IT’S OFFICIAL, FOLKS! Trump thinks he can just slap tariffs on our friends abroad and watch us ‘compete’ again? Newsflash: this only hurts the little guy (and the planet). Just got word from Acer CEO that those tariffs have already led to a 10% price hike for laptops in the US. That’s right, we’re paying more for the very devices that are supposed to help us succeed in an era of ‘American greatness’. Meanwhile, Trump is too busy coddling his corporate pals to care about the real American people. Wake up, sheeple! It’s time to stop voting for politicians who only look out for their buddies on Wall Street.
This is one of the problems with the Trumpian approach to tariffs. I don’t know if you hadn’t noticed, but there’s remarkably little manufacturing in the USA for quite some time now, but let’s play this out.
The cost to set up a laptop manufacturing firm in the US is anywhere from $50,000,000 to $200,000,000. Then, you’ve gotta acquire all the raw materials and components to assemble the laptops, let’s call that another $500,000,000. Then, of course, you’ve gotta staff the place, and this is in a country where we do not have a lot of people that are experienced in manufacturing. Let’s call that another $100,000,000. By the time you add in R&D, logistics costs, legal and compliance (because the US is a bit more stringent than China in this area), you’re talking about $1 - $3 BILLION in costs.
Now, out of the few people / companies that have enough money to actually set up a laptop manufacturer in the USA, think about how confident they’d have to be to pull this off. The largest problem is, if you spend your billion dollars and build this factory and then the next week Trump removes the tariff, you’re instantly competing with foreign firms again, and you’re going to be going under pretty fast.
I’d say this tariff would have to be in place at LEAST 10 years before anyone gets confident enough to spend the massive amount of money and effort quoted above. When you think about how many millions of laptops are going to get sold between now and then, it’s pretty clear the American consumer is going to take a huge bath in the meantime.
Like so many things Trump is doing, this tariff is supposed to piss off China but just ends up fucking the consumer. Trump and his billionaire friends don’t care if a laptop is an extra $200. That’s change they can find under the couch. For your average American trying to make ends meet, that $200 sure as fuck would be useful.
So go ahead, vote Republican to “own the libs”. Just don’t be surprised when the sudden pain you feel in your wallet is very real.
That 10-year time horizon is a very good point. And it’s not likely that the tariff would stick around that long since every four years has a changing administration who can do whatever they please in those regards.
Personally, for me anyway, I am a Monero holder and am seeing prices fall fairly rapidly. For example, a thing of beard oil in October of 2024 was 72.9mXMR and is now 61.11mXMR (-16.2%).
Lol, you guys are hilarious. I keep seeing these comments.
Fascists don’t allow fair elections.
The only way the magats are leaving office is mass insurrection / mass protests & strikes or revolution.
It most certainly won’t happen at the ballot box
I hope there is a prediction market on this at some point because I do not think it’s likely that they will be able to block elections. I’d love to put my money where my mouth is.
Oh they won’t stop / block the elections initially they’ll hold that first one & just conveniently get 75+% of the vote like every dictator before him.
I’m happy to put money on it if you can find a market. I’ve been unfortunately right too much, not because I’m smart but because you can literally pull out a history of Nazi rise and map it onto MAGA and the last 10 years. The only hard bit is guessing the timings, not what, just when.
I’d really like you guys to break out of this and prove me wrong
Here you go friend: this is a prediction market on whether the Republicans or Democrats will win the house next year: https://kalshi.com/markets/controlh/house-winner
If your prediction is right and there are no more elections this will be easy money for you.
Ok, but this isn’t a betting site, this is an options contract, which given the current price split of 73c:28c is not a good buy (winning isn’t profitable and you’re tying your money up for 2years).
The price however is inline with my statement - that market considers a GOP win a near certainty.
I’ve checked the mainstream betting sites and GOP are solidly odds on (4/6 on through 8/13on) which isnt hugely profitable but I guess it’ll shorten even further
Edit to add odds screencap
You are reading the results backwards - Kalshi predicts a Democratic win at ~70% (as of now) probability. I agree the payback isn’t huge… but if you’re SURE then it’s easy money!
<shrug> whatever. I don’t know who kalshi are and I don’t trust anything American. Betting agencies in my own country have it at a bit worse than evens. I trust paddypower or bet365 who have been around decades to pay out a lot more than some US tech bros. Ignoring the fact it’s not a bet, it’s an options contract.
And yes, you can keep circling around poking at it but I stand by the assertion that there won’t be a fair election in 2026 because a) trump has been running line by line down the Hitler playbook and b) he said the quiet part out loud (after nov24 i wont need your votes) and c) musk’s kid outright said the same thing too and 4year olds dont drop clangers like that unless someone has said it in front of him
Ping me in two years
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The thing is, tariffs aren’t new. Manufacturing (or the lack thereof) in the US isn’t new… the only NEW thing appears to be voters that can be led around by the nose and lacking any kind of critical thought altogether. What % of people that voted for tariffs thought that China’d be paying for them? Probably the same folks who thought Mexico was going to build the wall and pay for it. Last time I checked, I don’t think we’ve received any money from Mexico for this.