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When UPS charged me a $684 tariff on $355 of vintage computer parts

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Re: When UPS charged me a $684 tariff on $355 of vintage computer parts

#251

Post by CamperBob2 »

tombert wrote: post #123
CamperBob2 wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Education isn't the problem with Trump voters, stupidity is. Remember that this is his second term. Every American voter had the benefit of four years of "education" regarding Trump's character and competence. A majority of them responded by freely and enthusiastically demanding four more such years.

There's an outright attack on education as well though. The fact that you can become a teacher in Florida without a degree just by being a veteran [1] comes as a result of an exodus of teachers because there has been an outright attack on education institutions. The reasons "why" have been debated but ultimately it is abundantly clear that the issue isn't just stupidity, but also the very act of education itself. The…

The fact that you can become a teacher in Florida without a degree just by being a veteran [1] comes as a result of an exodus of teachers because there has been an outright attack on education institutions. The reasons "why" have been debated but ultimately it is abundantly clear that the issue isn't just stupidity, but also the very act of education itself.

Very true, and just another example of the inspiration the Republicans draw from Russia and other tyrant states.

There's a horrifying story in WSJ today that I hope gets more traction, about how soldiers returning from duty on the Ukraine front are being recruited to teach in public schools. The subjects in question range from flagrantly-bogus Russian history to drone piloting to Kalashnikov and Dragunov rifle skills, and the kids in question are as young as eight. According to a quote from Putin in the article, "Wars aren't won by generals, they're won by schoolteachers." He's got a point there.

Still, even the best-intended education can only plant seeds. If the ground is barren, then the effort will be wasted at best and counterproductive at worst. We are slouching towards Moscow, Tehran, and Kabul.

Re: When UPS charged me a $684 tariff on $355 of vintage computer parts

#252

Post by rootusrootus »

bruce511 wrote: post #112
rootusrootus wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The US doesn't have the climate to grown coffee Well, Hawaii does, but your point is good, thank you.

I knew that would come up :). Yes, Hawaii produces about 1% of the coffee consumed in the US. I'm guessing a chunk of that is consumed in Hawaii... But I'm glad you got the point. :).

I'm not a coffee drinker normally, I have never acquired the taste, but I had some hand-picked perfectly roasted coffee on our last visit to Kona and it was divine. Completely straight, nothing added. I have some appreciation now of why some people like coffee, as I could drink that every day. I probably couldn't handle that much caffeine, however.

Re: When UPS charged me a $684 tariff on $355 of vintage computer parts

#253

Post by clcaev »

zahlman wrote: post #58
seg_lol wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sociopaths. It breaks me to see the Fed use interest rates to cause unemployment as the lever against inflation. It all seems so cruel.

They use interest rates to protect against inflationary (and deflationary) spirals, which are known to be devastating. The effect on the unemployment rate is a known, and predictable, side effect. But formal unemployment is small compared to labour force dropout anyway, and the latter is not necessarily so sensitive to economic conditions anyway. Besides which, the unemployment rate can't really keep going down forev…

Yet the average household seems weaker now than 16 years ago. Perhaps policy guided by this metric could use rethinking.

Re: When UPS charged me a $684 tariff on $355 of vintage computer parts

#254

Post by badc0ffee »

phil21 wrote: post #170
badc0ffee wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you ever tried to start a fire with a bunch of paper? It doesn't work great, and what a mess.

Done it plenty of times. Works great until you run out of paper.

It burns too quickly, and leaves a ton of ash behind that flies everywhere.

Of course it works in a pinch.

Re: When UPS charged me a $684 tariff on $355 of vintage computer parts

#255

Post by rootusrootus »

aleph_minus_one wrote: post #225
Terr_ wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The best time to manufacture vintage computer parts is 28 years ago, but the second-best time is today! :p

> The best time to manufacture vintage computer parts is 28 years ago, but the second-best time is today! :p What was so special about 1997?

Not GP, but I would just like to say that while every time period has good and bad, 1997 was pretty damn great in the grand scheme of things. Not just that year, but the 90s in general. If I could pick a decade to live in and never leave...

Re: When UPS charged me a $684 tariff on $355 of vintage computer parts

#256

Post by yatopifo »

AniseAbyss wrote: post #51
varispeed wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know one US business that used to make niche electronic product. Most components they used were from China. Got hit by the tariffs that wiped all the operating profit. Guy also had to sell his home and is now couchsurfing. Business is unlikely going to recover. Of course he considered making chips and other components in the US, but he was few billions short to start the fab.

