4 ms·

A meal might be 15x cheaper, but a phone, laptop, car or anything imported will surely not be cheaper.

nonethewiser 3y ago
> A meal might be 15x cheaper, but a phone, laptop, car or anything imported will surely not be cheaper. Im not sure I understand what you’re saying because it absolutely is orders of magnitude to import phones and laptops. Cars have more tariffs to protect the domestic market so Im unsure about that one.
robertlagrant 3y ago
> anything imported will surely not be cheaper Possibly not, but that can't be solved purely by employers. If a country for whatever reason does not have the economy to support this, this can't be solved quickly. Companies won't pay $15/hr to overseas workers; they'd probably just not spend the money there at all. That's the choice you're giving them. Also - it probably will be cheaper, for three reasons: - the local market won't bear the real price, and while this means less profit, it's still some profit, or presence, or whatever reason the vendor is selling for - a similar but slightly different product might be offered. E.g. I bought a car in South Africa and it was a slightly simpler spec compared to the UK equivalent, despite looking identical - local labour, fuel tax, sales tax, and other costs all increase prices. Driving the goods to a shop and buying them from it is a pretty different cost in different countries.
fragmede 3y ago
There are $50 android phones to a top of the line $1,500 iPhone. These are only sold in developing markets and are unsurprisingly, not very good. but they're better than nothing. cars also have this thing where they're cheaper outside of the US due to lax safety regulations.
- ambichook 3y ago
  its the tariffs, anything not built in the US is insanely hard/impossible to import so they cost a bunch more, but you have a local auto industry. in aus, for example, we flat out don't have such an industry anymore (still mad about holden) and that was in part due to imported vehicles being cheaper

> A meal might be 15x cheaper, but a phone, laptop, car or anything imported will surely not be cheaper. Im not sure I understand what you’re saying because it absolutely is orders of magnitude to import phones and laptops. Cars have more tariffs to protect the domestic market so Im unsure about that one.

robertlagrant 3y ago

> anything imported will surely not be cheaper Possibly not, but that can't be solved purely by employers. If a country for whatever reason does not have the economy to support this, this can't be solved quickly. Companies won't pay $15/hr to overseas workers; they'd probably just not spend the money there at all. That's the choice you're giving them. Also - it probably will be cheaper, for three reasons: - the local market won't bear the real price, and while this means less profit, it's still some profit, or presence, or whatever reason the vendor is selling for - a similar but slightly different product might be offered. E.g. I bought a car in South Africa and it was a slightly simpler spec compared to the UK equivalent, despite looking identical - local labour, fuel tax, sales tax, and other costs all increase prices. Driving the goods to a shop and buying them from it is a pretty different cost in different countries.

fragmede 3y ago

There are $50 android phones to a top of the line $1,500 iPhone. These are only sold in developing markets and are unsurprisingly, not very good. but they're better than nothing. cars also have this thing where they're cheaper outside of the US due to lax safety regulations.

ambichook 3y ago
its the tariffs, anything not built in the US is insanely hard/impossible to import so they cost a bunch more, but you have a local auto industry. in aus, for example, we flat out don't have such an industry anymore (still mad about holden) and that was in part due to imported vehicles being cheaper