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Temporary suspension of acceptance of mail to the United States

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Re: Temporary suspension of acceptance of mail to the United States

#381

Post by trimethylpurine »

Gud wrote: post #298
ivape wrote: post #272

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Americans don't fully understand what a pain in the ass it is for people in other countries to buy whatever they want. They are always paying some additional amount, if it's even available.

Not really the case in at least Europe and the gulf states

I'm not sure it's the same as what GP is saying. Maybe anecdotal, but living in Italy I had a very hard time finding a lot of things. Even getting basic mail delivery was pretty difficult. Same with Spain, to varying degrees.

As another example, visiting the Netherlands, it would take a week to get a decent child car seat delivered last year.

Comparing with the US, it's night and day. I can order something at 6AM and it's at my doorstep by 10AM. And the number of goods that are offered at that speed is absolutely astonishing.

As a side note, what the US has done to the shopping experience may not be preferable when considering all related effects on the market, happiness, etc. But it certainly sets a very high bar if you are comparing to Europe.

EDIT: I almost forgot to mention that all of this magical instant delivery is free!

Re: Temporary suspension of acceptance of mail to the United States

#382

Post by [deleted] »

Retric wrote: post #155
Gud wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is no "level playing field" when you are competing with literal sweatshops though. Frankly tariffs get a bad rep because of from who and how they are implemented but can absolutely serve a purpose.

Automation consistently outcompetes sweatshops. What’s missing from these discussions is the idea of competitive advantage. It is inherently more efficient to grow crops in climates where they thrive, tacking a tariff to protect domestic production means intentionally lowering the standard of living of everyone both domestically and abroad to favor some tiny group doing something wasteful.

[deleted]

Re: Temporary suspension of acceptance of mail to the United States

#383

Post by blurbleblurble »

ericmay wrote: post #242
bsimpson wrote: post #198

There was chatter about this in one of the NYC subreddits over the weekend. Apparently ending the de minimus exemption is closing the grey market for e.g. sunscreen; places that used to sell Japanese sunscreens on American shelves no longer are. There's a frustratingly long list of goods that the US decided to put requirements on in previous generations, and then stopped maintaining. Sunscreen is one; other countries…

> Closing these de minimus exemptions is making it harder for discerning consumers to buy higher quality goods than are currently available in the US right now. Everything has a trade-off. On the other hand, it also prevents companies from dumping artificially cheap and crappy goods (TEMU) on US markets and making it nearly impossible for others to compete. Unsuspecting consumers buy a super cheap (subsidized) crap p…

This is more like setting `trade: off`.

Re: Temporary suspension of acceptance of mail to the United States

#384

Post by donkeybeer »

trimethylpurine wrote: post #377
donkeybeer wrote: post #371

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Other countries subsidize manufacturing or have lower wages or have other factors that lead to the product being cheaper than it should be. Then do the same for Americans. Make better product, don't force people to buy crappier. Its not just about the buyer choosing a quality-price tradeoff. Let us be honest, the USA (or any other country) isn't the best in every sector. Artificial tariffs just mean your people will…

> You are not showing strength by tariffs you are showing how weak you are. Why does that matter?

Signals are important to pay attention to. Its not a nice thing to be weak as a country. It's alright if you think you need this or that tariff right now to prop up this or that key industry, but what happens over time if you continuously slide ever weaker. Its just a warning sign that must be paid heed to. A strong sector shouldn't need a tariff to survive. For better or worse your IT/tech sector is one of the good examples of a strong sector, to extent that other countries are trying to shield themselves from it's success. That should be the aspiration for the industry, not living under tariffs forever.

Re: Temporary suspension of acceptance of mail to the United States

#385

Post by uncircle »

Gud wrote: post #350
nine_k wrote: post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Aristocratic republics have been doing quite well for some time: Florence, Venice, Genoa in the Mediterranean, much of the Hanseatic league and places like Novgorod, and later the Dutch Republic, in the north.

well for whom?

Reading between the lines of your question, I'll pre-empt you: nowhere, not even in our so called democracies are the poor doing better than the rich and powerful.

Re: Temporary suspension of acceptance of mail to the United States

#386

Post by trenchpilgrim »

0xffff2 wrote: post #372
Scoundreller wrote: post #280

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If we used a similar methodology for testing cars, we’d be blasting watermelon heads from a cannon against windshields and sacks of potatoes against steering wheels. We’d benefit from more realistic models. But I guess our helmets would then cost $500.

