201–210 of 443 posts
I recently had to buy some transformers, and had no other choice but to get bent over. The price more than doubled at checkout.
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The demand side in particular can be tweaked by human factors, though. We have advertising because the level of demand isn't some fundamental cosmic constant of the universe like the speed of light. "The price went up 10%, that must be the 10% tariffs" is something consumers will inherently understand… but it's not the case. The 10% is not on the on-the-shelf price; it's on the wholesale price the importer's charging…
You can increase demand as high as you'd like. If people don't have money to buy it, they're not going to buy it.
Are they going to show the cost of tariffs for other countries as well? Or just partisan hackiness?
All respected economists on all sides of the political spectrum agree that tariffs hurt the economy. The current President is the only political actor pushing for tariffs.
Reminding people that tariffs are a tax on the consumer is not a partisan issue; it is transparency and plainly economics 101.
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The best way to avoid this kind of behavior is to avoid shopping at stores where you can’t trace the origin of their products. Stop buying “brands”, and looking for “deals” and acting like a consumer. Do research and find high quality products, pay more for those products, buy less disposable junk. This isn’t just a “China” thing it’s in general.
This is actually the exact reason for the existence of brands. You absolutely should buy brands, and stop buying random "RANDOMCAPITALLETTERS Product 1" But yeah, what people think of as good, high-quality brands often are not.
If you're buying good copper cookware the manufacturer "brand" matters, they build a reputation for having quality products, ideally continue to make those quality products at a fair price, etc. and life is good.
But then there are brands and unfortunately when we use the term brand we wind up lumping together "high quality brands" with "cheap, useless dog shit products" and it can be difficult to differentiate. At least for me and my limited vocabulary.
Is this a reputable news site? There are some warning signs that make me believe it’s sponsored content. It feels less like news and more like propaganda?
https://www.theguardian.com/business/live/2025/apr/29/hsbc-t...
> The Trump White House is furious with Amazon over reports that it plans to display the cost of tariffs on items it sells.
> Press secretary Karoline Leavitt has just given the company both barrels, at her briefing with the media today.
> Leavitt claims the move is “a hostile and political act by Amazon”, and asks why Amazon didn’t take a similar step when inflation hit 40-year highs under the Biden administration.
I’d like them to add a Made in USA section where people can find tariff free products that support local businesses and workers.
People won't use it. Even with tariffs, stuff is still cheaper than made in usa. People are going to be pissed that a basic clothes iron now cost $80, but they will not go buy the $225 that is made in texas or wherever. Especially when it is no better, and likely even worse, than the $80 one.
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100% this. I’d take it a step further and say that sales tax should be included when you are logged in and it can be anticipated, like is the case in most other countries.
Sales tax cannot be per-calculated, since it is charged on the total sale. Rounding errors will get you. (when I worked fast food 30 years ago one value meal was $3.18, but two were $6.27) The government pays attention to this type of thing and they will get you for those pennies. (remember there are many governments, it is possibly all the local governments in question would decide not to pay attention, but that doe…
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Supply and demand can both be impacted by perception, which can be tweaked by humans. If tariffs increase the wholesale cost of an item by $1, but you can make consumers think $5 retail is what the increase should be, that’s an extra $4 in your pocket. Economics education doesn’t stop at 101 for a good reason. “Supply and demand” is like “veins carry deoxygenated blood” - it’s largely true, but further learning revea…
> Supply and demand can both be impacted by perception, which can be tweaked by humans. Supply and demand is impacted by many factors, but it’s still supply and demand. You can put different labels on different components of the influences, but at the end of the day it’s still supply and demand.
What a pity we accidentally gave Nobel prizes out for things like game theory, then.
If consumers see two products, one from China and another from Vietnam, both with their tariff markups listed, I have a feeling they’d pick the Vietnam product more often due to the lower markup. This makes Trump happy because he clearly wants us to stop buying Chinese products.
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> Some sectors have been doing this for years - "service fees" at restaurants... If the additional fees is government-forced, such as taxes, then it makes sense to display it separately. You are throwing government-forced costs and regular business costs in the same bucket. If tariffs should be included in the listed price then why not taxes?
These generally aren't taxes. These are conservative business owners complaining about having to pay a living wage rather than a poverty wage. When the rent goes up, the prices change. When insurance goes up, prices change. When labor costs go up it's a "service charge"? That's garbage, just set your prices accordingly.