Tractors and (upcoming) tariffs?

[jyoutz]

Computers have gotten better, but the prices haven't gone up for almost 40 years.

When you factor in the value of current technology, computers have decreased in price.

 

[ultrarunner]

In high school lots of talk of the coming population bomb and ice age predictions.

It's easy to understand how some just throw up their hands when it comes to experts.

Live frugally, purchase value and keep what you have in good repair is what my grandparents espoused...

Very simple farmers that lived a great life of hard work and faith...

 

[2manyrocks]

I remember when science magazines were publishing articles about nuclear powered airplanes of the future.

 

[arrow]

I remember when science magazines were publishing articles about nuclear powered airplanes of the future.

One of my favorites was the flying car.
First nuclear powered sub was the Nautilus. I built that model as a kid and in 2004, I went to the inaugural WW II monument opening celebration in D.C.,
I met a sailor that was assigned to that sub. He was 94 years old and in a wheel chair but mind as sharp as a flint broad head.
Quite the thrill and honor to be able to talk w him.

 

[AnotherBueller]

1st amendment.

1st amendment is about public speech, I don't think this is this a public forum. I had to join and agree to the TBN rules.

 

[AnotherBueller]

Have you considered that your taxes may be lower which could offset those increased costs? Part of the reason for collecting tarriffs in the first place is to lower taxes to individuals and corporations.

Most of the time tariff's are to protect the country's business. Of course that also protects, to a small degree, poor practices as well.
IMHO the reason so much manufacturing has moved over seas is because their labor cost are so MUCH lower. Of course their standard of living is much lower as well.

 

[AnotherBueller]

Tariffs do not cause inflation.

Only government spending cause inflation.

Econ

Supply and demand have absolutely no bearing on inflation.

If there is huge demand and no supply, how is there inflation?
If there is huge supply, and no demand, how is there inflation?

Conversely...

If there is huge supply and no demand, how is there inflation?
If there is huge demand and no supply, how is there inflation?

Prices and inflation are mutually exclusive...

If there is huge demand and low supply, prices go up to whatever point it takes so that the price you are willing to pay and the lowest price someone is willing to accept are equal.

 

[AnotherBueller]

Generally speaking, inflation is caused by too many dollars chasing too few things. Example is homes. We're short something like four million single family homes right now, so homes get sold to the highest bidder. If we had a surplus of homes (rust belt Detroit, for instance) homes can be bought for a dollar. Some places in Italy offer homes for a Euro, everyone has left and the towns are dying.

Another example is the price of used cars recently. Not enough new cars (chip shortages, etc.) so money flowed towards used cars, and the prices rose because of the increased demand. This has abated somewhat, but used car prices are still historically high.

The government can be a cause of "too many dollars" by running the printing presses. (You see how well that worked out in Germany in the 1920s.)

OK, so lets see where we can cut government spending. A big chunk of government spending is "entitlements" such as social security and Medicare. Cut social security and see how quickly that government is gone . . . cut Medicare, ditto.

Then we have defense. Do we want a strong defense? Heck yeah we do, nobody will argue that. Problem is all this stuff is expensive, really, really expensive.

Then we have debt service. People buy US debt obligations (treasuries, savings bonds, etc.) because they KNOW they are going to get paid timely. If Uncle stops paying, nobody will buy these any more (yeah, he's a deadbeat, doesn't pay his bills) and that is the END of funding the government.

The above makes up something like three quarters of the entire federal budget. We still need small details like highways, the FAA, and a blizzard of other alphabet agencies, thousands of government employees, government buildings which need to be heated, cooled, maintained and and and and, so guess what, Uncle Sam is living beyond his means, and like many of the rest of us (see the definition of "peons" a page or so back), he's putting it on credit cards.

OK, how can we fix this? Cut spending significantly - where? Raise taxes - cue screaming. Tell China and Russia we'd like to take a year off on military spending - they'd just LOVE that.

What we need to do is grow our economy. We need more businesses to hire more people and increase our tax BASE, not our tax RATE. We need to operate our existing economy more efficiently, and we need to grow it significantly.

