Quote from: AutobahnSHO on May 21, 2024, 11:28:53 AMThe problem is that economics and macro stuff is very often counter-intuitive to the not as smart folks.

"ChInA cArS aRe ToO cHeAp! TaRiFf ThEm!"  is a fairly common thought. But those folks don't look at the 2nd and 3rd order effects.

For example, the disappearance of cheap small pickups in the US of A getting people addicted to giant gas guzzlers.

I doubt that the common folk are in favour of tariffs.  They'd sooner pay less for giant gas guzzlers no matter where the come from, even if it meant that half of the workers in their own countries were out of a job.

Quote from: Morris Minor on May 21, 2024, 01:09:17 PMYup - the unions want us to keeep driving Suburbans, like the grooms and stable boys wanted us to stick with riding horses 120 years ago.
It's all they know.

Unions, or the management of the Big 3?  Unions didn't end production of all passenger cars outside of the Mustang at Ford.

Quote from: AutobahnSHO on May 21, 2024, 11:28:53 AMThe problem is that economics and macro stuff is very often counter-intuitive to the not as smart folks.

"ChInA cArS aRe ToO cHeAp! TaRiFf ThEm!"  is a fairly common thought. But those folks don't look at the 2nd and 3rd order effects.

For example, the disappearance of cheap small pickups in the US of A getting people addicted to giant gas guzzlers.

Yup - the unions want us to keeep driving Suburbans, like the grooms and stable boys wanted us to stick with riding horses 120 years ago.
It's all they know.

Quote from: Morris Minor on May 21, 2024, 08:54:56 AMSenator Joe Biden ripped President Trump a new one when he imposed tariffs on China. Now President Biden has flipped and doubled down... with a bunch of guys in union shirts standing over him.

Tariffs are the mark of a knuckle-dragger: highly inflationary and highly conducive to economic contraction & unemployment. This is freshman macro Econ 101 stuff.

Throughout the 20th century the working classes/middle classes in the Western nations have achieved a living standard unprecedented in all of history.  This is directly because of unions; specifically labour unions.  What they had achieved through bargaining, wage increases, working conditions, etc. proliferated into all aspects of the working forces, office workers, services, et al.  This has not happened in many/most of the Eastern and South Asian countries, with the exception of a very few.  Labour forces in many of those nations are little more than slave labour employing children even with working conditions that are hazardous and wages that barely provide sustenance.

Certainly there is an imbalance, middle class workers earning enough for a comfortable lifestyle and even able to buy products manufactured in their own countries or workers slaving in unsafe conditions and barely able to provide the very basic needs for themselves.  Of course the products they manufacture, be it socks or tools or cars, cost less in the Western world and the profits margins for the owners, be it the state or foreign owners is likely much higher, and the quality is, no doubt, questionable.

The question is, do you let these cheap, poorly made products into your country to be gobbled up by the general population?  Who doesn't like cheap, even though it breaks?  Or do you impose a tariff on these cheap products so that the public will be more inclined to buy products made at home, that don't break, as easily?

The problem is that economics and macro stuff is very often counter-intuitive to the not as smart folks.

"ChInA cArS aRe ToO cHeAp! TaRiFf ThEm!"  is a fairly common thought. But those folks don't look at the 2nd and 3rd order effects.

For example, the disappearance of cheap small pickups in the US of A getting people addicted to giant gas guzzlers.

Tariffs when used correctly can end the constant search for the lowest common denominator - which does neither humans nor the planet any good.

They however need to be done with carefully selected benchmarks aimed at improving working and environmental conditions... Not just some broad tariff based on country like Trumpity Dumpity liked to impose.

Quote from: GoCougs on May 20, 2024, 03:19:37 PMAs is always the case, tariffs are a terrible idea, and it will hurt the US in the long run.

Owing to this last round of strikes and nonviability of EVs as a business, the end of the US auto industry is cemented irregardless.

Senator Joe Biden ripped President Trump a new one when he imposed tariffs on China. Now President Biden has flipped and doubled down... with a bunch of guys in union shirts standing over him.

Tariffs are the mark of a knuckle-dragger: highly inflationary and highly conducive to economic contraction & unemployment. This is freshman macro Econ 101 stuff.

China is in a unique position- they've done a good job on grabbing all the technological advancement already out there, using their massive amount of people, and the willing consumers all across the globe.

I wonder if they will have any sort of worker revolution in the next decades- but their very effective censorship of outside influences has been pretty impressive.....

Quote from: veeman on May 20, 2024, 10:50:18 AMI just don't see how the public electric grid would be able to accommodate a busy holiday travel weekend on our interstate highways with near 100% EV cars.

Especially if you include semi trucks.

Beef it up. Build it out to meet demand. 

Well wife has been driving truck (Maverick) on the tire for more than a week, we'll probably just leave it.

I know that some transmissions (expecially AWD) don't like size differences on the tires- can create extra wear.

For now, tire is on rear anyway- no problem at all since it's FWD.