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Tariff on Apple Chargers and Cases Jumps, Now at 25%
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Trade balance on a global scale is not a zero sum game. Trade balance on a country vs country will NEVER be close to a zero sum game.
You said:
"I wonder how Trump would feel about not allowing US Treasuries then to be sold to foreign countries so that we would not be dependent on foreign countries as he does not want us to be dependent on China for goods."
This statement implies that Trump/US would want to not allow Treasury sales to foreign countries because of a worry of dependency. The opposite is the case - you want to sell treasury-backed securities to foreign countries because that makes your currency more independent than those who are doing the buying. They buy Treasuries to back their securities because, in this case, the US government is more "trustworthy" (bond ratings) than the country making the purchase (China).
It improves the security of the debt being sold by China, but without those purchases, the US Treasury would have a much more limited market to sell to, and those auctions would risk deflationary pressures because of that artificial restriction.
So your opening statement is, itself, contradictory to economic science.
You have a valid point but while some argue that there is a trade gap others can also argue that there is a Treasury Gap as well.
The French beg to differ, but the better measure is how behind those countries are. Innovations come from the US. Europe went from ruling the world to being inconsequential. Also, we don't fear bankruptcy due to sickness, just buy health insurance.
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The second part doesn't make sense, or it's ignoring things. The point of the tariffs is people buy fewer from the foreign country. It accomplishes that, but that's not really what you want unless you're trying to leverage yourself against that country.
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Taxes are not stealing. LOL! Tell that to the police officers, school teachers, public workers, firefighters and so on. Highways and high speed rail lines build themselves as well. Oh and schools and colleges and hospitals too. Oh wait you have to pay your college fees too...
I rather live in Germany with healthcare and universities payed by my taxes than being in the US where volunteer dentists have to go to the trailer parks like in a third world country and sending your kid to a college costs you a kidney.
I've visited Western Europe (France and Italy) a few times, and they look like second-world countries. IDK what stats people use for "standards of living," but they seem bogus. And I know the college education there is second to ours and maybe China's, but our lower education really needs an overhaul.
Also, free (aka tax-supported) stuff isn't good. If you go to a free school of any kind here, even if it's well-funded, it's awful because nobody there cares about it. They want students to have some skin in the game, and with financial aid and cheap loans it's always manageable, despite the complaining.
Besides, it means we decide more so what we want to spend our money on rather than the government deciding for us, which is akin to serfdom. Then again our taxes have been steadily increasing to fund things that don't really benefit anyone, so that sucks.
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Yes.. talking to anyone who makes minimum wage and how they feel spending big chunk of their income on health insurances. There is a reason why eremengcy room get abused and people die because of lack of insurance or underinsured.
I still cannot believe to these day, people could die because they have no insurance and they could not afford of medical bills. You are talking age where people frank out when animal gets crashed by a car.
It is easy to just say “oh you should just buy insurance” in first place, until you run into a situation where medical bill will crash you to the bone.
We Canadian cherish our healthcare system. Ask any Canadian and they will tell you so.
I don’t know where you were in France or Italy, but if I visited some places in the US, say areas around Chicago, mobile home parks, godforsaken areas in the middle, or Florida, I would also conclude the US is a second world country. And if I take your crumbling infrastructure, lack of accessible healthcare, schools or public transport, etc into account, my conclusion might even be worse.
I don’t follow your view that if the government organises something, it’s free and therefore bad. Maybe your government sucks. And if I look at who’s running it, I don’t blame you. But over here, the government is not the enemy, and some things like road works, public transport, energy, education, ... are better organised by society, for society.
Why should a child from a poor family have a worse education or health care than his rich neighbour? That’s just absurd.
This is becoming off-topic so will have to stop .When the amount is inordinate, my personal interpretation is stealing.
A fair tax will support police, fire, teachers, etc.
The, agreeably outrageous, education cost are driven by greedy, money-grubbing and prestige-pandering schools. Unfortunately here, I don’t think govt paid education will work, institutions will just get greedier and govt won’t be able to reign it in or control them. It is a problem.
How can the government be unable to control a government run school? It’s one and the same administration.
The government allocates funding, builds a building, assigns teachers, determines the curriculae, evaluates the education and spending, and corrects things if needed. How can they be greedy or overspend? That’s just nonsense. Unless you live in a corrupt third world country without checks and balances.
You just complain complain complain about the government. Then do something and elect a better one.
You mean because we value our culture and don’t like to tear down anything that’s older than 10 years and replace it with plastic crap and cables hanging around everywhere? I live in Switzerland, the third richest country in the world, after Finland and Luxemburg. If Europe is 2nd world - what’s the US? A banana republic?