Right now, the National Association of Homebuilders says the average price of a home in America is $400,000, and one quarter of that, $100,000 is paperwork, red tape, regulatory compliance and so on. If we could cut that $100K in half, that house suddenly became more affordable.

Here's another example. I needed a topo survey on a project I'm working on. NASA and NOAA have topo surveys of the entire country, free to download (we paid for them in our taxes). Local county has them too, also free downloaded from NASA/NOAA (we paid for them in our taxes, too.)

Local government won't take them without an engineer's seal (P.E.), NASA, NOAA and the county aren't good enough. Engineer downloads them (free), takes his seal, goes crunch, that'll be $1,000 please. City looks at the seal - not at the survey, just at the seal - checks a box, and nobody will EVER see that piece of paper again even when the sun swallows the earth in four billion years or so.

Multiply that by the 4,000,000 new homes we need to build - I ought to become a P.E. and hire people just to crunch topo surveys at a grand a pop.

This isn't (entirely) the fault of the P.E., it is just a dumb, useless no-added-value requirement which is there because "we've always done it that way".

Want to balance the budget? (Or even show a SURPLUS? As the kids say, OMG!) Grow the economy, increase the tax base but not the tax rate, and get rid of a PILE of useless, outmoded rules and regulations that do nobody any good but waste everyone's time and money.

And do have a happy Thanksgiving - be thankful we are not getting all the government we are paying for ;-)

Best Regards,
Mike/Florida

I could not agree more. Having said that, can anyone see a bureaucrat reducing the size of their kingdom (which reduces their pay check).

 

[AnotherBueller]

You may have any opinion you wish.
You are missing my point however.

I guess I didn't understand the complete point you were trying to make as well. My failure.

 

[AnotherBueller]

The government is NOT the only causative factor of inflation

The statement "The government is NOT the only causative factor of inflation" I believe is correct. How ever the word ONLY should be in caps and highlighted. Such a little word which hides such huge differences.

 

[AnotherBueller]

Lou,

I don't disagree with you. Uncle defines Social Security as an "entitlement", it isn't my definition.

And with 20/20 hindsight, which we are all blessed with, yes, there could have been better places to invest that money.

We can't fix the past, hopefully we will learn from the mistakes of the past (evidence of this learning seems to be sadly lacking) and try not to repeat them.

Governments perform some interesting gyrations to get the numbers they want. Reagan was trying to get unemployment down (hot button issue back then) so someone had the bright idea to classify everyone in the military as "employed". It worked, the numbers came out right where they wanted them. Technically, they WERE "employed", but the unemployment figures refer to civilian employment. Measuring the other way, there's very low unemployment in North Korea . . .

Best Regards,
Mike/Florida

As I recall from Jr High Civics & economics, the government just put the money in the bank and then borrowed from that bank account and never paid it back. Then they passed a law saying they didn't have to.

 

[CloverKnollFarms]

Mexican president claims ‘no potential tariff war’ with US after call with Trump Mexican president claims ‘no potential tariff war’ with US after call with Trump

 

[AnotherBueller]

If I’m not mistaken, I just heard Americans spent 500 billion on legal fees to battle the IRS.

Maybe simplify the tax code and lay off about 75% of the IRS?

Then close all the unnecessary 3 letter agencies we can live without.

There, I just saved us about a trillion a year, now add your cuts in red tape.

Called a flat tax rate, where everyone pays a set (and equal) percentage of their income as income tax.
The more you make, the more you pay. No deductions, everyone's equal no one's special.

 

[rScotty]

Called a flat tax rate, where everyone pays a set (and equal) percentage of their income as income tax.
The more you make, the more you pay. No deductions, everyone's equal no one's special.

Corporations too?

