XPost: rec.arts.comics.strips   
   From: psperson@old.netcom.invalid   
      
   On Fri, 26 Dec 2025 08:48:17 -0500 (EST), kludge@panix.com (Scott   
   Dorsey) wrote:   
      
   >Thomas Koenig   wrote:   
   >>And the tarrifs broke the company's back. This is also mentioned   
   >>in the article that you quoted, by the way.   
   >   
   >Vietnam tariffs on electronics aren't quite as bad.   
   >   
   >I make a thing that uses a switch.  The switch costs $3.10 each from China,   
   >now with a $1.10 tariff added.  (These are Q1000 prices since I am just a   
   small   
   >operation.)   
   >   
   >I went looking for an equivalent... and a company in Vietnam makes a similar   
   >product, and switches from Vietnam are not tariffed at all, but they are    
   >almost $9 each which is a problem, and I don't think the quality is as good   
   >as the Chinese ones.   
   >   
   >Likewise board fab in China is now being tariffed at a pretty high rate (to   
   >the point where the big prototype board company JLC is no longer accepting    
   >orders from the US because they don't want to be bothered with the customs   
   >mess), but there's no tariff on board fab from Vietnam.  Board fab is kind of   
   >an odd duck since most of the cost of board fab in the US and Vietnam is    
   >waste disposal, while in China they just drop all the heavy metal waste    
   >into a sump in the basement.  So it's very hard for anyone with sane    
   >disposal laws to compete with the Chinese.   
      
   Just thought I should point out that those "sane disposal laws" are   
   /exactly/ the sort of thing rabid idealizers of unfettered capitalism   
   oppose.   
      
   Well, they would be putting them in the nearest river, if possible.   
      
   Raw, unfettered, capitalism is, indeed, a bitch.   
      
   >So, I do see some of these tariffs possibly pushing some production out   
   >of China and into Vietnam and Thailand in the future, but I don't see it   
   >doing anything other than hurting customers right now.   
      
   If by "customers" you mean people in your situation (and you are,   
   indeed, a customer), that's fine.    
      
   But I am not reading articles stating "95% of MAGA rejects Trump's   
   tariffs because they raise the price they have to pay at the store".    
      
   Nor am I seeing any riots on this topic on true-red MAGA streets.   
   Which I would expect if they were causing severe heartburn.   
      
   Or anything like that. When I do find articles on the topic, they are   
   usually some Great Expert assuring us that they are a problem.   
      
   I, myself, am basically unaffected. Of course, some prices rise from   
   time to time. But they have done so my entire life (a candy bar   
   costing 5-cents now costs -- well, I don't know how much; I stopped   
   buying them when I retired they were at $1.20 but that's over 50 years   
   or so). What I am /not/ seeing is a sudden across-the-board 10% jump.   
   And my expenditures are still within what passes for me as the   
   expected amount.   
      
   I am seeing availablity problems reminiscent of the supply chain   
   problems during the pandemic. Perhaps ICE is arresting/deporting truck   
   drivers who "look like a Mexican" and so producing supply-chain   
   issues.   
   --    
   "Here lies the Tuscan poet Aretino,   
   Who evil spoke of everyone but God,   
   Giving as his excuse, 'I never knew him.'"   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)