[micromacrofoot]

and re-industrialization won't save it

we can't possibly compete with (much) cheaper overseas labor, tariffs will do nothing but exclude the US from this cheap labor while other countries continue to benefit from it

eventually more of it will be automated anyway, and areas that saw booms from cheap labor will face similar class crises

there's also this idea that maybe our standard of living needs to regress some ("2 dolls instead of 30"), but you're insane if you believe that this can happen without significant strife and political upheavals... we're already at a point where many young americans feel as though they'll never be able to buy a house

the only "clean" path I can see out of this is some form of universal basic income, which likely has many problems to figure out, but at least doesn't treat humans like fuel for operating machinery

[hparadiz]

I recently was looking at a 4 speaker switch on monoprice. It was $20 two months ago. Now it's $40. It occurred to me that the parts in this speaker switch amounted to be $2 of raw parts. The simplest of plastic pieces with basic copper wires and metal screws. Yet they were shipping it here and forcing American consumers to pay $20 in taxes instead of possibly claiming an almost $36 profit margin by paying $2 of taxes on raw parts and assembling it here. Now I know it hasn't been long enough but these are the types of opportunities that are now available in the economy. If an assembling plant is there then that creates opportunities downstream to in-source even the raw parts too. Anyway that's just been where my mind goes about these things recently. I generally support free markets.

[surgical_fire]

1) Labor will be a lot more expensive if assembly is done in the US, and since parts are cheap, labor will likely be the biggest expense.

2) Working at assemblying cheap shit is bottom of the barrel work that people only do when they are desperate. It's either work or starve. It's why those jobs are outsourced to where labor is extremely cheap.

I am not from the US, but I read these posts with some mild amusement, because there is poetry that I am unable to capture.

Like, the goal of most countries is escaping the middle income trap and becoming advanced economies, and now people in the richest, most advanced economy there is want a regression to have assembly sweatshops instead of an advanced economy based on services and finance.

The funny part is that people that advocate for that wouldn't want in a million years to work in an assembly sweatshop. They count that someone else will do the job. Maybe immigrants, before they are deported to some concentration camp in Central America.

[dullcrisp]

On the other hand we always rail against exploitative overseas labor practices here. Maybe this is actually a very progressive policy. We can all spend one day a week assembling electronics like Marx would have wanted.

[micromacrofoot]

I'll assemble electronics 5 days a week if I own part of the company. That is what Marx wanted. Apple generates $10 million+ per employee right now.

[dullcrisp]

And they offer equity compensation so things are looking pretty good

[micromacrofoot]

to assembly line workers?

[micromacrofoot]

How much more do you think it will cost for Americans to assemble? (at least double but more likely 5 times considering other factors like healthcare, environmental and safety regulations)

What do you think happens when China and other countries lose manufacturing capacity to US re-shoring... they will seek to regain elsewhere. Guess where most of the raw materials for electronics come from... it's not the US. This can't be redistributed.

Manufacturing reshoring is not an answer, it's a delay. You spend tons of capital getting it back and then it dies in 10 years anyway.

Simultaneously, everyone in charge thinks the US population needs to increase. It doesn't math out.

[surgical_fire]

> everyone in charge thinks the US population needs to increase.

Of course they do. With less people the pool of available workers is reduced, and this gives labor an edge.

Those in charge thinks that this is very icky. They would rather keeping the underclass desperate enough.

[SpaceCoaster]

US manufacturers response to 25% tariffs on washing machines was to raise their prices by exactly 25%. $80 million was collected in tariffs, $2 billion was paid by US consumers in increased prices. Increased prices caused a reduction in units sold. US manufacturers increased profits on reduced sales led them to close plants, lay people off and fund share buybacks. Chinese manufacturers avoided the tariffs by moving production to Vietnam and increasing US prices. Net result, higher prices and reduced employment.

[watwut]

> Yet they were shipping it here and forcing American consumers to pay $20 in taxes instead of possibly claiming an almost $36 profit margin by paying $2 of taxes on raw parts and assembling it here

You assume that salary of people involved in putting the speaker together (or more likely robotic automatization) would amount to 2$ per speaker?

[hparadiz]

No no. $2 for the tax on raw parts and then there's $36 of profit per unit to work with. Potentially. Just a thought experiment.

[wat10000]

Are you going to make an investment to seize that opportunity when you don't know if your $2 in parts might become $50 overnight because the President woke up with economics on his mind?