3 ms·

> So what's the harm? Imagine you're making a product that is produced in America (or you import it wholesale from China) and conforms to American standards fo

> So what's the harm? Imagine you're making a product that is produced in America (or you import it wholesale from China) and conforms to American standards for product safety - fire resistance, toxic chemicals, electrical safety, IT security, EM emissions. Now, some Chinese cloners come, clone your product but shart on all the regulations, cut corners everywhere and sell it for half the price or less on Temu. You're out of business, your employees are out of jobs, the US taxman is out of all of your tax revenue, and to top it off people complain about "your" product being faulty/incompliant/dangerous because they got shipped illegitimate clones. In the worst case people actually die in their sleep because the shoddy li-ion battery cell erupts in flames. Everyone suffers from this form of unfair competition. > Besides, Amazon and Wal-Mart are often (in some retail categories even usually) middlemen for Chinese manufacturers. Indeed, but at least Wal-Mart makes rigorous QA for everything they sell in a store (they're known to be especially cut-throat). And Amazon at least gives you your money back no questions asked.

krupan 2y ago
This whole scenario assumes that the majority of people are just plain dumb, and if that's the case then we are screwed as a society no matter what regulations and tariffs you put in place
- mschuster91 2y ago
  > This whole scenario assumes that the majority of people are just plain dumb No, but price-driven. That's the point. Temu, Shein and whatnot other "fast fashion" is successful because they are so much cheaper than the competition (who has to pay for shipping, customs, ...), and an ever larger part of Western populations has to struggle financially every single paycheck. Replacing domestic or even mid-quality Chinese clothes with Shein is just like the Boots theory [1]. The problem is, once too much of the lower income bracket falls away on the demand side, anything of higher quality on the producer side doesn't have enough of a market to sustain itself. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boots_theory https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boots_theory
  - krupan 2y ago
    I so want to give you credit for referencing Sam Vines, but in all seriousness, people are going to notice that Temu isn't actually cheaper than Amazon or even Walmar, and that the quality sucks, and your doomesday scenario isn't going to play out. We definitely don't need Trump's tariffs to solve the percieved problem
lupire 2y ago
If Chin poisons itself to make goods for USA, instead of USA poisoning itself, that's good for the USA. China chose to take that risk. Not a "citizen of the world" perspective", but a nationalist perspective.

krupan 2y ago

This whole scenario assumes that the majority of people are just plain dumb, and if that's the case then we are screwed as a society no matter what regulations and tariffs you put in place

mschuster91 2y ago
> This whole scenario assumes that the majority of people are just plain dumb No, but price-driven. That's the point. Temu, Shein and whatnot other "fast fashion" is successful because they are so much cheaper than the competition (who has to pay for shipping, customs, ...), and an ever larger part of Western populations has to struggle financially every single paycheck. Replacing domestic or even mid-quality Chinese clothes with Shein is just like the Boots theory [1]. The problem is, once too much of the lower income bracket falls away on the demand side, anything of higher quality on the producer side doesn't have enough of a market to sustain itself. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boots_theory https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boots_theory
- krupan 2y ago
  I so want to give you credit for referencing Sam Vines, but in all seriousness, people are going to notice that Temu isn't actually cheaper than Amazon or even Walmar, and that the quality sucks, and your doomesday scenario isn't going to play out. We definitely don't need Trump's tariffs to solve the percieved problem

lupire 2y ago

If Chin poisons itself to make goods for USA, instead of USA poisoning itself, that's good for the USA. China chose to take that risk. Not a "citizen of the world" perspective", but a nationalist perspective.