 

[AnotherBueller]

Some more interesting information about US/Mexico trade:

“Two-way trade in goods and services between the United States and Mexico totaled USD 863.4 billion in 2022, positioning Mexico as the second-largest overall U.S. trading partner. During this period, U.S. exports to Mexico totaled USD 362.7 billion and imports from Mexico totaled USD 500.7 billion (deficit of USD 138 billion). This large volume of trade directly and indirectly supports millions of U.S. jobs. Mexico is the first, second, or third-largest destination for merchandise exports from over 30 U.S. states. Top U.S. goods exports include electronics, vehicles, fuels, minerals, plastics, and machinery. Mexico was the second-largest export market for U.S. agricultural products in 2022, with total U.S. agricultural exports to Mexico valued at over USD 28 billion.

Mexico is the 17th-largest investor in the United States, having amassed a total stock of USD 54 billion at the end of 2022. U.S. affiliates of Mexican-owned firms in sectors such as food, communications, plastics, metals, auto components, and business services employed 85,700 U.S. workers in 2018 (the most recent year for which figures are available). Over the last 20 years, U.S. and Mexican supply chains have become increasingly integrated and production sharing —with intermediate steps in the creation of a final good taking place on both sides of the border— is now commonplace. Recent trends in nearshoring following the COVID-19 pandemic have strengthened this integration.”

U.S. Department of Commerce

Let’s build this relationship and reduce Asian imports.

And as more and more CARB rules become fed rules industries that pollute are regulated out of business move to Canada and Mexico the discrepancy continues to increase. Example there's very few (if any) chrome plating business left in the US.the one we had in St Louis moved to Canada 20+ years ago.

 

[JasperFrank]

Nice if real. Where did you read that?

Another problem is that the population replacement in the US has fallen below replacement for more than a generation now. That is too long to turn around with higher birthrates, and has caused all kinds of economic projections to take a dive.

The US is going to have to make up for the downturn from somewhere ... if not with immigration from neighbors, with whom?

rScotty

Would this not solve the housing shortage?

 

[AnotherBueller]

Tariffs are a tool, and like any other tool, can be used correctly or misused. Other countries do have tariffs on US made goods, and that is their decision.

Tariffs are most properly used as a scalpel, not as a sledgehammer.

Canada and Mexico are our largest trading partners as well as our neighbors. I don't understand how imposing a blanket 25% tariff will "protect" us from our neighbors to the north, or how "revenge" and "retribution" (the favorite buzz words of the incoming administration) apply to them.

Mexico has their hands full - more than full - with the drug cartels. The media viewpoint is that they are on the verge of becoming a failed state, or worse, a narco-state. (Unfortunately, we have no other ways to tell what is really going on than the media). They are also a land bridge for people from central America, some of whom are desperately seeking a safe place to live, and, unfortunately, some of whom who have other, rather less noble motives.

Mexico needs help, not punishment. If your neighbor's house is on fire, you call the fire department, you don't call the EPA to complain about the smoke.

We and they need to approach this difficult situation differently. What the US and Mexico have been doing so far obviously isn't working. and slamming them with arbitrary tariffs as "punishment" isn't going to help them or us.

Best Regards,
Mike/Florida

I believe his issue is that china is building factories in Mexico to build their E-vehicles so as to bypass the US tariffs on Chinese vehicles.

 

[AnotherBueller]

I'm not going to get too upset right now. The outcome - and even the assumed tariffs - are yet to be determined. As with any government exercise there are likely many important details on Page# 3024

The devil is in the fine print.

 

[AnotherBueller]

I agree with much of this post, but I'm one of those receiving SS and on Medicare but that doesn't mean I don't want to see those programs under intense scrutiny for waste, fraud and abuse. An entire program does not have to be scrapped to make it more efficient...or honest. The same can be said for defense--you say those things are really expensive, but why? Why should a toilet cost $$$$, a hammer $$$? Mostly because so many accept "that's just the way it is". Your suggestions for growing the economy are spot on, but there is need to reduce wasteful spending at the same time.

Most of the extra $$$$$ it required testing to prove that this particular hammer meets all safety regs (of many agency's) and can not be made any safer and that the printed use instructions are acceptable to lawyers.

 

[AnotherBueller]

Have you seen those cool new Toyota pickup trucks that are not coming here? That is because of the Chicken tax from 1964, look it up.

What???