I am imagining Mexican cartels smuggling hardware into the US... (But seriously I do not know how good US Customs is but in my country every day millions of packages from Asia arrive and they are checking not even a percent).

Canadian cartels smuggling those parts together with fentanyl in barrels of maple syrup. At least that’s what the average republican voter is told.

Re: When UPS charged me a $684 tariff on $355 of vintage computer parts

#257

Post by rootusrootus »

thepryz wrote: post #219
johnebgd wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unions are the best of all the bad solutions we’ve come up with so far for labor to compete with capital. The worst of course is collectivism through government, though that’s being tried again…

Where is collectivism being tried again? Sure there are a number of Democratic Socialists and other progressives winning elections and driving changes but everything I’ve seen policy-wise has been directly targeted areas where unchecked capitalism has clearly failed their constituents. Even in those cases, there’s no dramatic shift towards government ownership.

> there’s no dramatic shift towards government ownership

Interesting that you mention this. It's not exactly the same thing, but someone in another thread here on HN pointed out that the feds have been acquiring non-trivial stakes in a number of companies. More than just the one or two that I had seen in headlines.

It's funny, because it's a bigger overt push in the direction of actual socialism than the dems have ever tried, by the group of people who most love to use socialism as a boogeyman.

But the argument in favor of it seemed compelling on it's face, at least worthy of debate.

Re: When UPS charged me a $684 tariff on $355 of vintage computer parts

#258

Post by dragonwriter »

clcaev wrote: post #253
zahlman wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They use interest rates to protect against inflationary (and deflationary) spirals, which are known to be devastating. The effect on the unemployment rate is a known, and predictable, side effect. But formal unemployment is small compared to labour force dropout anyway, and the latter is not necessarily so sensitive to economic conditions anyway. Besides which, the unemployment rate can't really keep going down forev…

Yet the average household seems weaker now than 16 years ago. Perhaps policy guided by this metric could use rethinking.

Your observation is about distributional characteristics of the economy which, in terms of policy, are addressed by fiscal policy and not monetary policy; the former remains in the hands of Congress and the President without delegation to the Federal Reserve, which has been given only a narrow set of tools adapted to and a mission related to broad aggregate performance.

Re: When UPS charged me a $684 tariff on $355 of vintage computer parts

#259

Post by rootusrootus »

WalterBright wrote: post #178
iancmceachern wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is one of the great misconceptions. There are often no "native" alternatives. Even the machines that make the chips are nearly all made in one country and then shipped around the world. The amazing, modern nature of our modern world is built on the collective effort and knowledge of humankind globally. Globally.

There's concern that if all our chips come from one country, they could cut the supply off and make demands. That's called an "embargo". It's also done to protect local industries, hence the term "protectionism". For example, Canada's large tariffs on American milk are there to protect the local Canadian milk producers. AFAIK, Trump's tariffs are meant to serve the following purposes: 1. so critical supplies, like ch…

> 2. to raise money for the treasury

And admitting that is why SCOTUS will kill them. Raising money for the treasury is Congress' job, not the executive's.

Re: When UPS charged me a $684 tariff on $355 of vintage computer parts

#260

Post by PaulDavisThe1st »

CPLX wrote: post #227
maguay wrote: post #74

And herein lies the rub: It's been like this in many countries for the longest time. In Thailand, say, you receive an order from abroad, the post office sends you a slip and you have to pay the assessed duties to receive the package. It often ends up feeing arbitrary; some stuff comes through, others get assessed at a higher value and you have to show receipts and convince them that no, this isn't that expensive of a…

> America had no idea how good they had it, in the before times. The de minimis exception was absolutely insane. It was a full-blown loophole that caused tens of billions of dollars in goods to come through the border almost completely unregulated, ranging from the stuff that should have had tariffs on it, to knockoffs, to drugs and chemicals that shouldn't be in the United States at all. Even if you are a free trade…

It was only exploitable by lying about the value of a shipment.

The only was you can stop that sort of loophole exploitation is by massive enforcement (i.e. large numbers of random package investigations to establish the actual value of the shipment and comparing it with the declared value).

The cost of such enforcement is very high - possibly not as high as the value of the goods imported by lying about their value, but there's actually no way to know that (since we don't know the actual value of goods that entered under the de minimis exception).

If significant parts (either in numbers or purchasing power) of your population are willing to lie to break the law, you've got problems larger and more widespread than the de minimis exception.

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