Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The many ways tarrifs will hit electronics

spectrum.ieee.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

101–110 of 184 posts

Re: The many ways tarrifs will hit electronics

#101

Post by rsynnott »

mindslight wrote: post #8

Let's just call it what it is - a national sales tax. The only way significant bottom-up manufacturing ecosystems would come back to the US would be through targeted government investment, long term stability, and effective anti-trust enforcement - all things beyond the current administration. If three decades of economic neoliberalism was a steamroller crushing our industrial base, the Trumpist solution is to just t…

It's worse than a national sales tax; sales taxes generally only apply to finished goods. Tariffs also apply to manufacturing inputs.

Re: The many ways tarrifs will hit electronics

#102

Post by bigbadfeline »

SoftTalker wrote: post #49
andsoitis wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Income taxes are progressive while tariffs are regressive, so those under $150k are likely to be worse off.

About 3/4 of households make under $150k/year. Having no income tax will be hugely popular with them. It would kill the argument that Trump is only interested tax breaks for the rich.

I don't see the numbers though. Tariffs are a compete non-starter as far as government revenue goes, "income from tariffs" on the "countries that have been robbing us" is mere theatrics (those countries only accepted what was given/pushed to them)... Ergo, borrowing remains the only option, with lots and lots of inflation. I'm not sure how popular that will be.

Re: The many ways tarrifs will hit electronics

#103

Post by ivewonyoung »

wing-_-nuts wrote: post #61
Workaccount2 wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Trump wants to get rid of income taxes for those earning under $150k. He most likely intends to pull out the financial pillar of income tax, and replace it with tariffs. He is likely waiting for the price crunch to blow up so he can step in an give everyone the "gift" of no income tax.

>Trump wants to get rid of income taxes for those earning under $150k. Getting rid of income tax will require legislation from congress. If we're in the midst of a tariff induced recession, what are the chances his party keeps congress in '26? Also, remember when the British government tried to pass a massive tax cut funded with debt? Remember how that went down? The chances of the US being able to get rid of income…

> Getting rid of income tax will require legislation from congress. If we're in the midst of a tariff induced recession, what are the chances his party keeps congress in '26?

The optics of Democrats voting against a full tax cut for those earning less than $150K would be interesting to say the least.

Re: The many ways tarrifs will hit electronics

#104

Post by spencerflem »

square_usual wrote: post #96
spencerflem wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe its just the two I was looking at, but the Dell G16 was on a best under $1k list and is $1600 on best buy, and my almost brand new Zephirus G14 that got killed by a spill (rest in peace) went from $1200 when i got it to $1700 on best buy as well. Acer Nitro V kept its price at what the reviews said and that's what I ended up getting, but still weird that 2 of 3 changed

Are you sure you are looking at the exact same configs? I looked up both G16 and Zephyrous 14 and on Keepa.com their price hasn't moved that much. The notable exception is that their prices dropped quite a bit for Amazon's President's day sale, but both of those had prices hold steady (i.e. within the +-10% range) since then.

Possibly not, I was doing this in a pretty big hurry & was frustrated. Apologies if this was all FUD

Re: The many ways tarrifs will hit electronics

#105

Post by sorcerer-mar »

davidw wrote: post #27
wing-_-nuts wrote: post #15

I've honestly never understood the point of the tariffs. 1. They're massively unpopular and likely to cause electoral losses in '26 and '28 which will immediately undo them 2. Consumers know the tariffs will likely cause a recession, and will likely be undone in 4y. Pretty much every major spending purchase that can be delayed, will. 3. Companies know 4y is not enough time to invest in new supply chains or new manufa…

People keep acting like there is some plan or higher thought process. Sometimes, people are just morons. Look at how Bessent had to sneak in and try and get the tariffs paused: https://www.wsj.com/politics/policy/trump-tariff-pause-navar... There's no coordinated strategy there.

You know he’s an actual idiot based on his latest proclamation that he won’t escalate further against China because “then people won’t buy.”

We’re already way, way beyond levels that effectively freeze all trade between the two countries.

Which, if we’re to believe the sycophants, is just the price to pay to onshore manufacturing.

Re: The many ways tarrifs will hit electronics

#106

Post by knowitnone »

carlosjobim wrote: post #22
mindslight wrote: post #8

Let's just call it what it is - a national sales tax. The only way significant bottom-up manufacturing ecosystems would come back to the US would be through targeted government investment, long term stability, and effective anti-trust enforcement - all things beyond the current administration. If three decades of economic neoliberalism was a steamroller crushing our industrial base, the Trumpist solution is to just t…

How many American houses are built in China? How much American rice is grown in China? How much American lumber is chopped in China? How much American electricity is produced in China?

Are you going to make a point or just ask questions?

Re: The many ways tarrifs will hit electronics

#107

Post by mrguyorama »

Workaccount2 wrote: post #19
wing-_-nuts wrote: post #15

I've honestly never understood the point of the tariffs. 1. They're massively unpopular and likely to cause electoral losses in '26 and '28 which will immediately undo them 2. Consumers know the tariffs will likely cause a recession, and will likely be undone in 4y. Pretty much every major spending purchase that can be delayed, will. 3. Companies know 4y is not enough time to invest in new supply chains or new manufa…

Trump wants to get rid of income taxes for those earning under $150k. He most likely intends to pull out the financial pillar of income tax, and replace it with tariffs. He is likely waiting for the price crunch to blow up so he can step in an give everyone the "gift" of no income tax.

This is entirely contrary to their other supposed goal, which is to bring back manufacturing. If we bring back manufacturing, tariffs won't pay our bills, because nobody will pay them.

It's almost like it's bullshit.

Re: The many ways tarrifs will hit electronics

#108

Post by sorcerer-mar »

rsynnott wrote: post #97
wing-_-nuts wrote: post #15

I've honestly never understood the point of the tariffs. 1. They're massively unpopular and likely to cause electoral losses in '26 and '28 which will immediately undo them 2. Consumers know the tariffs will likely cause a recession, and will likely be undone in 4y. Pretty much every major spending purchase that can be delayed, will. 3. Companies know 4y is not enough time to invest in new supply chains or new manufa…

Trump's been obsessed with them since the 80s. That seems to, er, be... about all the rationalisation that is required. No-one thinks this is a good idea; he managed to dig up the world's weirdest economist to give his blessing, and that's about it.

The world’s weirdest economist who then made up an even weirder economist to bolster his case.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/16/us/politics/peter-navarro...

Re: The many ways tarrifs will hit electronics

#109

Post by sorcerer-mar »

SoftTalker wrote: post #94
tzs wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or it would make it politically quite tenable to get rid of tariffs and greatly raise income taxes on people making over $150k.

They already do pay the vast majority of income taxes.

The main takeaway from this fact being astonishment at just how much the top 1% really earns!

Re: The many ways tarrifs will hit electronics

#110

Post by spencerflem »

bashevis wrote: post #100
cj wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I tried using https://camelcamelcamel.com/ to find some examples of this, but no luck spotting obvious price increases. Curious what brand you were looking at?

I'm the cofounder of https://PriceLasso.com where we do price tracking and price drop alerts on 150+ sites, and so far seeing little in the way of price increases. Some news sites reported Logitech products went up in price, but from we can see these are normal seasonal patterns.

Ah, maybe it was just unlucky timing then.
Post reply on HN