4 ms·
If the cost of food doubles, your cost of a meal out doesn't double, but merely increases by a lesser amount. This is a 25% bump, a portion of which will be bo
by mchannon 8y ago
If the cost of food doubles, your cost of a meal out doesn't double, but merely increases by a lesser amount.
This is a 25% bump, a portion of which will be borne by the manufacturer, seller, shipper, and money handler.
I don't see how it's even close to possible for customs to intercept 50% of the mail coming in from China to ensure they've paid the tariffs.
So, things will range from unenforceable and unenforced, to a minor price increase, so small most of us would never notice. Akin to a minor currency fluctuation that everybody who doesn't use or peg to the US dollar has to deal with already.
If you can afford the time to be a maker, this will not impact anything at the end of the day.
- mtw 8y agoThis is just wrong. If the cost of food doubles, then price of eating merely increases by small amount ?? Where did you get that fact? Any studies??
- lallysingh 8y agoI think he's taking about the other parts of our food costs: distribution, storage, etc. Those won't be affected by tariffs, so they dampen the effects of the tariff a bit.
- megaman22 8y agoYour $25 steak dinner cost about $6 in foodstuffs. If a tariff raises the cost of that raw material to $8, it would be absurd for that entire meal to now cost $32. Much of the cost in restaurant prices is wages, and rent, and other overhead, not the actual food.
- tinus_hn 8y agoThe overhead also grows because the waste is more expensive. Also if things the employees need, like food, become more expensive, they’ll need more wages.
- danieltillett 8y agoYou are correct, but most restaurants just multiple the food cost by 4 to set the price. It is rather silly, but that is the way the industry works.
- mchannon 8y agoI don't think it's silly to come up with a pricing method that is simple and uniform to apply. However, "4" can just as easily morph to "3" or "5" if the fundamental costs change industrywide.
- danieltillett 8y agoIt is silly because food cost is only one part of the cost of providing a meal. Really all of the costs should be dumped into a program which spits out exactly what to charge for each menu item.
- lallysingh 8y agoGenerally I'd think that customs would enforce the bigger importers (via size weighted random selection), and slowly with their way down.
- onion2k 8y agoIf the cost of food doubles, your cost of a meal out doesn't double, but merely increases by a lesser amount. If the manufacturer can't make a profit at the tariff-burdened price, they just don't make the food in the first place. So you go hungry.
- mchannon 8y agoOr they raise the price. Then they just don't sell as much, leaving you to either consume less food or buy cheaper substitutes (retaliatory pork tariffs should mean cheaper bacon back home, shouldn't they?). Asked no serious manufacturer ever: "Gee, should I use this minor setback as an excuse to shut my entire operation down or slightly adjust my prices?" New suppliers may spring up, or existing suppliers may change locales. The economic system is like a stream and tariffs are like a boulder. It'll flow around, under, and over. Sucks if you are splat upon the boulder, though.
- onion2k 8y agoWe're talking about food. You can't just put up a farm and start producing a few weeks later. Depending on the crop it can take years before a farm is productive. So no, new suppliers don't just 'spring up'. This sort of economic activity can lead to food shortages.
- frockington 8y agoThis is why the US subsidizes agriculture so heavily, so they can quickly spin up more farms
- tstrimple 8y agoIt's so that we have a surplus of farms and product and won't need to defy physics by spinning up new productive farms quickly. It's a buffer in case of emergencies and disasters.
- HeyLaughingBoy 8y ago
- searine 8y ago>If the cost of food doubles, your cost of a meal out doesn't double, but merely increases by a lesser amount. Easy to say on a full stomach.