Posted on 04/19/2025 7:09:40 AM PDT by DIRTYSECRET
China, once a communist backwater, has emerged as the world’s factory floor, producing everything from iPhones to plastic brushes.
It’s a pragmatic choice, not a philosophical one. A CEO doesn’t cite Rand when moving a factory to Shenzhen; he cites shareholder value.
Tariffs, intended to lure these companies back, instead add insult to injury, failing to address the root causes of their departure.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
“we keep setting records for manufacturing output”
including thousands of dollars per month per patient drugs you must pay for because of the PPACA
Some drugs are so expensive that no patient that takes them could afford to buy them using personal funds.
“Now we’ve done a 180 in a day ... “
We? Speak for yourself kemosabe. I’m one of the freepers that was routinely criticized for not going along with free traitors.
“And so the cycle will begin again, like our own domestic automakers did in the 70s and 80s, when our production was fat and lazy, producing low-quality cars with bloated labor. And then, first the Japanese and then others took over the business.”
From my plan:
1. 25%, on aircraft grade aluminum alloys and automotive grade ferrous metal,
2. on national security products [we could and should make],
a. initially 0%, and then increasing by 2% at the start of every IRS quarter month after 2025 to 20%, on
I. industrial level components,
II. any drug for lawful retail sale & consumer use,
III. drug, chemical and plastic industrial inputs, other than refinery hydrocarbons and those for making fertilizer,
VI. semiconductors,
V. solar cells and panels,
VI. basic rare earth element products other than ore,
Most of that is done by automated processes or needs to be done in the USA for national security reasons. Solar cells and panels will be the ‘oil’ of the second half of the 21st century.
Are we going to outsource F-35 production to Mexico?
Full details of my plan are at:
https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/4310879/posts
“Trump will be out of office by the time tariffs are fully implemented. By that time the gov will have pocketed the money and there will be no going back. Then the give can add the small army of intrusive minions needed to allow all of the rent seeking tariff cry babies exemptions. Such as a large steel maker who the vp loves who wants a steel monopoly but wants no tariffs on its imported steel slabs and raw materials. Or the farmers who want tariffs on food but not on ag imports.”
From my published plan:
The total tariff shall be:
1. 25%, on aircraft grade aluminum alloys and automotive grade ferrous metal,
2. on national security products [we could and should make],
a. initially 0%, and then increasing by 2% at the start of every IRS quarter month after 2025 to 20%, on
I. industrial level components,
3. 0%, on
a. other raw materials, including coffee beans, fertilizers and their precursors,
base metals, electricity, raw & refined hydrocarbon products,
when vended without resale or short leash supply restriction,
4. tariffs paid on section 1 and 2 imports, except from China,
may creditable on a one-to-one basis after bona fide export of manufactured products containing them
via any optional scheme the Secretary of Commerce may allow a bona fide manufacturing exporter to participate in.
There shall be no tariff on bartered items internal to a motor vehicle organization, bartered beverage exchange system, or other barter system approved for tariff exemption by and justly held in good standing with the Secretary of Commerce.
[Certain dollar amounts on apparel, electronic and stuff typically sold below any possible US production amount
should be tariff exempt, not never the whole item regardless of cost. We don’t need to be importing $1,000 cellphones that
could be made in the USA for far less.]
The Secretary of Commerce may by regulation provide tariff exemptions up to the following amounts:
1. $100 on a laptop or personal computer
2. $60 on a smartphone
3. 10 cents per square inch of LCD screen
4. $45 per hard disk drive
5. $1 per first GB of solid-state memory and 20 cents for each additional GB
6. $5 on a shirt, blouse or dress
7. $4 on a pair of pants or skirt
8. $1 on an undergarment
9. $15 on a suit
10. 10 cents per inch of sewing, up to $2 on shoes and any other garment including dolls clothing
11. 80% of the genuine wholesale value of material in a garment
12. 90% of the genuine wholesale value of precious metal in an item of jewelry
13. such amounts on kitchen appliances that do not exceed
80% of values of competitively priced basic models as of June 1, 2023
14. such amounts on hand tools, powered and unpowered, that do not exceed
80% of values of competitively priced basic models as of June 1, 2023.
https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/4310879/posts
Rand and Atlas ping.
