China Trade war?

[dennishoddy]

Much of it, yes. But a lot of the manufacturing in China, like electronics, revolves around extensive networks of suppliers and laborers with specialized skills. It’s not easy to do what China does. They’ve played this game very well and it’s going to take a strong will to break away from Chinese manufacturing.

Oh, I agree completely. Apple has almost a million employees scattered across China in small assembly plants. Apple will apply pressure on them as well as the other manufacturers that headquarter there.
China can't do a trade war, the US built China because our past politicians on both sides of the aisle allowed them to do so.
China's economy is in a precarious position right now with only 1.5% economic growth.
It has one of the highest debt mountains in the world with 253 percent of GDP, and Trump knows this.
We may have to suffer some with higher prices, but the US can certainly withstand a trade war much easier than they can.

 

[Tanis143]

Oh, I agree completely. Apple has almost a million employees scattered across China in small assembly plants. Apple will apply pressure on them as well as the other manufacturers that headquarter there.
China can't do a trade war, the US built China because our past politicians on both sides of the aisle allowed them to do so.
China's economy is in a precarious position right now with only 1.5% economic growth.
It has one of the highest debt mountains in the world with 253 percent of GDP, and Trump knows this.
We may have to suffer some with higher prices, but the US can certainly withstand a trade war much easier than they can.

Yes, we can. But what will we win? America has grown so used to cheap products that raising their price to compete with American manufacturing would hurt our economy as well. We know the retailers are not going to absorb those costs, it will be the people. It would take a while for American manufacturing to build back up and compete with China products, so in the meantime we have a populating having to pay more for everyday items.

 

[Glock 40]

All I been doing my whole life is paying more. I am used to it.

 

[dennishoddy]

Yes, we can. But what will we win? America has grown so used to cheap products that raising their price to compete with American manufacturing would hurt our economy as well. We know the retailers are not going to absorb those costs, it will be the people. It would take a while for American manufacturing to build back up and compete with China products, so in the meantime we have a populating having to pay more for everyday items.

We won't be in a long term trade war. China's economy can't handle it.

 

[Tanis143]

We won't be in a long term trade war. China's economy can't handle it.

I get that, what I'm questioning is how will this trade war affect us in the short term and long term. Trying to rebuild the US manufacturing sector by placing tariffs on China produced goods is a long term effort. In the mean time the population will be stuck with higher priced items. Now if most of those items are luxury or recreational items, no big deal. People will just wait a bit longer for upgrades. But if it starts to hit our own manufacturing via increase of cost on parts, we could see a very real negative impact our own economy.

IMO I would rather see companies taxed heavily if their outsourced employment is over 10% and would love to see bigger tax breaks given to US manufacturers who produce goods that compete with overseas products.

 

[dennishoddy]

IMO I would rather see companies taxed heavily if their outsourced employment is over 10% .

Which would result in higher prices because manufacturers would increase their prices to the consumer to compensate that.

 

[Ethan N]

I already mostly buy products made in America or Europe, so for me personally, if tariffs on Chinese goods result in American manufacturers scaling up to levels where they can lower prices, I would expect to start seeing savings at some point. Multiple American manufacturers have cited small scale to me as a major reason for their prices being high. It’s a catch 22 for them. They can’t scale up without demand, but demand is low in part because of high prices. Maybe the tariffs will help some of them get over that hump.

 

[Ethan N]

IMO I would rather see companies taxed heavily if their outsourced employment is over 10% and would love to see bigger tax breaks given to US manufacturers who produce goods that compete with overseas products.

I generally favor tariffs over domestic taxation.

 

[Tanis143]

I generally favor tariffs over domestic taxation.

Take a look at GE and see if you don't re-evaluate that stance. Not to mention any customer care phone line where "Dan" or "Mike" has an Indian or Spanish accent so bad you can barely understand them. That's why I put the qualifier of 10% or more of the workforce. If a company doesn't want to get taxed, bring those jobs back to the US.

Which would result in higher prices because manufacturers would increase their prices to the consumer to compensate that.

I've seen companies switch to 3rd party labor outside the US and not only has their prices not gone down, but rather still increased.

In reality both aspects (cheap goods and cheap foreign labor) have hurt the US jobs market and economy. I would love to see both aspects come back to the US, but at this point I think its a pipe dream unless a major shift or shake up happens.

 

[donner]

I generally favor tariffs over domestic taxation.

The american taxpayer is still paying, though. Both through the increase in price and through the subsidies we're now paying to our own farmers because of the tariff battle