What does a good motorcycle helmet cost these days? I paid $500 for my then top of the line helmet circa 2010. Haven't ridden in over a decade but I'm surprised by the implication that helmets _don't_ cost $500.

You can get a very safe ECE 22.06 rated helmet for $100-150. The more expensive helmets are lighter, more comfortable, have cool designs, and nice stuff like transitions visors or Pinlock anti-fog, but aren't really any safer until you get into FIM fhpre-02 rated helmets for MotoGP racing. (fhpre-01 is functionally identical to ECE 22.06)

The days of having to shell out $600 for an Arai or Shoei for superior protection are past us.

Re: Temporary suspension of acceptance of mail to the United States

#387

Post by donkeybeer »

ericmay wrote: post #379
donkeybeer wrote: post #371

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Other countries subsidize manufacturing or have lower wages or have other factors that lead to the product being cheaper than it should be. Then do the same for Americans. Make better product, don't force people to buy crappier. Its not just about the buyer choosing a quality-price tradeoff. Let us be honest, the USA (or any other country) isn't the best in every sector. Artificial tariffs just mean your people will…

> The fact that you somehow are pegging me as a leftist I didn't mean to do that, and I apologize for that. I just meant that to the extent that you are associating tariffs with communism that those on the left will applaud Trump's tariffs and trade policies as they align with that ideology. Though as an aside, you mention that we're sliding toward LATAM style communism (again I think it's mercantilism and not commun…

Quality is to an extent a personal function, each person may have a different idea of what factors to consider in quality. But the word here is personal, I find it highly unpleasant when a state uses its might so transparently to force these choices.

You should also not discount price. You can afford to, I can afford to buy something more expensive because we consider some other aspects of the item more important. Again, if you had said this in terms of simply propping up a local even if less efficient industry alive, it makes sense, redundancy is a concept I can understand of course, I could have accepted it even if I don't agree fully. But I feel if it is presented as making the life of lower and middle classes easier, it is a total lie since they will be impacted most by these price increases. Some T-shirt firm in America will start earning more, but then where do the people of that firm spend it on? The other firms are also now higher priced if we fully commit to such extreme and wide ranging tariff programs. I am sorry if I come across as a bit vigorous in this, but I have seen how it is in high tariff countries so I have a strong feeling on this matter.

Re: Temporary suspension of acceptance of mail to the United States

#388

Post by ericmay »

slipperydippery wrote: post #373
ericmay wrote: post #370

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This won't work for clothes Says who? Also you're forgetting if we as a country decide hey this really doesn't work for clothing we can just lower the tariffs on clothing.

> Says who? Uh, labor costs? I guess we could work to lower those, though. Like, a lot lower. Meanwhile if the $2 wholesale-in-China shirt costs $30 on the shelf due to tariffs and the identical-quality US-made one costs $40 because that's just what it costs, the latter won't even be made, zero factories will start up to manufacture them. You'd have to raise prices a lot for it to make sense to even try, clothes are…

American made t-shirts today don't even cost $30.

Re: Temporary suspension of acceptance of mail to the United States

#389

Post by gosub100 »

ActorNightly wrote: post #164
gosub100 wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

There hasn't been a far left leader elected in US, even on a state level. Secondly,the point of a tariff in a normal political climate is to bring manufacturing back home. This won't happen in the current administration. And don't confuse liberals with far left.

> And don't confuse liberals with far left

That's the whole point of using that phrase. It's meant to alienate and disconnect. The phrase originated by the left to make any conservative point of view seem alien and "far" away from reality. I'm glad that it can be spread around more evenly. After all, we don't want any one thing disproportionately affecting any one group, do we?

Re: Temporary suspension of acceptance of mail to the United States

#390

Post by 0xffff2 »

trenchpilgrim wrote: post #386
0xffff2 wrote: post #372

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What does a good motorcycle helmet cost these days? I paid $500 for my then top of the line helmet circa 2010. Haven't ridden in over a decade but I'm surprised by the implication that helmets _don't_ cost $500.

You can get a very safe ECE 22.06 rated helmet for $100-150. The more expensive helmets are lighter, more comfortable, have cool designs, and nice stuff like transitions visors or Pinlock anti-fog, but aren't really any safer until you get into FIM fhpre-02 rated helmets for MotoGP racing. (fhpre-01 is functionally identical to ECE 22.06) The days of having to shell out $600 for an Arai or Shoei for superior protecti…

Wow. That's awesome! My helmet back in the day was indeed a Shoei. I don't recall for sure, but I don't think it was even the absolute most expensive model at the time, but it was about the cheapest helmet I felt comfortable trusting my life too.
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