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White House announces 25 percent tariff on Chinese tech goods

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Re: White House announces 25 percent tariff on Chinese tech goods

#301

Post by crunchlibrarian »

luma wrote: post #28

I guess my earlier comment was too long, so let me provide a shorter version: this action actively harms anyone attempting to design, prototype, and manufacture electronic devices in the US. There isn't a single component in the projects I'm currently working on which isn't impacted by this. My cost of goods just went up by 25% across the board today in an effort to help "protect" American businesses. I don't feel li…

I understand your point and am not in favor of these tariffs, but does anyone else think it's kind of silly that every single chip and component and interface comes out of China?

How much of the tech industry goes poof if they decide to stop exporting to the US entirely? Seems like a precarious position.

Put another way that might make more sense to your average HN reader: what if all software came out of China like all hardware does? Wouldn't that concern you? I'd imagine some folks here would struggle to pivot to a new field outside of development.

Re: White House announces 25 percent tariff on Chinese tech goods

#302

Post by mistermann »

Latteland wrote: post #277
losvedir wrote: post #263

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your comment proves too much. It would equally apply in the scenario where the foreign country is dumping goods to destroy local competition (i.e. the "Walmart destroys local stores" story writ large). And yet, in that scenario most people would be in favor of tariffs. More generally, as I understand it, the reason economic orthodoxy is against tariffs is because of "comparative advantage", and the idea that differen…

The US has higher wages than third world countries for most workers and more than China. So for things that take more human labor, we are disadvantaged if we make them. Those things may be cheaper to but and import. Things with more IP behind them or requiring less labor are more likely to be efficiently produced in the US. So importing those goods that can be much more cheaply in say china or mexico saves everyone i…

It's a negative in the short run, but in the long run as China moves further up the value chain it's less clear, at least to me.

Re: White House announces 25 percent tariff on Chinese tech goods

#303

Post by seanmcdirmid »

orf wrote: post #297
seanmcdirmid wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The USA doesn’t mine it because refining it is economically not competitive compared to Chinese producers who give a damn about pollution laws.

Not sure if Trump and his appointees do either

Trump is just one president against a well-established Nixonian institution. He might be able to do damage, but we won't get to China-level pollution in just one term.

Re: White House announces 25 percent tariff on Chinese tech goods

#304

Post by ojbyrne »

anon23423532 wrote: post #77
tehbeard wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

GP never said China was a victim, just that a tariff screws over US companies, not China.

If manufacturing moves elsewhere and a few million already disgruntled Chinese are out of jobs, Chinese government has big problems. Their impotent threat towards the US ag industry is also laughable when we produce 40-50% of the worlds soybeans and corn. Increasing food prices for the millions of unemployed workers is surely a winning strategy Cheap labor is plentiful, there's only one US consumer market. China has…

Nobody votes in China. There is an election coming up in this country.

Re: White House announces 25 percent tariff on Chinese tech goods

#305

Post by orf »

sheepmullet wrote: post #246
s73v3r_ wrote: post #201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's with this "rebuild the American manufacturing base" part? The US is already one of the top manufacturers in the world.

Then why are people in this thread so convinced they can't compete with China on components even with 25% tariffs?

Likely due to the reasons they have outlined numerous time in their comments.

Re: White House announces 25 percent tariff on Chinese tech goods

#308

Post by robotbikes »

ravitation wrote: post #274
abiox wrote: post #229

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "Bringing back local jobs" is the entirely wrong way if so, what is the right way?

Workers need new jobs, most likely in new industries. That's how it's always worked. But a coal miner learning a new skill/new skills is a lot harder for him than just getting his old coal mining job back... Unfortunately one of those (well maybe both of them) isn't going to happen. This is just as true for steel manufacturing.

But is this supposed to go on ad infinitum ? What if at some point the new jobs created are worse than the jobs that were lost ? Does everyone in the US need to have a so-called service job or else be an information worker ? And to what end l so that cheaper items can result in more conspicuous consumption to fuel the accumulation of wealth by those who are lucky enough to own stock and the companies that are profiting from this. I don't know if there is some kind of steady state sustainable economy where enough people have meaningful productive outlets (aka jobs w/o coercive bosses) and we as humans are not extracting or destroying more of the non-human planetary resources than can easily be renewed. But that would seem to be a better goal than whatever the meaningless metric of the GDP in and of itself.

Re: White House announces 25 percent tariff on Chinese tech goods

#310

Post by ravitation »

civilitty wrote: post #284
ravitation wrote: post #224

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And viewing "this" through the extremely more narrow 19th century lens of competition between nation states completely ignores the entirety of 20th century economic and geopolitical thinking.

There's no need to bring mercantilism into "this". If you go to France, for example, most people there buy nicer clothes but less often than consumers do in the US so there is a large industry of artisans whose jobs don't depend on the global competitive landscape. Unlike in the US, these artisans make products that almost everyone has access to instead of catering to the rich/super rich. It's not a question of effic…

This is a very confusing comment.
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