I used to live in Minnesota. I’ve always loved the people there and I used to like America. My wife’s family lives in and around Seattle. The Americans truly had a country to be proud of. That’s no longer the case, though - your political system is a complete joke, you can’t get anything done anymore anywhere in the world, let alone at home. Everything’s falling apart, your social- and health- care systems are worse than in many African countries. The worst thing, though, is that you don’t realize it. As long as that’s not the case, you won’t make “America great again”. Right now, you’re making us great and turning your own country into a crap hole. I’m sorry but it has to be said.
It actually makes me sad to see how your current government is making America look extremely bad. Aren’t you worried at all? Doesn’t anyone care?
Do you really understand what you are commenting about?
The trade deficit (at least that with China) is actually a big win to us. The Chinese goods are comparatively extremely cheap. With the deficit, we get a lot lot more real things for out day-to-day life usage, while as exchange they basically just get a electronic transmit of treasury bill statement, none of these need to be ever paid, as long as we maintain our prevailing military power over them.
I'd rather the tax dollars being spent on the free education (though I don't have kids) than to be on the enormous totally unnecessary high spending on oversea military actions or oversea "intelligence" projects, as they only benefit the big multi-nation companies, and only those that do business in low-tech industry.
If you don’t or can’t pay your bills at the end of the month you got a problem as you can not print money where the government can. Sooner or later you will die and after you die the government will still be around and the printing presses will still be printing. We don’t all need to become printing presses for the government. Do we really need to pay the government 40-50% on top of an item’s cost just to be able to buy it..?
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Same here. Would like to see that and social security massively cut. Education funding is a tiny portion of the federal budget, sadly. Though if you're gonna fund education, I think high schools need it most.
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I don't care about how our country looks to others, only that we do the right thing. Like I said, we've been hated forever. I am worried about things internally, and Trump is causing damage. Social security is a mess and just needs to die. Our healthcare systems aren't great but aren't as bad as you describe.
In Europe, I got the sense that I'd be happier there because people are luddites and, as you said, don't like plastic crap. And people aren't as obese. They're definitely poorer than Americans, but it's for the better in some ways. The culture here in the US got ruined. But I prefer to be where progress is being made.
Also, sorry, but I can't see being proud of a "neutral" country. It's called being selfish, being the place Nazi Germany and other offenders can always trade with. I'm not saying the US military action isn't bad too, but at least we don't make selfishness our official policy, and AFAIK Switzerland never recognized they were on the wrong side of history during WWII.
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Yeah, the difference is you're looking at mobile home parks, and I'm looking at European cities I visited. I went through the countryside too. There are rednecks there just like here. Except your nature is nicer; people here live in flat wastelands.
Our government kinda sucks. But all of them do, and the difference is we don't rely on ours. Look, European colleges are still lame. The US has public universities, and they're the best in the world, but they still cost money to attend. It's just an affordable amount. Private scholarships help with the private universities. I believe in accessible education for those who can prove they deserve it, and we mostly get that here for students of college age, but the high schools are lacking.
I don't get why we're even talking about education and healthcare. Europe does redistribution of wealth in general. French people start paying 95% tax above a certain threshold, so there's no reason to try being exceptional there, and I'm not going to believe the government there is very efficient either. Lack of free speech adds further insult, but it kinda goes with the socialism. Seems like the move is to grow up in Europe then go to the US for college and stay.
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You should care what others think about your country. The issue nowadays is that isolation won’t work and will destroy you economically and, eventually, also militarily.
You’re absolutely right that Switzerland played a dubious role during WWII and people here are certainly not proud of that. However, I don’t recall the US admitting that they messed up in Vietnam and both gulf wars (smoking gun anyone?), so if that is grounds for not being being proud of your country, then you guys have a problem too.
Europe is certainly not poorer than the US. And neither are its people. Taxes here in Switzerland are among the lowest in the world (still way too much, but just saying). It’s funny how Americans keep saying how rich they are when in reality, the US have the highest poverty rate anywhere in the Western world.
Any politician who even remotely discusses privatization of our healthcare system is guaranteeing themselves a run-out of office.
Universal health care systems aren't perfect, but they work better than free market private systems. in all but 95% of the cases.
When I hear about Americans bitch about paying taxes for health coverage, but then turning around and propping up a private insurance company to get 1/2 the services we do, my brain nearly explodes at the hypocrisy and lack of understanding.
Do my taxes go to healthcar? yes. Because of that, I do not need private healthcare insurance. My coverage overall is then cheaper. due to the larger pool of taxpayeres paying into the same equal system.
Friend in DC area pays nearly $200 /mth on insurance. with a 750 deductible. That means per year he is paying over $3200 towards insurance companies. if he does't get sick or use it, the insurance company profits.
