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as a non-USian, I've been doing my part to increase the US trade deficit with my country in the last year I've stopped buying any product from american compani
by blibble 8mo ago
as a non-USian, I've been doing my part to increase the US trade deficit with my country
in the last year I've stopped buying any product from american companies if there is another viable supplier, even if it costs more
heinz, coca-cola, five guys, goodyear (I needed new tyres), aws/gcp, lays, mars, ... all removed entirely
- Insanity 8mo agoLooking at what you’re cutting, you might also be living healthier too! Although these food products are often regionalized.
- blibble 8mo agoyes it seems to be win win, like just completely giving up soft drinks I hadn't realised quite how many "UK" brands were owned by US conglomerates a scarily high percentage
- DataDive 8mo agoNone of these products would be made in the US, though ... and none would affect trade imbalance ... so the net effect might only be to increase inefficiency in your own country
- whynotmaybe 8mo agoHow would investing in locally produced stuff increase inefficiency ?
- janderson215 8mo agoLack of scale or expertise (competitive advantage).
- Arnt 8mo agoIf you pay someone 3x for work/service/product, x is the price and 2x is what you pay to encourage them to make/do the things instead of the people who could/would do it for x. However, you're not paying 3x. I assume you're not really paying anything notably higher than x, right? So the encouragement is nearly zero.
- blibble 8mo agohow much do you think of my £1 can of coke stays in the UK? maybe a quarter? the rest will be a "licensing fee", which goes straight to Atlanta, Georgia (well, now it doesn't)
- dylan604 8mo agoAre cans of coke only £1? The dollar is really weaker than I thought
- nebula8804 8mo agoIts just sugar water.
- dylan604 8mo agoWhat if it's Coke Zero?
- mrguyorama 8mo agoIt is definitely striking that a 2L bottle of local municipal water plus caramel color and a pinch of aspartame costs $2.65 Fucking insane. Coke has a higher label tax than Apple. The other infuriating part is that the generic brand soda is also expensive for some reason. What an efficient market, when generic water can maintain an insane profit margin.
- tatersolid 8mo agoLiquids are heavy. A large chunk of the retail cost in bottled drinks of all types is transport and distribution. The same is true of liquid detergents and soaps and anything else you buy that is mostly water - even fresh produce.
- ben_w 8mo agoDepends where you buy them, but you can get them for half that: https://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/products/273867627?_gl=1*3vnd7i*_up*MQ..*_ga*ODE1ODQxMzMwLjE3Njk4ODE2ODk.*_ga_33B19D36CY*czE3Njk4ODE2ODkkbzEkZzAkdDE3Njk4ODE2OTAkajU5JGwwJGg5MTI3Njc3MzM https://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/products/273867627?_gl....
- armchairhacker 8mo agoBut GP is boycotting big corporations, and presumably replacing them with local businesses. Unlikely any US small businesses because they don’t advertise internationally (and usually don’t ship). In this case, two wrongs make a right: he’s helping his nation’s smaller businesses and not hurting those from the US.
- deleted 8mo ago[deleted]
- slibhb 8mo ago[flagged]
- piva00 8mo agoSo enlighthen them instead of going the route of snarky quips, make it more interesting if you feel they are that illiterate :)
- mothballed 8mo agoOK so you import less American stuff. While still wanting to export the stuff you made to America. So now you're tied up to Trump even more than before. Because you either traded your goods for US investments, or just pieces of paper that only continue to be worth something insofar as the US doesn't bungle their economic and geopolitical policies. Because those are the primary alternatives to settling the trade by getting goods/services back. Why wouldn't you want to cash out and actually get stuff back from the US for the stuff you make for them, if you think the US is headed south? It's not like you're exporting to the US as a charity.
- blibble 8mo agoafter the threats of invasion: as far as I'm concerned the relationship is dead to hell with the economic consequences as a brit, I wouldn't be buying German products in 1939 either
- deleted 8mo ago[deleted]
- stickfigure 8mo agoTo be fair, this is more like 1932.
- watwut 8mo agoThis makes zero sense.
