Tariffs make companies able to compete better within the walled garden, but weakens their competitiveness worldwide. It creates a race to the bottom inside the garden, but makes them weak outside the border. They also makes prices increasefor the local buyers. Costs get passed along, it's not as if manufacturers are going to absorb increases, they don't need to. GM, Ford, Chrysler are all going to pass them on (as any domestic manufacturer)
this post was submitted on 23 Nov 2024
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It's amazing we're having this conversation given that the pinnacle of conservative thought is that you can't make the rich pay for anything because they'll just pass the costs down to you, and yet that seems to go out the window when you can be racist about it.
This is why Trump wants immigrant labor camps
It would have been helpful if they made this statement before the election.
inb4 products that have absolutely no supply chain dependence to China 'somehow' increase in price.
- It's Walmart: what item they sell has no connection to China?
- It's important tariffs actually the board not just China
I think a lot of their food items aren't from China, and a few random things are even domestic. I think they sell Lodge cast iron pans, which are fully made in America.
I think his "plan" is a really big tariff on China and a moderate one on every other country?
That's my understanding as well.
But, as the original comment suggested, it doesn't really matter.
If every other cast iron pan goes up 15% in price, what do you think Lodge will do?
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keep their price the same, see modest relative increase in market share with a demand for investment in additional production, knowing full well the tariffs aren't going to be permanent leaving them over-invested in production whenever they drop the tariffs.
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Also raise their prices by 15%, immediately show increased revenue at no additional cost to shareholders next quarter. CEO gets massive bonus.
I would imagine production cost for lodge could go up since they source the material from scrap yards and if the cost of iron in general goes up because a percentage of it is imported than the cost of scrap should increase as well.
Hey now, the Waltons need some extra cash. Who could even get by on a measly four million dollars a hour in this economy?
Gotta prepare just in case one of them gets drunk and murders a person with a car again.
No shit.
Tariffs alone will not revive domestic manufacturing, the demise of which has numerous causes, but two in particular.
1.) Corporations maximising profits. I don't think this needs much of an explanation.
2.) Consumer apathy. By which I mean consumers not giving a shit and consistently buying the cheapest garbage possible without regard for the long term cost. Quality products cost more money up front and ideally have a lower total cost of ownership. But, the average consumer only cares about the price tag on the shelf. The long term costs of this behavior and the related disposable culture are enormous.
Unfortunately, one of those costs are the loss of middle class jobs cranking out products at a plant in Ohio because now the plant is an empty field and the jobs got shipped overseas.
Reminds me of this Jib Jab video from like 2005.
2.) Consumer apathy. By which I mean consumers not giving a shit and consistently buying the cheapest garbage possible without regard for the long term cost.
This has some validity, but it is not as simple as just saying, "American consumers are stupid" and having done with it.
Quite a few shoppers, possibly even the majority, are living paycheck-to-paycheck and cannot afford anything other than whatever the cheapest thing on the shelf is. They are barred from making sound long-term purchasing decisions because they don't bring in enough income to afford the superior product, even if they wanted to. It's a case of, buy what they can afford regardless of low quality, or nothing. This is the real life version of the Vimes' Boots Economic Theory.
I will also point out that a huge portion of spending by individual Americans is on perishable commodity goods with largely inelastic demand, the purchasing of which cannot be put off. In plain English, that's food and fuel. I will also point out that these are two categories that are to many decimal places absolutely not tied to Chinese importation in any way whatsoever (in fact, the vast majority of food sold in America is grown and packed in America, and when you take prepared foods into account that number rises to near as makes no difference to 100%) so we automatically know that any supposed "tariff" increases on these products are in reality just a bullshit profit grab by retailers and/or Kraft-Heinz or Nabisco or whoever the fuck.
There is a link between tariffs and food prices, the vast majority of American agriculture is mechanized and the machines and their parts are mostly manufactured overseas. As are the trucks that account for a huge percentage of the distribution network.
The fact that they're sending this message now means they will use this as an excuse go raise the prices even higher than nessesary to increase their profit margin. If they really cared about consumers then they should have been yelling from the treetops BEFORE the election.
They said this the last time it happened... During his last presidency.
Walmart Chief Financial Officer Brett Biggs said in an interview that higher tariffs will result in increased prices for consumers.
If only someone else said something about how bad these tariffs would be...
https://amp.miamiherald.com/opinion/article292867514.html
https://www.euronews.com/business/2024/11/04/how-much-could-trumps-tariffs-damage-europes-economy
https://thehill.com/opinion/finance/4938752-trump-economic-policies-impact/amp/
https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2024/10/16/politics/trump-fact-check-john-deere-economy
https://www.semafor.com/article/10/18/2024/what-are-the-consequences-of-trumps-tariffs
https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-tariff-threat-john-deere-economists-baffled-2024-9
https://fortune.com/2024/08/16/trump-tariffs-trade-war-inflation-economic-policies-joachim-klement/
https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/news/yellen-speech-tariffs-will-increase-inflation-risk-trump/
I'm not saying no one was warning us against tarrifs, just pointing out that Walmart specifically waited until after trump was elected (apparently twice now) to announce their warning about tarrifs.
Walmart doesn’t have an obligation to educate the American electorate.
Yes that is true, so ask yourself why they would make such announcements after they know it won't change anything. Best case scenario they are trying to save face for when the tarrifs drive up prices. Worst (and IMO most likely) case is that they use it as an excuse to further increase their profit margins, much like they and other stores did when there was an increase in inflation.
While I don’t disagree, from a business standpoint, yeah, exactly what you said, the reality is they’re coming. When prices go up, they just told everyone who to blame, rather than trying to deflect after having to raise prices.
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