdev for a long time and have seen the booms and busts and the return of off-shore animation to US/Canada and those waves were to due technology (2D used to be labor intensive with colorist and in-betweeners). But of course as technology spreads⌠globalization happens and now we have Animation/VFX/game companies around the world whereas it used to be mostly in US/Canada/Japan. Itâs NOT about costs most of the time⌠itâs about where talent is. US/Canada have a limited talent pool.
One thing carmakers can do to avoid tariffs is to price the physical vehicle lower and charge software service fees or lease the vehicle only (VinFast was thinking of leasing the battery). Carmakers can pull an Apple (or Coca-Cola) and shift the IP rights to zero-tax countries like Ireland. Heck.. I can see Apple doing this. The new iPhone 17 is only $100 tariff value-wise with a yearly $200 service fee and you never can own it.
2 Likes
It was earlier than stated but it was so quick because this was a unique site. The State of Georgia had actually purchased the land with hopes of attracting an automaker after Volvo looked at the site and then backed out and built in South Carolina. Also Georgia kicked in $2.1 billion dollars.
Companies will be much more willing to build factories in America with multi billion dollar incentives attached.
1 Like
Letâs use Vietnam as an example. A poor country that has a very minimal tariff on us. Should they buy Rolexes while living in huts made of twigs? This is a nightmare for anyone that has a basic concept of economics and cars are just one of many pieces of the puzzle.
6 Likes