- mothballed 8mo agoHow does it not make sense? When you export things to other countries you expect something back in return of equal value, unless you're just doing it for charity. On a world stage the US imports more than it exports. Obviously all the countries not choosing to settle it by balancing the imports with equally valued exports are still not just donating that difference away, so it must be going somewhere. What did you think that must be? The only option is they must have kept that capital in the US if they didn't export the balance of their trade back out. Kept it in the US because for whatever reason they decided to invest it there rather than get goods/services in immediate exchange or invest in their own country. By increasing the trade deficit you're literally going stronger in on investing in what America is doing.
- nozzlegear 8mo ago[flagged]
- TimorousBestie 8mo agoThe typical demonym is inaccurate. It is more or less “USian” in some other languages, and no one raises an eyebrow. 美国人, 米国人, etc.
- sfmike 8mo agowhats a rice country person?
- khuey 8mo ago"American" in Japanese
- deleted 8mo ago[deleted]
- khuey 8mo ago> It is more or less “USian” in some other languages, and no one raises an eyebrow. 美国人, 米国人, etc. Given that both of those examples come from phonetics for America I don't think that proves what you think it does. It's not 合众国人 ...
- deleted 8mo ago[deleted]
- Macha 8mo agoアメリカ人 is significantly more common than 米国人
- deleted 8mo ago[deleted]
- ajross 8mo ago
- ericmay 8mo agoI've been doing the same, but focusing on American-made products first, the more local the better and even if they're 5x as much, and then moving down the line to western products and only reluctantly buying products from adversarial countries. Supporting local businesses and moving away from globalization, which you also seem to support, is a good move for everyone. Generally the framework is: Buy local/shop at neighborhood businesses preferably selling American-made products or at least western products. When traveling we try to do the same in the country we are located in, but obviously not perfect about it. Buy American generally, including online retailers. The smaller and more local the producer the better. Try and identify American companies that are trying to source from good/ethical suppliers like Patagonia, and avoiding Chinese-owned ones (Arteryx RIP). Buy western - so that's your silk ties from Italy (something like E.& G. Cappelli), maybe French wine, you get the picture. My tires are Michelin and they are fantastic. I understand that the people on the Internet from Europe are really mad at the US (most folks generally don't care at all) but I'm not holding that against them. Same for Canada of course. Reluctantly purchase computers/phones and such made in China simply because there's no alternative. And so forth. Awful products (Five Guys, Lays chips, &c.) are generally avoided even if they're American. Same applies globally. There's no hard and fast rule here for me, but those are some of the general considerations. OP if you like Five Guys style you should try making at home. A great burger isn't too hard to pull off for MUCH cheaper! The article seems reactionary. Imports increasing, for example, maybe be due to temporary (or even permanent!) purchases from ex-US suppliers for things like increasing manufacturing capacity here in America. Obviously the effects and reconfiguration of the global economy isn't going to happen overnight. Mainstream economists have broadly always said that the trade deficit is a good thing for the United States (I can't tell you the number of NPR and Planet Money podcasts with experts I've listened to that have said as much, and also thank you, OP) because it means we're consuming more and receiving more investment and we're trading worthless dollars for the consumption of goods. If you also aligned with the mainstream economics view that tariffs are bad, you'd likely look at an increasing trade deficit with tariffs in place as a very good outcome at least in some respects.
- blibble 8mo ago> Mainstream economists have broadly always said that the trade deficit is a good thing for the United States yes, this is the traditional position but the underlying assumption is that USD remains the world reserve currency and there's now an entire western hemisphere no longer interested in maintaining that
- seanmcdirmid 8mo agoAre you just swearing off American brands (I'm sure those products aren't made in the USA besides AWS), or is it about swearing off American goods like flying in 737s? Obviously, you haven't sworn off HN, which I believe is American made, but I guess that's a niche edge case.
- blibble 8mo agoI don't think you could have paid me to go on a boeing airliner even before recent political events
- seanmcdirmid 8mo agoRyanair is a hard airline to fly on, I guess, I don't blame you.
- lenerdenator 8mo agoif only you lot had done the same with Russian natural gas.