miketmtpro
lvl.4
Flight distance : 1883940 ft
United States
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Every POTUS has talked the talk about fair trade for decades, and none have done anything about it. Campaign football that gets kicked around because too many long term public officials had inside deals.
How will things affect the market? Look at history. I've been involved with consumer electronic retail for decades. What were once top brand names in US, most are gone, or had been resold to overseas mfg's that use a trademark name (familiar to US consumers).
Samsung was a tiny electronics company in the 80's. They basically made the first disposable TV's. Were priced 40-50% cheaper than RCA, Magnavox, Zenith and even Sony. Consumers decided the cheaper TV was the one to buy. Who cares if it breaks, buy a new one. Then enters KMC built by Gold Star which is now LG.
Domestic answer from major mfg's was to move product factories to Mexico. That brought some pricing down, but the quality dropped tremendously. Enter Mitsubishi and Pioneer in the high end products as well as mid range.
EPA and other changes impacted the parts makers, distribution and factories heavily. Companies that made semiconductors, resistors, caps, and so on basically said screw that and moved overseas. Many cities in the midwest that manufactured components simply vanished what seemed like overnight to many.
The other big issue was the infrastructure. Businesses no longer wanted to pay the cities for infrastructure upkeep. Many companies were told relocation to asian areas would have brand new high tech infrastructure like they had never seen before. Investors went full in, and leaders were given tidbits of what was going on no doubt. RCA (Thompson CSE), NAP Philips (Magnavox/Sylvania,Philips), Zenith, as well as other smaller entities like Emerson, LLoyds and small dime store product makers fled quickly. Most went out of business eventually and sold their naming rights later. Consumers like familiar names.
Fast Forward to today and the big consumer companies are LG, Samsung, Sony, Pioneer, Vizio, maybe toss in Panasonic. Very very few service facilities. Everything is basically disposable.
The last POTUS simply said "those jobs are NEVER coming back" and that did not sit well with a lot of US citizens. Could those jobs come back? What would it take? For leaders speaking as I watched CSPAN coverage a few times on trade deals, many on both sides discussed fair trade policy, but most sat on their hands.
Prices of products will likely go up some if tariffs are raised. If that is what it takes to rebound some of the domestic employment options and manufacturing base in the US, then most people would probably go for it. Would I pay more for products to have domestic product options as well as employment opportunities for people who need them? yes.
My parents have old toasters from Sunbeam made in the 60's that still work. Same brand imported low cost stuff today might last 3 years. Then it hits a landfill.
Gas and oil go up and most just go "ohh well, not much to do about it".... Not only did that happen, but nearly every food product went up, containers got smaller as well. Some said to save costs and make shipping easier... nobody said "wait that is less product now costing more" and there was no outrage either. Media mostly didn't care to run a story. We get gouged in oil prices over a simple pimple of a threat in the ME and speculators go wild. Crazy stuff mostly ignored. DJI drone price going up due to import costs and the sky is falling when it hasn't yet and not one person has seen any new cost margins to even consider really.
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