• dryfter@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    7
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    5 days ago

    Does the U.S. make anything of value as an export compared to what we import from other countries? Almost everything today has a microchip inside it (except food…I hope) and I’m pretty sure we import most of the microchips we use in stuff. I think the trade war is going to make our economy MUCH worse pretty quick because we are in an even more global economy than we were when Hitler was in power.

    • wildncrazyguy138@fedia.io
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      9
      ·
      5 days ago

      Are you asking this genuinely? Yes, we do. We are a net exporter of refined petroleum products, we export low sulfur coke for steel production. We export agricultural products, particularly soy beans. We export advanced robotics and pharmaceuticals. I think, granted this is from 15 years ago, but we also export a significant amount of vehicles.

    • SpaceCowboy@lemmy.ca
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      5 days ago

      Yeah it will be much worse since so many things people use are a lot more technologically advanced and therefore more complicated to replace. Like my grandfather was a young man in the 1930s and he used a horse for transportation. Didn’t have a landline phone much less a smartphone. Much easier to replace imports with domestic production when most people just needed food and maybe electricity.

      Are people now willing to go back to that kind of a life even for a few years under the promise that things will be better someday? It’ll take at least two years (in most cases, closer to five) to build a factory to produce many of the products we have.

      And who’s going to invest the billions of dollars needed to build the factories? Wealthy people under the belief Trump will keep the tariffs in place for years?

      • Lit@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        5 days ago

        Trump seems to forget digital exports.

        " The United States is one of the leading countries in the export of software, with a robust and influential software industry that includes major companies such as Microsoft, Oracle, and Adobe.4 As of 2023, the U.S. is also the leading country for digitally-delivered services, exporting $649 billion worth, which represents 15.3% of the world total. ".

        Using trump tariff logic, the rest of the world needs to tariffs US to restore software trade imbalances.

    • atzanteol@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      5 days ago

      We export a lot of soybeans. Trump will be giving farmers lots of subsidies to pay them back for the counter tariffs (again).

      Generally speaking tariffs are harder on the nation that is exporting. China will be hit harder as they struggle to find other buyers.

      • Lit@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        edit-2
        4 days ago

        Americans will still keep buying from china, they will just be paying higher tax to Trump.

        China imports inside US have a high enough profit margin and are cheap enough that it probably won’t matter to importer to most consumers. A $1 dollar hook being sold for $2.4 dollar won’t matter to most people who are paying thousands for their iphones.

        Some China stuff will probably get rerouted through lower tariff countries (for “assembly”) to enjoy even more profits inside US while still raising prices anyway and blaming Woke Trump Tariffs for it.

        Manufacturing won’t go back to US soon (if it ever goes back, takes years to build the factories and train the people) so it leaves American no choice but to buy from outside US.

        I think consumers might just buy directly from China sites to reduce their cost further instead of buying from a American, middle man importer or those who rebrand china stuff.

        I also think some American importers may reduce cost by getting rid of American staff in US either because they think they will sell less or just to raise profit by reducing cost.

        • scintilla@lemm.ee
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          5 days ago

          I’m not actually sure that’s true with the truly absurd tarriff that trump has levied. Sure the stuff that’s on hold will keep getting bought from China but other stuff will almost certainly be cheaper from other countries at this point. Nearly tripling the pre sale cost is not good for business.