My taxes, I pay significantly less than 2,000 / year towards my health care portion. No deductible. And if I don't use it, it goes towards helping others and not lining the pockets of some corporate insurance fatcat who only cares about profiting. Insurance companies are the modern "death panels" who get to pick and chose who gets what coverage in the name of profit.
Either way, at the end of the day, while my taxes tend to be 1-2% higher than my american friend (we have comparable incomes), my overall disposable income at the end of each year is higher because i'm not forced to pay for a for profit insurance scam which injects a for profit component in the middle who needs to add their cut to the pie. This means overall, since I have higher disposable incomes while also having better health care coverage, My standard of living is significantly higher than that of my friend.
I was looking at importing something from China recently and the mind boggling part is many people don't realize that a 25% tariffs often does not mean a 25% increase but rather a 1100% increase for many items. Take for example one item which used to have a 2.5% import duty on it which now has a 27.5% import duty on it (aftwt adding in the additional 25%) making the increase of cost going up 11 times or in other words 1100%. The 25% tariffs number though sounds much better to the general public but in reality the cost for many many items within a year had gone up over 1100% from 2018 to 2019. The Trump minions have yet to see what this will do to the American economy and global economic growth by next year.
Here we go, classic roulette game
Apple pitches the dealer to have one more card, and the stakes rise, given enough time.
If this starts off slow, Apple will start demanding more to be exempted anyway. It starts with the easy stuff first: chargers, earpods etc... then progresses to the big stuff: Mac,Apple TV
\in a nut shell, i think the bigger the price tag, the more Apple will wanna bargain it. It'll happen..
Once you get hooked, you can't stop.
Since China has already offically telling its own fligt crews how they can't have their own say, the word is spreading fast.
Apple pitches the dealer to have one more card, and the stakes rise, given enough time.
If this starts off slow, Apple will start demanding more to be exempted anyway. It starts with the easy stuff first: chargers, earpods etc... then progresses to the big stuff: Mac,Apple TV
\in a nut shell, i think the bigger the price tag, the more Apple will wanna bargain it. It'll happen..
Once you get hooked, you can't stop.
Since China has already offically telling its own fligt crews how they can't have their own say, the word is spreading fast.
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He says, as he spends time on a website dedicated to Apple goods, (the VAST majority of which have significant China production/design/research).
If you knowingly buy anything Chinese and then spout that crap. One word, hypocrite. But that's the west all over.
Reminds me of all those people that moan about Amazon and Google and then use their products, and the people that moan about how the small local shops are dying and then do all their shopping at out of town shopping villages or Wallmart.
Jesus!
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This, exactly this.
I was listening to Snowden the other day. Don't know why it never occurred to me before but some of the stuff the US is complaining about are things they themselves have done to other countries. Same with individuals moaning about privacy. The powers that be are all up in your business.
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Apple products have largely escaped the tariffs imposed on goods manufactured in China, but since earlier this year, Apple accessories like power adapters, cables, and cases have been subject to a 10 percent fee.
As noted by The Verge, the United States on Friday raised import taxes from 10 percent to 25 percent, a tax increase that's going to impact these Apple accessories.
![18w-usb-c-power-adapter-apple.jpeg]()
Thus far, Apple and its suppliers have absorbed the additional 10 percent fee on Apple accessories and prices have not gone up, but with tariffs now at 25 percent, it's not yet clear if Apple will continue to eat the extra cost.
Apple may be making enough money to continue to sell its accessories at a normal cost, and as The Verge points out, it could have shifted manufacturing to different countries to avoid the fees all together. Apple has not commented on the extra tariffs at this point in time.
China today retaliated and announced increased tariffs on $60 billion in U.S. goods, which will take effect in June. China will be introducing import fees on petrochemicals, soy oil, peanut oil, and more.
Apple CEO Tim Cook last July said that Apple is hoping "calm heads prevail" and that the company is "optimistic" the tariff issue will be sorted out. That hasn't happened yet, but so far, the bulk of Apple products continue to be unaffected.
Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.
Article Link: Tariff on Apple Chargers and Cases Jumps, Now at 25%
The CEO of Columbia Sportswear, Tim Boyle, on Friday issued a statement in which he said his company “will be forced to raise prices” if the tariffs are imposed. The letter was issued the day after the Trump Administration announced a new round of tariffs on the approximately $300 billion of Chinese goods that hadn’t already been targeted by previous American duties. The new 10% tariffs will impact a wide swath of consumer goods, including apparel and footwear.
Columbia Sportswear CEO: New tariffs would be ‘disaster for the American economy’
Most retailers are letting their associations and lobby groups speak out against the latest round of tariffs. But not all.
chainstoreage.com
I had a look at a number of Columbia products at the Sierra Trading Post. They moved production to Vietnam. A lot of boutique sportswear makers have move production out of China to other low-cost countries in the past year.