Are we great again yet?
this post was submitted on 29 Aug 2025
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And with no mechanism to pay those tarrifs.
One possible positive outcome of Trump's imbecilic tariffs is that they'll reduce the flow of single-use crap that breaks almost immediately and ends up clogging up landfills.
This literally only hurts consumers, it only helps companies like Temu who have US warehousing.
Only till they have stuff in warehouses, right?
Not really because they have economies of scale, which even if it meant the same buying power they have way less transaction friction by shipping from a domestic warehouse... So I guess this also hurts small companies, especially direct to consumer Chinese companies.
Not to mention they can route their 10 Million widgets through a third country with cheaper tariffs.
That's like throwing the baby out with the bathwater, though.
All the stuff I've ordered from Ali is still in use (or in my parts bin awaiting use). e.g. All my smart bulbs are from Ali and were pre-flashed with Tasmota. They're almost 6 years old and going strong.
Well, overpopulation is a problem, so throw the baby out.
It hurts a lot of people and small businesses.
Mindlessly insisting that "it hurts a lot of people and small businesses" isn't gonna do any good.
From the article:
With de minimis [note: a tariff exemption] gone, he feels small businesses have a better chance to compete more fairly with mega retailers and also support their local communities more.
“When somebody comes to my door and they want me to support the local football team or baseball team, I have money to do that then, and then it gets back into the community,” he told CNN. “When it goes to China, it never, ever stays in the United States — it’s gone for good.”
Tariffs actually protect producers in the US from competition from China, which is practically unbeatable.
The tariff money has to be re-distributed to the people in the US so they don't actually pay more - they only pay more if they import products from abroad instead of buying products from the US. Something like this. (Btw i agree that Trump is an asshole and is gonna hurt people in lots of other ways but tariffs isn't one of them.)
I have to mention that "free trade" and "open borders" are core neoliberal ideas. "Neoliberal" as in the thing that leftists tend to hate the most. It's quite ironic that so many people here advocate for free trade. When free trade worldwide was introduced a few decades ago, it was enormously unpopular, especially among workers fearing their jobs are gonna move overseas (which they often did) to low-paid chinese workers.
It is so astonishing to see the same people today complain about the end of free trade.
It was rather far from being mindless.
Small businesses import small amount of wares/goods/supplies. An artisan shop does not need supplies by the container.
Or try ordering electronic parts for any kind of electronic hobby. Most of the stuff is only available from China. There simply are no local sources.
And hallucinating that this will be the big boom moment for American businesses is moot. All this stupid tariff shit will hurt Americans first and foremost, and will not create jobs and business in the US. No sane person will invest as long as Trump rolls dice every few days to change the conditions.
I basically built an electronics lab from cheap AliExpress goods. Mostly the parts for projects. Boards, chips, nuts, bolts, boxes. All the bits needed to build embedded systems.
The big stuff (tools, power sources, lights) we're US sources for quality. Most everything else was Chinese junk. I could get five copies of a board from China for the same price as one from the US. I made it to platinum level with over 1000 total orders. When I could order a tiny thing cheap, have it arrive eventually (back then it was often 6-8 weeks), but essentially free shipping I was happy to build up my supplies over time.
Now? No idea who could afford to do the same thing. I'm not rich, but I managed to run whole IoT classes out of my garage with 20+ projects underway. Tinkering gets yet more expensive.
Tinkering is communism! You should use solutions provided by the corporations! And pray to God. For if God would like people to tinker, he would give them screwdrivers and soldering irons instead of fingers!
oh god same, I bought maybe 500 items in aliexpress in the last 10 years, a lot of stuff less than $5, Arduino compatible, electronic components, plugs/sockets/connectors of about any type, cables, LEDs, LCD screen (char and for phone/tablet), sensors, relays, name it and countless house items, even my PoCo phone!!!
Only stuff I do not buy on AE are things plugging on AC outlet, because they are not UL whatever tested. But everything low voltage like 5V/12V stuff, good for it.
Never paid taxes on anything.