RANT MODE ACTIVATED:
Ok im royally ***** confused here. Are we getting charged more or what because at this point i dont care if your building these thing on the moon with ommpa loompas who got laid off from willy wonka's chocolate factory. All i care about at the end of the day is how much more is this going to cost me. Look in a perfect world they would be built right here in the US Completly and be affordable and the people building them would be getting a livable wage for themselves and their familys, perfect health care, all the works.
But we dont live in a perfect world do we. Greedy people take most of the money and it trickles down to us lowely plebs buying the damn things and even less to the poor souls building the things.
I dont see how any of this betters the employee building this or the consumer buying the damn thing. All i know is for some reason (Greed) its going to cost more money out of our pockets and its going into someone elses and its pissing me off cause im not wealthy.
Im not donald trump. I dont have billions in the bank. I got to plan ahead and save and trade in what i got to get the new stuff and i only have so much i can spend.
Im all for building phones here in the US but not if the cost of said phones makes it impossable for people in the US to buy the damn things because they were built here in the US.
Im also not for slave conditions either. Im not cool with some 5 year old chinese kid working 20 hours a day building the damn thing and getting paid 2 bucks an hour and being housed in a sweat shop.
There has to be some level of balance between both extremes and i dont have a solution that puts more money in rich peoples pockets and still makes everyone else happy in the process. i dont think such a solution exists cause someone somewhere wants more money then they deserve.
Im dreading next month when the damn phones are announced cause i have no reasonable clue how much they are going to cost with this tariff on that tariff and it changes every 5 minuets with trump in office. i thought prices went up bad with Biden in office, but this is way way worse, and im totally convinced this is just him minipulating the market to enrich himself BECAUSE HES THE TYPE OF GUY WHO WOULD DO THAT IF HE COULD NO PROBLEM.
I just wana be able to trade in my current iphone for the new one at a reasonable price without having to understand the damn global market rates and being a expert on the Economy and not feel like i just went on a speed dating run in a prison shower afterwards if you know what i mean and i think you do! (thats the polites way i can say what i mean without actually saying it )
RANT REPLY ;-):
I hear you about looking at your wallet, but I’d argue that where something is made does matter—even if it feels distant and irrelevant when you’re just trying to buy a phone.
In theory (at least):
If a company manufactures in the U.S., it pays U.S. workers, who then spend that income back into the U.S. economy—buying other stuff, paying taxes, supporting services. That circular flow helps everyone.
But if the company outsources production to the cheapest possible country (with low wages and few protections), then that money leaves the country. Sure, we get cheaper products—but fewer local jobs, stagnant wages, and growing inequality. That’s how the middle class gets hollowed out. The company wins, the consumer maybe saves $50, but the broader economy loses.
The real problem is: companies chase low costs abroad, but they still want U.S. consumers to have enough money to buy their products. You can’t have both—eventually, if you stop paying people decent wages at home, they can’t afford the things you sell, even if they’re made cheaply. At the same time corporations shape policy to maintain the illusion of prosperity, even while undermining the foundations of a healthy economy.
Ideally, you want a balance: produce locally when possible (especially high-value stuff), sell abroad to bring in money, and trade fairly for things you can’t make yourself. But right now, we’ve gone too far in the direction of outsourcing everything, and it shows.
That said, I completely agree with your bigger point: tariffs alone won’t fix this. They’re often just used to manipulate markets or gain political points, and we—the consumers—end up paying the price either way. If the goal were fair wages or environmental standards, that’d be one thing. But this stuff feels like economic whiplash, not long-term strategy. Especially, as I said before, bringing manufacturing back into the US will, most likely, not have the benefit of mass employment as there will be lots of automition. The second problem is, how will other coutries reposnd in the long run? wit the rest of the world increasing their consumerism there will be more attractive markets, hurting US exports.
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