Their profits are soaring

things haven't gotten worse. Have you tried to ship anything lately? Fabricate anything? Prices for materials, shipping, and labor have all dramatically increased.

We have to generate wealth...you do that by producing/manufacturing goods. Looking at rising costs alone is a silly way to gauge things, you have to look at the overall picture, and outsourcing all of our production is not only a national security risk, it reduces our ability to make money.

What do you think happens when somewhere like China has a 15% tariff on imported vehicles, but we only have a 2.5% ? Who benefits when someone like BMW moves their new production line to China? We certainly don't, sure it might help keep the cost of your new 3 Series down, but it's at a huge expense to the American economy via all of the jobs and supporting businesses that line would have bolstered here. This is the big picture a lot of people seem to miss.

There's also much less risk to the supply chain if you can source domestically. Covid, the Japanese tsunami, and a number of other events have shown us how risky relying on global supply chain infrastructure can be. Here's a good example: You know what Kubota did after the Japanese tsunami when they couldn't get tractors to the US market? They built a huge facility in Georgia bringing in tons of jobs and supporting surrounding businesses. Same principle applies here, we can use our market size as leverage to bring manufacturing in.

Free trade only works when you have fair trade, and we don't currently have that with countries like China.

dawghater23

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we're aligned on the sentiment

Apr 18, 2024, 9:34 AM [ in reply to Not a dig at you ]

and broader market outlooks / consequences. I won't get into the politics of the situation b/c I don't really care for it.

as you know, I'm pretty staunchly anti-government, and lean more towards an anarcho-capitalist view than anything else - thanks to you guys pushing me to figure out what I like and ####.

so, this is an absolute ironic, "against my ethos", perplexing position for me to take, I get that.

BUTTTTTT

what're the other options?

We can't rely on the market because the market is being swayed by a more centrally planned regime than we have. And that centrally planned regime is obviously doing what they can to undercut us at every turn. From an FX, trade, military, data, friggin you name it, they're coming for us.

By letting the market do its thing, in this instance, we look up in a generation and we're $36T in debt with a electorate / workforce getting more useless and stupid by the decade. Our GDP is propped up by government spending, and our capacity to be self sufficient as a nation mimics that of a 7 year old, despite having nearly all of the resources and human capital necessary to achieve such an objective (hell, we were there like 40 years ago).

I'm open to relying on our trade partners in this hemisphere. I myself have used thousands of tons of Korean steel (like someone else mentioned). I'm open to FAIR trade in free markets.

But #### China. We need to bury them and then step on their ####### chest after we run them over and start highstepping it into the endzone.

On the flip side, the way I see it, costs of doing business in the US are increasing. To bring back true GDP here, we've got to circumvent this and (although I hate saying this with all of my might) curb our adversaries from manipulating any markets that directly compete with US entities. The only way I can see to do that is for the government to put their thumb on the scale.

All this boomer #### over the last 40 years got us in this mess. And they're mostly the ones bitching about it.

I'd wager 75% of American billionaires (not in media or tech) leveraged Chinese manufacturing and cheap labor to get there.

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In previous conversations, quite a few of you were against this

Tariffs just mean another tax, and they both = inflation.

not according to

I'm certain that's what they say

It's okay... Their media will cover for them.***

Anyone with actual knowledge knows that Biden has been MUCH tougher....

Yea, He and Hunter had some strong words for China via WhatsApp

Where's my fly swatter?... Better yet, where's that wasp spray?***

I take offense to that

Selectively specific.***

They're still bad

How do you compete with countries that essentially use slave labor

Which in turn raises costs and hurts the supply change

I don't buy that they're gouging us, frankly I think it's a miracle

Are you insinuating youd like to see price controls then?

Absolutely not

define bad

Not a dig at you

The hypocrisy is you trying to justify a 180* flip-flop...***

we're aligned on the sentiment

The other options aren't great

I don't make or manufacture anything that doesn't involve Sudafed

like artificially increased

Bad idea under Trump, bad idea by Biden.

Agreed. Feels like a bad election ploy, too.***

'tis the season!***

Re: In previous conversations, quite a few of you were against this

ok, let's set up a hypothetical use case

Re: ok, let's set up a hypothetical use case

I'm with you man, in principal and practice

You had such an unprecedented rise

If you're pro-massive inflation then this policy is for you...

I'm not discounting this as a consequence

Sounds like we should roll back regulations that hinder domestic

Re: Sounds like we should roll back regulations that hinder domestic

I would think environmental regulations probably play the biggest role in

Could be...I'm not really sure...

Re: In previous conversations, quite a few of you were against this

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