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Trump exempts phones, computers, chips from ‘reciprocal’ tariffs

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Re: Trump exempts phones, computers, chips from ‘reciprocal’ tariffs

#721

Post by toss1 »

qmr wrote: post #494
toss1 wrote: post #465

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anyone who can not see the obvious difference in substance, intent, scope, and scale is either willfully ignorant or seriously lacking in reading comprehension and reasoning skills. Requesting curbs on rampant disinformation is not even close to the same thing as crashing the economy to extort our closest allies and major business and industry players. Yikes

Censorship is censorship. Who are you to decide what is or isn't disinformation? Who is anyone? I prefer to do my own critical thinking. It is also well documented that Meta's rampant censorship extends far beyond "disinformation". https://web.archive.org/web/20250411170102/https://www.drops...

A request to not amplify disinformation is NOT censorship. A threat of legal or military action is.

Of course there are edge cases, but blatant and hard-debunked falsehoods such as "The earth is flat", "Contrails are chemical spraying", Russia did not attack Ukraine", "Vaccines cause autism", "Auschwitz and Dachau were not concentration camps where people were killed" are all disinformation, and they are disseminated for the very specific purpose of undermining trust and the capability of western societies to survive, for the purpose of implementing authoritarianism.

If you evidently expect a society to unilaterally disarm and do nothing, you are part of the problem.

Re: Trump exempts phones, computers, chips from ‘reciprocal’ tariffs

#722

Post by Yeul »

energy123 wrote: post #696
geysersam wrote: post #676

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Absolutely agree. It's ridiculous that low wage labor is considered a "comparative advantage". It's an advantage to capital owners perhaps, but certainly not to workers. And like you said, advantages are not static. In my opinion it's intrinsically valuable to have a diverse regional economy. Culture and economy are fundamentally inseparable, imagine a society where everyone is doing the same thing because of "compar…

This aestheticization of factory jobs is something I've noticed to be driving the New Right's worldview. It's not dissimilar to and no less dangerous than the aesthetic fixation on the agrarian economy of Mao and Pol Pot. Frankly, no, sweatshops are not important to the cultural fabric of a country. The US has problems with housing affordability, with medical costs, and with service sector costs emerging from Baumol'…

Tech bros who are frustrated with their job fantasizing about doing "real work".

An entire generation has grown up without assembly lines so it is easy to mystify it. People in Vietnam don't enjoy making Nikes but it is better than what came before: subsistence farming. But the Vietnamese factory worker trying to send their kids to university too.

Re: Trump exempts phones, computers, chips from ‘reciprocal’ tariffs

#723

Post by Yeul »

FooBarBizBazz wrote: post #679
Renaud wrote: post #591

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Universal import taxes on everything make no sense. If you want to protect strategic production, you apply selective tariffs to support that local production while ensuring it can ramp up and import what it needs until it becomes self-sufficient. Most countries, the US included, have used selective tariffs for this purpose. Applying a blanket tax on every type of import just increases inflation, as you can't possibly…

Really the way to do it, AFAIK (say, per How Asia Works ), is to apply selective subsidies , not tariffs, and to subject the subsidized industries to substantial export discipline . That's what gets you South Korean world-beaters. Autarkic tariffs just get you Indian industry, where consumers have learned that the few goods marked "export quality" are superior. And, I don't want to be partisan about this stuff, but,…

You are advocating a stronger government when the GOP basically wants to eliminate it...

Re: Trump exempts phones, computers, chips from ‘reciprocal’ tariffs

#724

Post by lukas099 »

_heimdall wrote: post #680
bloopernova wrote: post #664

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was thinking that the US marshals need to be the enforcement arm of the courts. But I am not sure if that would help much in the current situation. Maybe police and federal enforcement agencies should be solely under Congress? At least then senior people can actually get fired for obeying unlawful orders from the executive.

The judicial branch is meant only to provide clarify of laws on the books. I'm not sure what they would do with an enforcement agency, and I'd be worried about what that would do with regards to the types of people attracted to those judicial positions. The legislative branch already has a lot of power. I'd be very concerned giving them the direct control, or even shared control, over enforcement. They should be cont…

> That leaves the executive, and personally I don't see a problem with enforcement living there.

What if the executive just decides not to enforce the decisions of the legislative and judicial branches?

Re: Trump exempts phones, computers, chips from ‘reciprocal’ tariffs

#725

Post by otterley »

_heimdall wrote: post #693
sebazzz wrote: post #691

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Consumers could always make this decision for themselves and pick domestic over foreign. In a free market, consumers _do_ decide for themselves. It is simply so, that price is the primary factor for many consumers. Especially in a society where living paycheck to paycheck is normal - but really in any society.

