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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

#361
post #357

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you're still measuring wealth by income, you're probably not in the bracket that is being discussed here. $1 million per year is an extremely comfortable income, but it would take 30 years of saving that, post tax, before you hit $30 million in net worth, which is the entry point for UHNW status.

I do see your point, but it's highly unlikely that they are putting their wealth into a HISA for 30 years. There is likely 0 people who got to UHNW through saving money.

Completely agree with you. Which it why I mentioned measuring wealth by income shows a disconnect from what real wealth is.

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

#362

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're assuming US citizens stop buying Chinese goods, just because they got more expensive. That's unlikely to be true. They might buy less, but the numbers won't fall to zero. It also overlooks the detail that the component parts of items "made in the usa" also come from other places. Clothing made in the US, doesn't necessarily use fabric made in the US. In the short to medium term, the increased cash-flow require…

We're on the same side of the argument here? Obviously that 3% is not going to go down to 0%, which means that the US has even less leverage against the Chinese than it looks.

I agree. Plus, as alternate markets are developed, so that leverage drops even more.

The US has made friends with a lot of countries based on the goodwill generated by strong trade ties. That goodwill is being eroded in the short term, and will linger as a reputation for "unreliability". 80 years of work is being undone in months.

And unfortunately it won't be as simple as "in 4 years we can go back to normal ". It's obvious that congress supports this, and the American people voted for it, so it's not just one man's policy.

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

#363

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If you penalize the rich, they just move, and then the new system will stop class mobility. This is a myth created by the rich so that you won't tax them.

It's pretty observable and part of the reason many microstates are extremely wealthy. Also keep in mind the US is a winner here. The UK loses the most millionaires and it's had an observable impact on their economy.

Nah… UK’s economy is broken due to the fact we’ve never recovered from the financial crisis

It’s also due to the lack of investment in heathcare, education and other public services over the last 14yrs

Britain still has very many extremely rich people - London has more billionaires than NY - Serious Money by Caroline Knowles is an interesting exploration of the subject

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

#364
post #97

In the end it's the biggest leopard ate my face moment ever: China has very high growth momentum that surpasses American living standards soon, and not long before it will surpass American security standards too. China's purchasing power is probably more comfortable than most western countries, with extensive housing and high speed rail and electric cars etc. When a country becomes rich, inevitably other countries as…

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…

I do think the state of progress in China is vastly underestimated by the west. It has been fast and messy, not evenly distributed, but it is staggering. The rhetoric around them is changing too, I think they are making significant soft power gains. I could easily see them filling the voids that US policy chaos is currently creating.

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

#365
post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The craziest thing about all this is that Chinese exports to the US aren't even that big a part of the Chinese economy (3% or so). Sure, it'll hurt and there's multiplier effects, but the entire rest of the world is more than happy to take up the slack. So the tariffs really are the US cutting its own nose off to spite its face.

What do you mean “the rest of the world will take up the slack”? Is the rest of the world suddenly going to start buying something they haven’t in the past? Why? And the US consumer market is 2x the size of the next biggest (EU). How exactly is the the rest of the world going to replace the demand of something several times its size?

China exported something like 525 billion worth of goods last year to the US. Not all good can be replaced but let’s say something like 350 billion worth of goods are unmarketable because of the tariffs. Do you really think the whole world can’t swallow 350 billion of imports?

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

#366

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a wealthier person (income of ~1m/year, give or take), I could not more strongly support Mamdani (no 'h' in Zohran's last name afaik). I want a candidate like him in my city to vote for.

If you're still measuring wealth by income, you're probably not in the bracket that is being discussed here. $1 million per year is an extremely comfortable income, but it would take 30 years of saving that, post tax, before you hit $30 million in net worth, which is the entry point for UHNW status.

This is assuming they have to work for the $1M income. The point of having $30M is to make $1M income without doing anything.

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

#367

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Pay them a decent wage and they will.

But why compete on factories if that isn’t competitive with foreign factories?

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

#368
post #97

In the end it's the biggest leopard ate my face moment ever: China has very high growth momentum that surpasses American living standards soon, and not long before it will surpass American security standards too. China's purchasing power is probably more comfortable than most western countries, with extensive housing and high speed rail and electric cars etc. When a country becomes rich, inevitably other countries as…

Why does China's growth need to be curbed or opposed in any way? What does that accomplish? The only thing we need to be doing is ensuring our own stability, be decently self reliant, and improve the lives of our citizens. It is in inevitable fact that China will eventually surpass us economically, they have far more people, fighting that is just crabs in a bucket fighting over who gets to stand on top of the others.

The US has been working with China for decades economically. The rhetoric around them being an enemy is very peculiar, since the US and China have been tightly coupled economic partners for decades now.

That said however, the US economy relies quite heavily on the international USD hegemony, and China being a bigger economy does threaten that quite directly. It would be surprising for them to drop the USD, but it is a significant risk.

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

#370

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why are you so well-versed in these anti-Chinese narratives? Your message reads like you're a victim of anti-Chinese propaganda.

I'm from China. I know what real numbers and news come out of China.

Propaganda can only work for so much. At some point, what you see and experience with your own eyes beats what you can convince me of what the truth is. If China is “collapsing” while producing all these EVs, Solar and high tech stuff then what would it do in a “healthy” economy? Colonize the moon?
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