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I didn't support the trade war myself, but I listen to NPR and in the last few months heard them do a number of stories about how the war is affecting consumer

I didn't support the trade war myself, but I listen to NPR and in the last few months heard them do a number of stories about how the war is affecting consumer prices and how we're all supposed to be impacted. Yet I don't notice any inflation from the war at ground level. I don't think the listeners noticed either. It seemed like the story was designed to point something out that otherwise would have no impact on people.

chewmieser 7y ago
I work at a company that sells mainly imported goods from China. We ate most of the tariffs in 2019 but you can bet that most of our prices increased in 2020 to reflect the tariffs. So just wait a little bit longer...
- mikeyouse 7y ago
  One more anecdote but a family member's company was put out of business due to the trade war.. small shop, only a handful of employees sourcing factories in China (and Honduras / Italy / Vietnam) for much larger US companies to produce goods for sale worldwide. Think when a large US Firm wants to start producing furniture or fixtures from speciality materials (brass, sustainably sourced mahogany, etc), someone has to be on the ground vetting techniques and doing QA. Sourcing in China had grown to be >50% of their business. It's the type of thing that won't make the news but certainly devastating to a group of hard working people. My family member had carved out a decent little niche as a manufacturing specialist after the globalization wave off-shored all production at the furniture company they had previously worked for.
  - SlowRobotAhead 7y ago
    One more anecdote... our company makes things entirely in the US by choice. Our competitors bring knockoff garbage in from China, they have been hurting, we’re doing very well.
    - mikeyouse 7y ago
      Which is great and commendable.. that's what the industry my family member worked in used to be like. Until the decision-makers offshored it all and decimated huge swaths of working class US. There are tons of people who don't make decisions about this kind of thing trying to get by. Maybe the trade war was worth it, maybe not, but there are real people with their livelihoods on the line suffering the whims of some really apathetic people. I'm curious what industry is making things entirely in the US anymore? Even something like a Tesla Model 3 is 50% non-US these days.
      - ThomPete 7y ago
        Cant we agree that shipping of jobs to china was wrong and that trying to correct it is right? On more or less all metrics the economy is doing better lowest paid salaries are rising faster then managers, people are starting to save again, jobs are coming back. The trade war is necessary to save the US economy from the same faith Europe is about to get if they dont start taking a stance against china.
        mikeyouse 7y ago
        Sure, If there’s something that can be done to level trade, let’s do that. It’s just unfortunate that many of the same people whose industries were ravaged by outsourcing had found ways to exist in the post outsourced world, and were again ravaged by this new trade war. Maybe that’s a necessary cost but it sure is a cost on the backs of people who’ve already paid a lot. Peter Navarro, who’s directing White House policy in China, was literally hired by Jared Kushner googling for experts who were China critics and finding his ‘Death by China’ book. He is essentially a crank with no academic support and as soon as he was elevated to the national stage, people found substantial fabrications in that book. I have next to zero faith that this crew is the one who is going to right the trade ship.
        ThomPete 7y ago
        What's your base for calling him a crank? He literally predicted the issue with China and got no credit for it. I don't see a single argument in your post.
- ThomPete 7y ago
  the tarrifs are mostly being eaten by china deflating their currency in order to continue selling to the us market. China is more relying on us for their economy than we are on them.

chewmieser 7y ago

I work at a company that sells mainly imported goods from China. We ate most of the tariffs in 2019 but you can bet that most of our prices increased in 2020 to reflect the tariffs. So just wait a little bit longer...

mikeyouse 7y ago
One more anecdote but a family member's company was put out of business due to the trade war.. small shop, only a handful of employees sourcing factories in China (and Honduras / Italy / Vietnam) for much larger US companies to produce goods for sale worldwide. Think when a large US Firm wants to start producing furniture or fixtures from speciality materials (brass, sustainably sourced mahogany, etc), someone has to be on the ground vetting techniques and doing QA. Sourcing in China had grown to be >50% of their business. It's the type of thing that won't make the news but certainly devastating to a group of hard working people. My family member had carved out a decent little niche as a manufacturing specialist after the globalization wave off-shored all production at the furniture company they had previously worked for.
- SlowRobotAhead 7y ago
  One more anecdote... our company makes things entirely in the US by choice. Our competitors bring knockoff garbage in from China, they have been hurting, we’re doing very well.
  - mikeyouse 7y ago
    Which is great and commendable.. that's what the industry my family member worked in used to be like. Until the decision-makers offshored it all and decimated huge swaths of working class US. There are tons of people who don't make decisions about this kind of thing trying to get by. Maybe the trade war was worth it, maybe not, but there are real people with their livelihoods on the line suffering the whims of some really apathetic people. I'm curious what industry is making things entirely in the US anymore? Even something like a Tesla Model 3 is 50% non-US these days.
    - ThomPete 7y ago
      Cant we agree that shipping of jobs to china was wrong and that trying to correct it is right? On more or less all metrics the economy is doing better lowest paid salaries are rising faster then managers, people are starting to save again, jobs are coming back. The trade war is necessary to save the US economy from the same faith Europe is about to get if they dont start taking a stance against china.
      - mikeyouse 7y ago
        Sure, If there’s something that can be done to level trade, let’s do that. It’s just unfortunate that many of the same people whose industries were ravaged by outsourcing had found ways to exist in the post outsourced world, and were again ravaged by this new trade war. Maybe that’s a necessary cost but it sure is a cost on the backs of people who’ve already paid a lot. Peter Navarro, who’s directing White House policy in China, was literally hired by Jared Kushner googling for experts who were China critics and finding his ‘Death by China’ book. He is essentially a crank with no academic support and as soon as he was elevated to the national stage, people found substantial fabrications in that book. I have next to zero faith that this crew is the one who is going to right the trade ship.
        ThomPete 7y ago
        What's your base for calling him a crank? He literally predicted the issue with China and got no credit for it. I don't see a single argument in your post.
ThomPete 7y ago
the tarrifs are mostly being eaten by china deflating their currency in order to continue selling to the us market. China is more relying on us for their economy than we are on them.