Price doesn't have to be the primary factor though, that was my point. People can choose for whatever reasons they want, we just don't currently seem to care where manufacturing is being done.

Price does have to be the primary factor if you need something and can only afford the cheapest option. And this is the unfortunate reality for most people in the world, including those in first-world societies.

Re: Trump exempts phones, computers, chips from ‘reciprocal’ tariffs

#726

Post by arandomusername »

jonplackett wrote: post #546
kQq9oHeAz6wLLS wrote: post #532

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wasn't talking about Trump specifically, or even conservatives. Everyone on both sides automatically thinks the worst about everyone on the other side these days, usually just to score some internet points. It's a terrible way to go through life. We should show a little grace sometimes.

Just a good time to remember that the same guy who thinks tariffs are a good idea is the guy who stood at a podium during Covid next to the world’s leading expert and suggested injecting bleach into Covid patients was a good idea. And was caught on mic saying he likes to grope women. I would not say anyone is ‘automatically’ questioning Trump’s character or intelligence. There is plenty of evidence he has neither.

You really are proving that user right, considering Trump never suggested injecting bleach.

Re: Trump exempts phones, computers, chips from ‘reciprocal’ tariffs

#727

Post by Y_Y »

Animats wrote: post #372

Since last night, anyway. The people who make shipping work are frantically trying to keep up. One of the biggest customs brokers posts updates twice a day on weekdays. Last update 4 PM Friday, so they haven't caught the biggest reversal. If tariff rates change while in transit, the bond paid before the item was shipped may now be insufficient. So the container goes into storage (where?) until Customs and Border Prot…

https://bid.cwsmarketing.com/lot-details/index/catalog/167/l...

I love that I can buy a pallet of miscellaneous medical supplies, and also that someone who specifically wanted them but now can't pay for them has to go without.

Re: Trump exempts phones, computers, chips from ‘reciprocal’ tariffs

#728

Post by monkeyfun »

FranzFerdiNaN wrote: post #628
DonHopkins wrote: post #615

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He's already gotten what he wanted from it and bragged about it: so many leaders of different countries calling up and kissing his ass. He's certainly not going to give any of them what they wanted, and now they all have the taste of his ass in their mouths. At least they have something in common with Elon Musk, now.

I belief his story about dozens of countries calling him about as much as his story of him taking a cognitive test and having every single answer correct. Or his doctors statement that said that there has never been a healthier president than Trump.

Yeah, this is a man who literally says he has the greatest memory in human history but then constantly says he can't remember stuff a day or two later or coincidentally was living under a rock and has no idea what's going on in his cabinet.

Re: Trump exempts phones, computers, chips from ‘reciprocal’ tariffs

#729

Post by LurkerAtTheGate »

steveBK123 wrote: post #184
jm4 wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s pure stupidity and most people don’t even realize it. Last night I met a couple at a country club where I was a guest - one of those $100k/yr places - and they asked me if my trade partners are charging me more with the tariffs. I told them the U.S. government is charging me more with the tariffs and my trade partners are charging me more because the value of the dollar is down. This was the first time anyone to…

This is why I don't know if he will/would actually hold fast through the turbulence of actually implementing anything he's threatened. Once we eat through inventories and stuff that left the ports & currently on the water, prices will go up. The country went insane when inflation crossed 5%, are we really going to do it again.. when the reason for it will be so singularly obvious?

> The country went insane when inflation crossed 5%

This is actually one of the few reasons I'm hopeful for the next election (assuming we still get one) - last time, regardless of the root cause, the country blamed those in power right then.

Re: Trump exempts phones, computers, chips from ‘reciprocal’ tariffs

#730

Post by Aurornis »

owenversteeg wrote: post #247

I’m not seeing anyone discuss this here, so I figured I’d raise an important point: this style of tariffs is crushing for US manufacturing. While a universal tariff with no exceptions incentivizes domestic manufacturing, a selective tariff with specific industry exceptions is absolute poison. You might think, as the authors of this exemption did, “well then we will exempt computer parts.” Then people will simply impo…

> While a universal tariff with no exceptions incentivizes domestic manufacturing

Not really. Efficient manufacturing requires access to a lot of different inputs from all over, from the machines that make things to the raw materials.

Putting tariffs on everything only incentivizes companies to move to a location where they can freely buy what they need and manufacture it for the world.

The US is not the only consumer of most manufactured goods. Making them in a country with cheap labor and no extra import tariffs makes more sense than in a country where everything is under tariffs

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