this post was submitted on 02 Feb 2025

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Winning (sh.itjust.works)

submitted 20 hours ago by ozamok@sh.itjust.works to c/comicstrips@lemmy.world

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[–] shawn1122@lemm.ee 0 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour ago) (2 children)

Really not the time to sleep on China if you want to keep your Imperial empire guys.

China completely ravaged US manufacturing and y'all are still in the corner wanking over 'cheap Chinese product.'

China doesn't just make the cheap things you use. They make everything you use.

Stop licking your wounds with petulent little jabs like this and start finding a way to compete. You know, the way your sacred free market dictates that you should.

China went from making cheap things to making everything you use cheap with either you or the American corporation you purchased from pocketing the difference.

They're on a path to making things better than the US and once they do, we'll have a new world order. If the US doesn't wake up now, the second half of this century will be very different than the past 150 years.

[–] Jumi@lemmy.world 1 points 12 minutes ago

Do you ever wonder how they can be so much cheaper?

[–] architectonas@lemmy.world 1 points 1 hour ago

They're on a path to making things better than the US and once they do, we'll have a new world order. If the US doesn't wake up now, the second half of this century will be very different than the past 150 years.

What are you thinking of?

[–] madeinthebackseat@lemmy.world 47 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

The right time for Chinese tariffs was 1980.

[–] lambda@programming.dev 9 points 16 hours ago (3 children)

Not arguing. But why that year specifically?

[–] azi@mander.xyz 4 points 4 hours ago* (last edited 4 hours ago)

Ball had started rolling on Reform and Opening Up by about that time

[–] MajorHavoc@programming.dev 47 points 14 hours ago* (last edited 14 hours ago) (2 children)

It's roughly when the US shut down practically all of our manufacturing plants and laid off the vast majority of our manufacturing talent.

We've had some 40 years of mostly not passing down the knowledge of how to manufacture things well.

What manufacturing we still have is pretty amazing, but the demand for cross training - should those jobs return - is going to be way more than the remaining available talent can take on.

Bringing it back in 1980 would have given us a shot to pass on all the skills of the previous generation of skilled tradespeople.

[–] Machinist@lemmy.world 6 points 2 hours ago

I have watched Chinese tool steel and heat treat ability improve massively over my career. The steel went from chineseium to the cheap usable option in a shop.

Tool and alloy steels are a basic measure of a country's industrial ability. That genie isn't going back in the bottle.

The gutting of US manufacturing and unions has been a crime against blue collar folks that most don't understand. Few new machinists stuck through the recession of the aughts. There are few machinists in my age bracket. There is no magic switch to rebuild manufacturing in the USA. It takes years to create competent machinists and we don't have enough competent machinists to do the training. The apprenticeship programs have mostly been eliminated, the guys that taught me had journeyman's papers but those programs were gone by the time I came up.

I've been lucky enough to grow three machinists, green to competent, in my career. Had to fight with management/corporate to do that much. I know of one that has already left the trade.

[–] Carl@lemm.ee 14 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 9 hours ago) (1 children)

Ironically enough, a great solution to this problem would be to bring in Chinese experts to train American workers. The USD still spends.

[–] llii@discuss.tchncs.de 10 points 7 hours ago

All I can do is mass deportation.

[–] madeinthebackseat@lemmy.world 10 points 14 hours ago

I'm approximating, but it's in that general time period when manufacturing was moving to China, and with very little concern for the American worker.

[–] dragonfucker@lemmy.nz 39 points 17 hours ago (2 children)

She got thinner

[–] Elgenzay@lemmy.ml 46 points 16 hours ago (2 children)

Egg prices

[–] ivanafterall@lemmy.world 1 points 1 hour ago

I don't think selling your eggs makes an actual visible difference?

[–] dragonfucker@lemmy.nz 40 points 16 hours ago

The Trump administration is destroying our great nation's thick milfs

[–] criticon@lemmy.ca 19 points 15 hours ago* (last edited 15 hours ago)

Can't afford avocado toast anymore

[–] ShellMonkey@lemmy.socdojo.com 71 points 19 hours ago (3 children)

If tariffs worked at all like Donnie portrays, to revitalize domestic production and promote local jobs, to help balance a trade deficit, and allow for market choice based on quality more than price, it might be useful.

The reality though is that the American manufacturing and industry space is functionally dead. We've shipped production elsewhere to reduce costs and that's not something that'll get reversed in any short order. All his big talk will do nothing beyond get the additional costs passed onto the buying public while the producers keep laughing all the way to the bank. They'll take any extra taxes gained and put it into the military budget and continue stripping public good services to the bone all while cheering how great we've become. Look at the new carrier group we'll build! So much winning for us both domestically and abroad!

[–] mnemonicmonkeys@sh.itjust.works 1 points 3 hours ago (2 children)

They'll take any extra taxes gained and put it into the military budget

Trump is actually trying to cut the military budget too. Which is actually problematic because we have a lot of equipment (particularly aircraft) that is aging out and we already can't develop and/or manufacture replacements fast enough

[–] ShellMonkey@lemmy.socdojo.com 3 points 2 hours ago

Even if he did, which I really doubt since nobody ever does, I'm pretty sure they could find a way to rearrange some spending in that, what is it 800-900 Billion now?

