Car prices to rise due to tariffs and certain vehicles possibly ...

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American families need to learn how to pool resources. Basically act like their immigrant forefathers. I'm looking at a deal now where a 30 yr old programmer making $150k yr just bought a $1.1M house with a $125k mortgage. How? Savings and gifts from relatives. If Americans aren't willing to do this then they will age out of existence because other people ARE willing to do it.
Save money by living 10 in a household? Take part in the public nuisance that is one house with eight cars parked out front? No thanks, but you're more than welcome to live like our immigrant forefathers if you like.
 
Please avoid political comments. I do not want this thread to get locked. I've been looking into adding a low mileage fun weekend car to the driveway and would like to figure out how not to severely overpay. It's purely discretionary so I'll might have to wait this out.
 
Semiconductor Manufacturing left the US a long time ago.
It's a sad truth. I vaguely recall when the company I work at finally shut down its line--cost too much to update. Plus a company that only does one thing tends to get really good at it--and wafer fab is not for the faint of heart.

Bringing back semi though is more involved than just bringing back the wafers. Test and assembly are just as important. Each of those has unique skill sets and vendors.

But it would be nice, no doubt about it.
 
What about my Nike $200, soon to be more, shoes?
Of course we could make them here, iafter 2 years of a factory build, and then I could pay $400.

Adidas tried to mfg them in America. Couldn't compete and failed.
I think New Balance are about 70% "Made in America".
That's exactly what I'm talking about. I consider $200 Nikes an indulgence. But the good news is that single pair of shoes generates a $20 sales tax in Cali. A $400 pair will be even better. Proof that inflation and expensive things enhance tax revenue. Inflation is the name of the game and has been since 1971. The issue is, who does inflation benefit most?

Scott
 
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Semiconductor Manufacturing left the US a long time ago.
Didn't the US lead in semiconductor production up to the very early '90's? I remember reading an article on the subject, back with TI was hot and heavy into developing superconductors, and I vaguely recall that between Texas Instruments, National Semiconductor, Micron and a few others, we led the way.

But if the US wanted to be a big boy in chip production again, wouldn't it take some time to tool up? I also recall reading an article once, that said it can take 3-5 years for a chip facility to get up and running.

Do we have an available workforce to fill more lower and middle income positions?

I suspect we do. But it will take a while to educate and train people who are currently working more basic labor, and transition them into higher tech jobs.

I agree with JeffKeryk, when he points out that new production facilities would most likely be heavily robotic. It seems that this is the only way that new manufacturing facilities here in the US, where industry is much more heavily regulated, could have a chance of being competitive. And I also agree that this is not necessarily a bad thing. Automation means jobs that require higher education and skills. It's a win-win for those who are willing to improve themselves for new opportunities.
 
But if the US wanted to be a big boy in chip production again, wouldn't it take some time to tool up?
Absolutely. But we do still have have quite a bit of knowledgeable folk around. Lots of people still doing design in the US. And test. I suspect TI, NXP, etc have testing locations where they develop their next generation of whatever chips.
 
What about my Nike $200, soon to be more, shoes?
Of course we could make them here, iafter 2 years of a factory build, and then I could pay $400.

Adidas tried to mfg them in America. Couldn't compete and failed.
I think New Balance are about 70% "Made in America".

No. Most New Balance products are made in China, Vietnam, Indonesia, etc. It's the highest priced shoes that have American assembly, and even then it's often the uppers are made overseas, but it qualifies for a "made in USA" label if at least 70% of the cost of materials/labor is American. I've bought some that had such a label, but it was this heat applied label that went over an existing label. I think it was applied based on the variability of the costs that would or wouldn't put it over the threshold. The cost of labor/materials in the US can be so high that it can reach that threshold based on just the sole and assembly done in the US.

I don't know how tariffs affect the calculations.
 
Didn't the US lead in semiconductor production up to the very early '90's? I remember reading an article on the subject, back with TI was hot and heavy into developing superconductors, and I vaguely recall that between Texas Instruments, National Semiconductor, Micron and a few others, we led the way.

