Trump announces 25% tariff on all imported vehicles!

[Trialmaster]

Markets are still in FREE FALL this morning in Asia and now Europe. Peoples pensions as well as manufacturing confidence are very weak.

Straight question, who actually advised Donald this was a good idea?

 

[Tazzieman]

Markets are still in FREE FALL this morning in Asia and now Europe. Peoples pensions as well as manufacturing confidence are very weak.

Straight question, who actually advised Donald this was a good idea?

Dump advises himself.

 

[Gaffer]

Lool so you do support American sweatshops then?

In a word, yes.

Most of us take jobs that are not precisely what we dreamed of when we were young. We do the work because we are paid to do it and, in some sense, we gain satisfaction from from knowing that people benefit from the end product, even textiles.

A counterargument to my view is published in today's WSJ "President Trump proclaims his tariffs will bring manufacturing jobs back to the U.S. Good luck finding workers to fill them. A common lament among employers, especially manufacturers, is they can’t find reliable, conscientious workers who can pass a drug test....Blame government, which showers benefits on able-bodied people who don’t work while at the same time subsidizing college degrees that don’t lead to productive employment." Columnist Allysia Finley concludes that "There’s dignity in any work, a message that deserves to be emphasized by the president. The decline in work among young men is a far bigger problem for the nation’s economic and cultural vitality than the decline in manufacturing jobs. It can’t and won’t be solved with tariffs."

I would add to Finley's last sentence the word "only". Both the financial incentives and workers' sense of dignity must be in place.

 

[Tazzieman]

Both the financial incentives and workers' sense of dignity must be in place.

In the West , yes.
Everyone aspires to be somewhere in the middle class.
Except the rich class. They are like the 144,000 Jehovah's witnesses that get their place next to god in heaven.
And the rest can go to hell {which is what Trump et al really thinks )

 

[DaveB]

Markets are still in FREE FALL this morning in Asia and now Europe. Peoples pensions as well as manufacturing confidence are very weak.

Straight question, who actually advised Donald this was a good idea?

In my experience I think Donald used to ask Daffy for advice

 

[Tazzieman]

In my experience I think Donald used to ask Daffy for advice

Where does Goofy fit in?

 

[LabRat]

Typical bad faith posting right here, ad hominem shit that should be reported

Every job should pay a living wage, but my head isnt in the clouds and as such I know that no company can sustain living American wages at scale in textile manufacturing. You’d have to be ludicrously out of touch to believe otherwise. Low wage manufacturing is a poverty trap. America should be educating and training its people to continue to power tech and innovation, not to be semi-literate and working jobs from the past century as ya’ll here are touting as laudable goal.

Talk about bad faith posting - nice edit after my response to your one sentence quip.

 

[bigleonski]

Hmmmm, my superannuation manager is suggesting now is the time to buy. It may go down a little further (never try to pick the bottom), but at some point it’ll do what it always does.
Question begs is the market likely to go down significantly more before it stabilizes and then rises?

Anyone have a crystal ball?

 

[LabRat]

Markets are still in FREE FALL this morning in Asia and now Europe. Peoples pensions as well as manufacturing confidence are very weak.

Straight question, who actually advised Donald this was a good idea?

Trump has been talking about the trade imbalance and tariffs since the 70's. Along has virtually all of Democrat leadership. This is nothing new. If you'd like, I'm sure I can find the clips.

Here's one from 1977 -

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View: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DIAshuGtZ4t/?igsh=MXJiZjBsNXpmNTMycQ%3D%3D

 

[Tazzieman]

Hmmmm, my superannuation manager is suggesting now is the time to buy. It may go down a little further (never try to pick the bottom), but at some point it’ll do what it always does.
Question begs is the market likely to go down significantly more before it stabilizes and then rises?

Anyone have a crystal ball?

My balls say "early'' full retirement is now off the agenda for me

 

[BradS1]

Why does everyone assume that just because something is made outside of America that it is inferior quality to made in America.
Mainly related to the electrical and tool industries
I visited one factory in rural China that was making tools, dies and castings for use in Mercedes, BMW and Rolls Royce vehicle component manufacturing.
The factory and workers were equal to the ones I have seen in Switzerland and Germany.
Just paid 10% of the wage for the same job.

How is it an "assumption" if I say "I usually buy from them and they're low quality". LOL

 

[landmannnn]

Clothing is an interesting example The wholesale price of a Vietnamese produced T shirt for example is around 50c (US).

Selling this to a consumer at $10 means that $9.5 dollars is earned in the US. Similar mathematics in most developed countries.

So actually that imported T shirt sale is most beneficial to the destination country, not the producing country.

Of course, doesn't apply to cars, but it does apply to electronic components, toys, footwear etc.

 

[LabRat]

EU's Sefcovic: We have offered the US zero-for-zero tariffs on cars and industrial goods

Taiwan eyes zero tariffs with US, pledges more investment

Vietnam ready to drop all tariffs on US imports

 

[255/85]

Consumerism is based on the abundant supply of of cheap goods; bringing stuff back into the high cost USA manufacturing sector is more likely to raise costs and reduce demand.

For me it is likely to be a win/win; my personal goal is "Reduce, Reuse , Recycle", which is anti-consumerist, and I bought my Grenadier as a forever car, (buy fewer, better quality goods).

Many that suffered near destitution during the Great Depression also ascribe to this sentiment. I learned it from my parents but my thinking was reinforced by the sentiments of the 1960/1970s. Boots get resoled. Clothes get patched. A fuel pump is rebuilt - not replaced. Perhaps the same outlook exists in the UK by those that lived through the privations of WWII?

Breaking the old trade expectations is likely to accelerate the demise of wasteful consumer obsolescence and potentially drive a move to more quality and craft based goods, (which the USA could be good at, but needs a massive reduction in the economic distance between the working poor and the economic elite).

Unfortunately (I fear) the market forces that resist those ideas and the making of products that can be repaired and re-used will never comply. It's antithetical to their bottom line. Why sell to a market of a few hundred million here in the US when there are billions of consumers elsewhere?

We do have specialty companies catering to niche (and sometimes elitist) markets that produce true durable goods, but their products tend to be expensive and require time and skills to be of any value. The working poor do not have either of those luxuries. The economy would have to reach near collapse for someone to start making the modern equivalent of a VW bug or a Morris Minor again. The willing acceptance - or resignation to - a lifestyle that requires work after the workday is through is unlikely to be readily embraced by the poor or even the average consumer who sits further up the food chain.

I found this while digging in a neglected flower bed recently. It's dated 1964. Though still dirty, a clear wear ring can be seen at the bottom of the bottle where it widens slightly. That's from jostling back and forth in a rack while being filled, shipped, drunk from, shipped, sterilized, refilled, and drunk from again perhaps dozens and dozens of times. Would this be acceptable to anyone nowadays? I don't think so.

 

[Fab]

Today, driving my old Grenadier, feeling a bit old myself because I decided I need a new pair of eyes,
I listened to an old song from an old guy, and thought by myself… this is the best song to accompany this thread.

Please enjoy.

View: https://youtu.be/R5mAuPg1ZZw?si=YOUJLNdzwJzjwiuO