[–] fnrir@lemmy.world 1 points 2 hours ago

I wonder what Project 2025 has to say about that

[–] HawlSera@lemm.ee 3 points 9 hours ago

Right? This does nothing without initatives to help people launch manufacturing start-ups

[–] Oneser@lemm.ee 10 points 18 hours ago (5 children)

Here's my uneducated take, with little to no understanding of what's going on in detail:

US public debt is at extraordinary levels. The treasury is hesitant to issue more debt and Donny doesn't want to start his tenure with raising taxes on poor people (that will come in a few months, under the pretense to raise money for war with China or some shit). Therefore, he needs to collect money, whilst appeasing to right nationalists & business. Enter: Tarrifs.

Destroy my armchair take!

[–] thejml@lemm.ee 29 points 18 hours ago

He’s already planned tax “cuts” that only cut taxes for those making north of $500k/yr. They go up for everyone under that. So we got both!

[–] alcoholicorn@lemmy.ml 15 points 18 hours ago* (last edited 18 hours ago) (2 children)

At the federal level taxes aren't used to pay debt, they're used to reduce the money supply. That money goes into a shredder, and is functionally unrelated to the money printed.

[–] mnemonicmonkeys@sh.itjust.works 1 points 29 minutes ago

Not really. Most money is actually just numbers on a spreadsheet. This is because loans actually create money in a virtual sense. If you want to reduce the money supply, a better approach is to up interest rates, which encourages people and companies to reduce how many loans they take and pay off the ones they have.

And yes, this is what the Biden administration did to reduce inflation, and it worked. At the start of his term it was over 8%, and at the end it was under 4%.

Unfortunately, people don't understand that reduced inflation doesn't mean reduced prices. It just means the prices don't go up as fast. They also don't understand that negative inflation, i.e. prices going down, is actually terrible for an economy since everyone is then encouraged to spend as little as possible, reducing cash flow

[–] Oneser@lemm.ee 8 points 18 hours ago (6 children)

This seems very odd... Can you give me a source on that? Both the shredding of federal tax income and the relation to public expenditure? It appears I have much to learn

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[–] Ilovethebomb@lemm.ee 74 points 20 hours ago (3 children)

The next four years will be fascinating to watch.

[–] expatriado@lemmy.world 62 points 19 hours ago (15 children)

are you watching from outside or inside? i got the feeling one is less stressful than the other

[–] volvoxvsmarla@lemm.ee 2 points 2 hours ago

For someone with family ties in Ukraine, being on the outside is still incredibly terrifying. Let alone that Muskfuck is now promoting AFD

[–] withabeard@lemmy.world 77 points 19 hours ago (2 children)

When America gets sick, the whole world coughs.

Sadly we're all in the inside of this one

[–] danc4498@lemmy.world 3 points 10 hours ago

I’m gonna guess this might be different 4 years from now. I would think it’s in the best interest of other countries to lessen their dependence on the USA for certain things.

[–] Albbi@lemmy.ca 11 points 18 hours ago

Sometimes you have to cut out the cancer and then let it heal.

[–] magic_lobster_party@fedia.io 23 points 19 hours ago

From the outside I’m mostly concerned about the future of the NATO alliance. Trump threatening to annex NATO allies wasn’t on my bingo card.

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[–] Fandangalo@lemmy.world 33 points 18 hours ago* (last edited 18 hours ago) (1 children)

This comic misses the incentive for local businesses to chase the new profit margin created by the tariff.

If your competition is import goods, you may sell a quality product at $2, with the import version at $1.50. If the tariff causes the import to rise to $2.50, then the local capitalist will raise to $2.40. There’s no reason not to take the extra profit made from a selfish perspective.

Alternatively, the importer could leave the market. But now you have a monopoly, which again, is anti-competitive and leads to raised prices and malicious practices without consumer protections, which the administration seems to be firing.

These are great moves for capital owners to reshape and control market. Consumers will suffer.

[–] Jesusaurus@lemmy.world 16 points 16 hours ago (3 children)

This implies that local availability of competitive products exists, which for the vast majority of things in the US is not the case. So many of our goods are made overseas and imported.

Tariffs are going to raise consumer expenses till one of two things happens: Local production ramps up and provides local goods (at likely a similar or higher price because our wages are higher than overseas) or a political change occurs that results in the removal of the tariffs. Either way US consumers are going to feel the increased cost of goods for the foreseeable future...

[–] SkunkWorkz@lemmy.world 2 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 1 hour ago)

And meanwhile many small businesses will go down since they don't have the bargaining power like their bigger competitors. The rising prices of their suppliers will completely wipe out the tiny margins they had. Even if they raise their prices their competitors can undercut them even more aggressively now. Also quality and quantities of products will go down.

[–] queermunist@lemmy.ml 11 points 16 hours ago

Hypothetically this could create business incentives for building local capacity, but realistically manufacturers are not going to invest with the assumption that these tariffs will be permanent. Eventually either Trump will back down or he'll be replaced by someone else, and the tariffs will end. Why invest in manufacturing when there's no long term guarantees for profitability?

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[–] IDKWhatUsernametoPutHereLolol@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 16 hours ago* (last edited 16 hours ago) (2 children)

"Junk" lolol, the computer in your pocket? Or the drones capable of turning the tide in a war? 🤔

[–] __nobodynowhere@sh.itjust.works 10 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

That stuff was never cheap though

[–] IDKWhatUsernametoPutHereLolol@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 12 hours ago* (last edited 11 hours ago)

They are cheap compared to what they would cost if they were made on US Soil by Americans

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