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The ironic thing is that tariffs are the right tool to reindustrialize America (over the period of ~a decade) but theyre being wielded with the skill and grace
by pydry 1y ago
The ironic thing is that tariffs are the right tool to reindustrialize America (over the period of ~a decade) but theyre being wielded with the skill and grace of a crack addled ferret by somebody who thinks it's a magic wand.
- jennyholzer 1y agoi don't see any indication that either republicans or democrats intend to reindustrialize america
- bediger4000 1y agoAgreed. This is hermeneutics for Trump's self enriching or just plain dumb actions.
- estearum 1y agoHere's private construction of manufacturing facilities in the US. https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/PRMFGCON https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/PRMFGCON Biden was inaugurated in January 2021 and Trump won the election in November 2024.
- jibal 1y agoBiden's major bills were very much indications of that ... even more so for the version before Manchin took a hatchet to it.
- pydry 1y agoThere is evidence they are trying it just isnt particularly effective. Part of the problem is that it runs up against the corporate lobbies who would rather take a higher short term profit margin, let American industry hollow out and buy gold + a luxury bunker in New Zealand to prep for the worst case scenario.
- selectodude 1y agoReindustrializing America requires people that are actually willing to work in a factory.
- MiscCompFacts 1y agoWon’t people be willing when the cost of living goes up so much and all the tech jobs are gone to foreign labor that they have to work factory jobs?
- giraffe_lady 1y agoMost people don't work in tech. IIRC the most common jobs are retail, food service, healthcare, and education.
- esseph 1y agoAnd we're decimating retail through tariffs, we're cutting as many people as we can out of food service, and we're ending much federal funding around education. Doesn't seem great.
- DrewADesign 1y agoIn my experience, most US tech workers see the non-tech US like most of the US sees the rest of the world: they intellectually understand that they’re a small piece of the pie, but living within an attention and influence bubble subconsciously makes people feel like the center of the universe. This can make average people feel superior and above average people feel exceptional. Like in Garrison Keillor’s Lake Woebegone, where all of the children are above average.
- immibis 1y agoThere won't be any factories since all the capital will be overseas.
- platevoltage 1y agoSo you think going backwards and becoming a developing nation is a good thing?
- amrocha 1y agoWhat do you think happens when all the “developing” nations develop and refuse to get paid peanuts to make your phones?
- mahirsaid 1y agoI never thought America was this fragile, or should i say the governmental mindset was, to just change things are essentially the backbone of what made America "America" in the first place. Changing policies that otherwise should not be changed is dangerous. When in doubt and there needs to be change then make the changes around the preexisting guidelines/settings, not change those first. Whether we like it or not enemies and competitive economies are reliant on our policies and , therefor vice versa. Changing big things first will make you the outcast, especially to our rich economy--relatively moderate population. Vs other economies of much larger population. There is fragile silver lining there to pay attention too IMO.
- fblp 1y agoThere was the pre-existing constitutional authority that congress had to regulate trade, and that was only supposed to be usurped by the president in limited circumstances...
- dboreham 1y agoThe fragility comes from a system vulnerability that nobody expected both the president and the congress to become nihilistic.
- mensetmanusman 1y agoThis is what happens in imperfect systems. The leadership neglected the huge PR disaster illegal immigration was having.
- seadan83 1y agoTariffs are protectionist, does not boost competitiveness. Tends to be the wrong tool, there are better. Tax breaks, grants, physical infrastructure, creation of entire markets - those are better tools. The issue with tariffs is non-competetive companies aren't required to become more competitive. I mean consider it, a tariff is a tax on those buying a specific competitors goods. Even if tariffs were done surgically, still it seams like a tax benefit is a better tool
- 9dev 1y agoI doubt explaining economic basics to an administration that seems incapable of understanding what a value-added tax is will be very fruitful
- pydry 1y ago>The issue with tariffs is non-competetive companies aren't required to become more competitive. Yes they are. They are required to compete on a level playing field domestically and they still have to compete with marked up foreign goods.
- simonh 1y agoUnfortunately it’s more complicated than that. Take car manufacturing in the US. The country doesn’t make enough steel, copper, etc to supply the industry, so domestic production depends on tariffed imports of these and various specialist components. Plus many parts cross the borders to and from Canada and Mexico for various stages of the manufacturing and testing process, incurring a tariff every time. This means domestic cars and many other goods will get a tariff markup on a large proportion of their parts anyway. In many cases it will be cheaper or roughly equivalent to pay a single tariff on a finished product from abroad. In theory it should be possible to bring in staged tarrifs, and use tax breaks and subsidies on on-shore necessary domestic production over time to transition the industry, but that’s not happening and there’s no sign it will happen. The administration doesn’t seem to be aware this is even an option.
- pydry 1y ago