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Six months into tariffs, businesses have no idea how to price anything

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Re: Six months into tariffs, businesses have no idea how to price anything

#311

Post by Insanity »

monero-xmr wrote: post #218
jkestner wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

the US has the highest class mobility among western nations Source? The rankings I see have the US behind most of Europe.

The average European is poorer than the average person from Mississippi, the US’ poorest state. It isn’t even comparable

This is an incredibly naive take in trying to postulate the US as a better place to live, and genuinely makes me curious how much you’ve actually seen of EU.

Quality of life, by a number of metrics like HDI, is higher in (Western) European countries compared to the US. And even while total salaries might be lower, healthcare infrastructure, life expectancy, food quality etc are better.

Pure take-home money doesn’t tell you the entire picture.

And for pure anecdata, I have friends who migrated to the States and then moved back to EU when they had kids because EU seemed like the safer and better place to raise them.

You can find anecdata to tell pretty much any story you want to tell though.

Re: Six months into tariffs, businesses have no idea how to price anything

#312

Post by jibal »

monero-xmr wrote: post #263
danans wrote: post #243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The average European is poorer than the average person from Mississippi, the US’ poorest state Mississippi has a GDP per capita of $53k. 11% of Mississippi's population has no health insurance. Mississippi is one of the highest inequality states in the US. Its median income is $30k. It's Gini Index is 49%. It has poor physical and social infrastructure by advanced country standards. Spain has a GDP per capita of $3…

I know several Spaniards who emigrated to the US, including my sister-in-law. The situation you describe is… one of statistics and not reality

> The situation you describe is… one of statistics and not reality

So you reject mathematics in favor of a few cherry-picked experiences.

Re: Six months into tariffs, businesses have no idea how to price anything

#313

Post by seadan83 »

jandrewrogers wrote: post #236
jkestner wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

the US has the highest class mobility among western nations Source? The rankings I see have the US behind most of Europe.

You are thinking of “social mobility”, which is a term of art that doesn’t mean what people assume it means. It is essentially a zero-sum rank of your income compare to your neighbor. You can become poorer and still be “socially mobile” or much richer and not be “socially mobile”. Social mobility has very little to do with increasing your economic welfare in any absolute sense. It strongly favors countries with highl…

AFAIK the stats do show Europe passing the US in class mobility as of about 20 years ago. It is notable as Europe of course had low class mobility and the US just dominated class mobility.

AFAIK class mobility is measured by class at birth compared to adulthood (i believe as measured by net household wealth)

Re: Six months into tariffs, businesses have no idea how to price anything

#314

Post by vivzkestrel »

selectodude wrote: post #179
pydry wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The ironic thing is that tariffs are the right tool to reindustrialize America (over the period of ~a decade) but theyre being wielded with the skill and grace of a crack addled ferret by somebody who thinks it's a magic wand.

Reindustrializing America requires people that are actually willing to work in a factory.

that is actually true it seems https://www.molsonhart.com/blog/america-underestimates-the-d... most american workers in today s date simply dont have a good diet and work ethics like their ancestors used to have

Re: Six months into tariffs, businesses have no idea how to price anything

#316

Post by jibal »

epistasis wrote: post #196
YZF wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The hiring slowdown predates tariffs. For various reasons CEOs either believe they can do more with less people, or that they can hire cheaper people in other geographies, or both. Businesses (tech or financials) don't seem to be telegraphing uncertainty, S&P 500 revenue is at all times high and trending up, earnings/profit all time highs and trending up, valuations all times high and trending up.

That was the entire point of hiking interest rates, to slow down the economy and stop inflation. Tariffs are universally acknowledged to cause inflation, and we would be in a recovery path if it weren't for the delays that tariffs are causing right now. It is rather interesting to see the difference in standards of accountability for different presidents. Some are responsible for the economy even if its behavior is n…

Let's be clear on who has these different standards: primarily Republicans, members of the party whose lifeblood is hypocrisy.

Re: Six months into tariffs, businesses have no idea how to price anything

#317

Post by jibal »

mattmaroon wrote: post #178
vkou wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The hiring slowdown predates tariffs. That's true, but it didn't predate the election of a man who has made his understanding of tariffs and economics crystal clear in the months and years leading up to January 2025.

The tariffs this time are far in excess of anything he did previously or promised to do while running for office again and took nearly everyone by surprise though.

It didn't take informed people by surprise. We still see people denying that Trump had anything to do with Project 2025, whereas honest informed people knew that he very much did.

Re: Six months into tariffs, businesses have no idea how to price anything

#318

Post by amrocha »

platevoltage wrote: post #299
MiscCompFacts wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Won’t people be willing when the cost of living goes up so much and all the tech jobs are gone to foreign labor that they have to work factory jobs?

So you think going backwards and becoming a developing nation is a good thing?

What do you think happens when all the “developing” nations develop and refuse to get paid peanuts to make your phones?

Re: Six months into tariffs, businesses have no idea how to price anything

#319

Post by amrocha »

anon291 wrote: post #245
platevoltage wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

See this is what I don't understand. Everything you just said about China is a positive. Everything you said about China is achievable in the USA, and we at least HAD a head start on soft-power influence. Instead we should just have tariffs instead of actually making the lives of Americans better while FIGHTING affordable housing, high speed rail, and EVs. We've got an entire team of goons who would rather rack up pe…

Yeah it's a crab mentality. I'm ideologically opposed to communism, but I'm happy for the Chinese people. I don't understand why our response is to tear them down, instead of building ourselves up. Seems backwards. When you even mention building ourself, you are accused of being anti American simply because you point out a deficiency in our current development.

China is the most capitalist country in the world.

Re: Six months into tariffs, businesses have no idea how to price anything

#320

Post by jibal »

jennyholzer wrote: post #145
pydry wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The ironic thing is that tariffs are the right tool to reindustrialize America (over the period of ~a decade) but theyre being wielded with the skill and grace of a crack addled ferret by somebody who thinks it's a magic wand.

i don't see any indication that either republicans or democrats intend to reindustrialize america

Biden's major bills were very much indications of that ... even more so for the version before Manchin took a hatchet to it.
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