Japan led for some time in the late 80s, the US came back, but I think Japan led again later in the 90s. However, the dominance of South Korean and Taiwan in the semiconductor wafer processing industry isn't likely to change. The biggest silicon wafer processing company in the US during the 90s was Intel.

Semiconductor processing in Silicon Valley declined decades ago.

Nearly all but the largest "semiconductor companies" these days contract out the silicon processing. That's how there can be small startups. Even a huge company like AMD sold off all its semiconductor manufacturing.
 
The irony is that if these tariffs stick, and they may not, we'll be in an economic contraction by the end of this year and we'll drag the rest of the world along on the ride.
This will force lower retail pricing for all sorts of things, including motor vehicles.
Too bad it will prove so painful for so many.
 
There is a recent article that said that car prices going up to subsidize for EV cars.
Those EV tax credit have to come from other source and they are not free.

The tariff will force the car manufacturer and other manufacturer like Semiconductor, to turn up production in the US plants.
All they have to do is just increase the input so they got more output because they have the capacity.
That has been what happened in Europe for a long time.
A lot of companies have plant in Europe so they don't have to pay tariff.
EV cars are not the answer............Hybrids and ICE cars are the answer.
 
OTOH, I have watched (from the air) old forest clear cut to build 4000 SF boxes in the sun to house DINK’s n dog …
And years ago I said cheap labor and cheap money is not a sustainable recipe … And now we face AI energy needs etc …
 
If you were going to try to force manufacturing back here Auto's would make the most sense. We have huge excess capacity in the assembly plants. Almost all major global suppliers already have at least one plant here. Auto's are a huge ticket item, so each additional unit adds a lot of dollars to the USA Economy.

Down side is no one can afford new cars for the most part, so they can build them here, but are there any buyers left?
 
If you were going to try to force manufacturing back here Auto's would make the most sense. We have huge excess capacity in the assembly plants. Almost all major global suppliers already have at least one plant here. Auto's are a huge ticket item, so each additional unit adds a lot of dollars to the USA Economy.

Down side is no one can afford new cars for the most part, so they can build them here, but are there any buyers left?
Or other rubber tired wonders like JCB announcing they will double their plant size …
 
Forget the new Audi A5 Cabrio I was going to buy my wife this year - too bad there aren't any actual American made sport sedans anymore that we'd want to own. I'll just hunker down and wait for the dust to settle like usual.
 
OTOH, I have watched (from the air) old forest clear cut to build 4000 SF boxes in the sun to house DINK’s n dog …
And years ago I said cheap labor and cheap money is not a sustainable recipe … And now we face AI energy needs etc …
I've been screaming from the rooftops to anyone who would listen that it's important to buy American made, union made products. It sets the high standard. Tariffing Canada and certain other countries is just dumb, though. Tarrifs can be used stratigically to protect our industries in certain situations.
 
That's exactly what I'm talking about. I consider $200 Nikes an indulgence. But the good news is that single pair of shoes generates a $20 sales tax in Cali. A $400 pair will be even better. Proof that inflation and expensive things enhance tax revenue. Inflation is the name of the game and has been since 1971. The issue is, who does inflation benefit most?

Scott
Sales tax is a consumption tax. Everyone pays but it "costs" the working man more. Income tax, if progressive, "costs" the higher income more in shear dollars but not as a lifestyle factor.

Expect some of the income tax to be replaced with the consumption tax. Yay!

I know you know this Scott; just completing the picture for anyone who may be interested.
 
This whole situation is like burning down the house to cook a steak. The percentages of the tariffs are not based on actual tariffs. They factored in any trade deficit with the country also. Doesn’t make sense to tariff Colombian coffee, which has no American equivalent, and the trade imbalance is due to us buying everything they can produce and their population is too poor to buy an 80k dollar F150. No thought at all was put into this. Depressing to say the least.
I wonder why islands with only penguins on it are called out but one big notable exception wasn’t?
 
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