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Tired of cheap chinese crap everywhere. Maybe people will start saving their money and actually buy good quality stuff locally— not made with Foxconn-style labour. Low time preference. How are tariffs on china a bad thing in this sense? I get that it’s a lot more complicated, with iphones being assembled by foxconn and the complexities of the supply chain… but still, isn’t this directionally ok? Even if we have to pay a higher price?

Replies (46)

Other than food and a few other things, there's no reason why local production is any better. Global transport is cheap and expertise is spread out. I think there's two reasons many products are crap quality: 1. Consumers only care about price 2. Amazon deliberately confuses consumers about quality, e.g. by allowing fake reviews, deceptive marketing, not having expert reviews, and not having objective filters for quality (2) was a bit better when local retailers still existed that actually knew what they were selling and could vouch for quality. Though there plenty bad sales incentives there too.
↩ replying to npub1s6z7...wk4c
Local production/manufacturing can give a region a sense of pride and ownership of a product, there’s certainly something to be said there. I understand it’s not all sunshine and roses, but towns and cities all over used and to this day are called things like the “clock city” or the “yarn city” etc, etc. Consumers very much care about quality but it’s in the context of the product. With extremely cheap, semi disposable goods, consumer’s criteria for quality is mainly that it actually works as intended and doesn’t break immediatley.
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No, China is much better at manufacturing things at scale. What you'll get is something twice as good that's not quite what you need for 10x the price. That's okay for simple things, but not good for things that need to be the right size. Apple famously ran into serious problems getting the right screws for assembly in Texas
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↩ replying to jb55
Cutting tiny screws, forming bits of sheet metal, and populating surface mount components is hard work and doesn't pay well enough domestically, so pretty much all of our manufacturing sector moved to Asia. We kept enough to make satellites and fighter jets, but that only works when your bolt costs $200. We can build it back up, but that will take decades, and will slowly produce expensive, inferior parts along the way
What I like about AliExpress stuff is, that it really empowers the privateer. Idk how it is in US/Canada, but in Europe they're sort of hiding/uppricing this basic stuff and tools to make you go to a "professional" for everything. it's a real desaster...
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We can blame people for shopping cheaply as their wages have been inflated to oblivion and taxed to hell, or go to the root of the problem and admit the central planners have run amok. Allow people to keep what they earn, remove taxes on property and businesses. Get rid of ridiculous laws that allow businesses to be a "legal fiction".. etc. Every person is their own business. Stop believing in politics, if you over 40, male and believe that shit, you are an incel.
↩ replying to jb55
You asked "How are tariffs on china a bad thing in this sense?" and the first principle answer is, that all state interventionism is bad (including tariffs). That's why I recommended you Mises, as he (and many others) deeply thought about all these implications from first principles. I understand your thoughts and conclusions but they are way above first principles, there are many many layers below that.
Its not that simple. Direction might be right but current execution is far from how to get there. They need to reduce debt levels and reduce reliance on supply chains. With current plan pretty much they can't even start being more self sufficient.
Buying cheap shot from China just to buy something is stupid. But China also produces some things that they are the only ones right now who does it good. Not many companies outside of China make good batteries, solar panels, drones and drone parts and many other things.
As it stands, the cost of manufacturing in the United States is much higher than that of manufacturing in China. For the rich, they can certainly choose more expensive and better things, but for the lower class people, they cannot afford more expensive things. 🤔
@jb55 you could already buy those low time preference goods before, why impose tariffs (taxes) on goods YOU think people should NOT buy? Let everybody make their own decisions. Why force them into doing what YOU think is right? That's state interventionism and not a free market.