It should be kept in mind that an alternative to a 10% tariff might be a market-driven 14% devaluation of the US dollar.
The 14% devaluation was what the Brits had to do in the 1960s after running trade deficits.
Nothing the Brits could do could hold off George Soros in the 1990s. The pound lost value in the end, after a futile fight at great cost to the UK and to the great profit of George Soros.
“When all you have is a hammer everything looks like a nail.”
Congress can give Trump large, new, amply filled legal toolboxes.
Congress can also put restrictions on the legal tools such as injunctions used by federal judges.
District judges can be barred by name by federal statute from hearing cases where the federal government or a federally funded person or entity is a party.
The Congress has Article I, Section 8 power to make rules for the government.
It was a different time when she wrote that. It’s the same with Reagan. We’re not a capitalist country, we’re a cronyist/fascist country so Rand/Reagan’s solutions, while valuable and relevant during their time, are not applicable to today’s reality.
“No matter how you spin it, tariffs effectively result in a transfer of consumer surplus to producer surplus (i.e., consumers lose, producers win), government wins by collecting tariff revenues, and inefficiencies/deadweight loss is created.”
A man who is unemployed because a foreign factory can make something for 3% less is suffering a loss.
A city that has lost a factory and 60 jobs because a foreign factory can make something for 3% less is suffering a loss along with 60 families.
Worry less about the 3% and more about the 97%.
My plan envisions the motor vehicle industry running on a tariff-free barter basis.
Every auto company has an equal opportunity to site factories, find and employ workers and dodge tariffs by barter, mainly internal.
RE: I do remember Milton Friedman saying other countries subsidizing their industries doesn’t hurt us.
Did Friedman ever consider things like Intellectual Property theft, total dependence on the supply of materials and minerals necessary for our defense, pharmaceuticals, etc. from a hostile country?
If he did and he still says it does not hurt us, how does he explain it?
That's insane. In no time governments would have police forces doing nothing but impressment to bring in more slave labor to the jails.
It is like the war on drugs had police forces driving confiscated vehicles with cute stickers saying "this vehicle courtesy of your local drug dealer." It's unconscionable!
There can only be free trade between free countries with similar laws and where both use the same type of money.
For a trump cheerleader it’s a surprisingly on target article. You are ignorant of the basic tenets of classical capitalism. There are, of course, capitalists who were slavers but slavery violates the basic tenets of capitalism.
Private ownership of the means of production
Free markets
Profit motive
Voluntary exchange
Capital accumulation
and
Consumer sovereignty
That was my take as well.
**There are, of course, capitalists who were slavers but slavery violates the basic tenets of capitalism.**
They weren’t capitalists then. Contradiction.
Only about 15% of goods consumed in the US are imported.
Can’t remember where I saw that in an article. That’s not enough to increase prices across the board like the fear porn insinuates.
If you are a citizen of the good ole' USA, like myself, it's we!
'Cause it was the USA that imposed those crazy tariffs in a single day (before we backed down).
Yes. If tariffs are so bad for us then why do all countries do it to their citizens?
I can draw a picture, but someone needs to be smart enough to see it...
Jobs went to China because American labor costs were too high(Unions et al...)
Now, labor costs are dirt cheap but the price stayed the same or increased based on demand ratios.
so that extra gravy DID NOT come back to America, it went to build Mega Metropolises
-See China’s mega growth since mid 1980s: I cant find this pic on the web to link freely...:
https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10232137365834704&set=a.1087663029612
So, IMHO your Rand comparison is faulty because MORE money was garnered and went to create a future problem than paying our Union drones(Slump humans) $30 and hour (incuding bennies)
I'm not sure if tariffs will make matters worse or better, but assuming they make things better, your plan seems rational.
Imposing worldwide tariffs on some crazy formula that most pundits believe is "hokem," and imposing them immediately is a fool's errand at best. i.e., bond market debacle jumping to 4.5% because nobody wants to hold bonds in a sinking ship.
Tariffs do nothing to address the elephant in the room: the $37 trillion and growing daily debt in the short to intermediate term. That's the problem, and forcing companies to build here and expect it to happen in 90 days is just crazy.
If you own a business, which I do, how can you make any plans with such shocks? Answer: you don't.
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