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PaperclipPerfector  6mo ago (text post)   3328 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for October 27, 2024

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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Can someone steelman US tariffs for me? Is there a way that tariffs (or more likely, the threat of tariffs) is a plausible economic policy?

Would you need a large market to be accessible for sales so that overall profit would outway the labor and regulatory costs in establishing production back in the US?

There is enormous economic efficiency in America because the super-wealthy have resources that they waste frivolously, when these resources would be better allocated to the lower-middle, middle, and upper-middle classes. These super wealthy people make money by selling people stuff made overseas. If you make them pay money to import their overseas stuff, they have two options: (1) reduce their profits and make their business more efficient; (2) attempt to raise the cost of their items. If they do (2), then things made in America can compete against them, which is great for all Americans but the super-wealthy, because your job’s wages are set according to the number of wage-competitive jobs available to you and your peers. Increasing the number of competitive middle class jobs increases all wages of the middle class, as well as the workers’ quality of life. Additionally, there’s a ceiling for the pricing of a lot of overseas items, because if a company like Nike prices them too high, fewer people will buy them and more will buy competitors. This means Nike, Nespresso, Shein, Temu, Alibaba, IKEA, and other sorts of businesses are not actually able to raise their prices in proportion to the tariff. Once their price is too high, people opt for a lower-cost competitor. Fast food is similar. We could tax the heck out of McDonald’s and they could never raise prices proportionately because once it reaches a certain high people will make their own food.

Be wary of talk about “economic efficiency”. If profits go to people who don’t need them then those profits don’t matter.

Actually, even increasing competition of lower class jobs will increase middle class wages

Except that in practice the middle class cares about purchasing power, not paper wages.

I am alleging that this will increase purchasing power.

For overall purchasing power, it might go either way. But what I can say for certain is that it will significantly reduce purchasing power of cheap consumer goods, the kind of crap you buy from Shein, Temu and AliExpress. Stuff that will never ever be made again in the US.

And if you look around the house of a lower middle class person, it's often really all they have.

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