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Originally Posted by Red Slinger
Agreed. Considering how much people are losing their #### over the recent rise in the cost of living due to inflation, what do you think the reaction will be when a left-hand widget on Amazon goes from $1.50 and next day delivery to $5 and 2 weeks?
We got ourselves addicted to cheap Chinese goods (after we did the same with Japanese, Taiwanese, etc.) and gutted the domestic manufacturing industry for most commodity-type items and as a result, whittled away at the middle class, which in turn has been one of the key factors in 'social unrest'. In order to get off the cheap, overseas goods there needs to be a massive investment in domestic manufacturing and the infrastructure that supports it. But that means higher taxes. And that is almost a 3rd-rail in politics, particularly in the US. This would take someone with FDR-sized balls and there isn't anyone currently in politics, with the possible exception of Bernie Sanders, who fits that bill.
In the meantime, we are going to be stuck in this awkward dance with China where we're friends but not really and we're enemies but not really. China needs the West and the West needs China. And, at least for the time being, China seems intent on occupying a certain sphere of influence on bad actors like Russia, commercial espionage and political influence on western democracies.
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A lot of manufacturing can be moved from China. When the US implemented the tariffs on Chinese manufactured goods - a lot of companies starting moving manufacturing over to Vietnam, Malaysia and other countries. Obviously you can't move everything immediately - but if you toss a tariff on IPhone parts - it won't take long for Apple/Foxconn or whoever to move their manufacturing over to a different country.