Tariffs on specific goods like cars are usually fairly straightforward. Blanket tariffs? They’re a whole other kettle of fish. The full impact might not be realized until far later down the line, but if one thing’s for certain, they’re likely to make fixing your own car a whole lot more expensive in general, even if you don’t take it to a shop.
In addition, Foxconn wants to send Taiwanese EVs to America as soon as this year, Canada fights back against U.S. tariffs, and in a brief glimmer of good news, it seems that American roads are getting safer. I’m taking over for Matt on this edition of The Morning Dump, so let’s dig into all the important little stories of the morning, sectioned into conveniently bite-sized pieces.
Wrenching’s About To Get More Expensive
At 12:01 a.m., the White House’s blanket tariffs went into effect, including a recently-upped 104 percent tariff on goods imported from China. Obviously, North America buys a lot of stuff from China, so just think about the sheer variety of car parts made there. In addition to loads of aftermarket performance parts like wheels and bolt-on catback exhaust systems, plenty of replacement parts are shipped in from China. Major suppliers like ZF and Bosch have manufacturing bases there, so we’re not just talking about the cheapest of parts either. Oh, and then there’s the obscure stuff. Lots of smaller applications are supplied by Chinese businesses because it may be uneconomical for Western factories to make them. Earlier this week, NBC News interviewed Judy Zhang, owner of a firm making brake hoses, and found unsurprisingly that duties on her company’s products are being paid by American customers, chiefly because good alternatives are few and far between.
“Very few manufacturers can do what we do,” she said in an interview Monday at an auto parts show in Beijing that drew 1,200 Chinese suppliers. “Or make as many types.”
Beyond that, if you do your own wrenching, think about tools. Over the past few decades, the availability of inexpensive tools made in China, from sockets to power tools to specialty tools to diagnostic scanners, has made more complex repairs accessible to DIY-ers. Need something you don’t have to get a job done? Run on down to Harbor Freight or hop online, and you’re able to get most tools you need fairly cheaply. With a 104 percent import tariff applying to these tools, building up that cabinet is about to get more expensive, potentially to the point where farming out the job would be less expensive.
If you’re on a budget, which most of us are, this huge blanket tariff on goods from China is going to make fixing your car more expensive, whether at home or at a shop. Prices of parts and tools are going to increase, and consumers will be footing the bill. If these tariffs remain in place long-term, DIY-ers might have to pivot to American-made tools and will end up spending more of their cash to keep their vehicles running.
Canada Fires Back
Speaking of tariffs, they’ve outraged key trading partners, and Canada’s retaliated with a 25 percent tariff on the non-Canadian and non-Mexican content of U.S.-built vehicles that went into effect just after midnight. What exactly does this mean? Well, Automotive News Canada broke it down. As the outlet reports:
To calculate the tariff, Finance Canada assumes each imported vehicle from the United States contains 15 per cent Canadian and Mexican content, leaving 85 per cent of the value of each vehicle exposed to the levy.
“This represents the estimated average of Canadian and Mexican content in vehicles made in the U.S.,” a finance department spokesperson said in an email.
Assuming an average U.S. parts content of 85 percent, that would put the effective tariff rate at 21.25 percent, or $6,375 on a $30,000 car. That’s not great news for U.S.-built models popular in Canada like the Ford F-150, the Honda Civic hatchback, and the Nissan Rogue, not to mention American-built luxury models like the BMW X5 and Mercedes-Benz GLE. With Canada being America’s largest new vehicle export market, expect the resulting increased prices to drive down sales of U.S.-made vehicles north of the border.
The Company That Makes Your iPhone Still Wants To Send EVs To America This Year
We’ve seen it with Xiaomi in China and Foxconn in Taiwan, and the latter manufacturer is looking at North American shores. After a proposed tie-up with Fisker that didn’t work out due to Fisker’s insolvency, Foxconn is seeking other partners, but also doesn’t seem afraid of starting alone, announcing plans to send two EVs to America.
The first is called the Model C, also known as the Luxgen n7, a two-row crossover offered with either a 58 kWh battery pack or an 83 kWh battery pack and either single or dual motors. With the big pack and the dual motors, Foxconn claims a zero-to-62 mph time of just 3.8 seconds, and the overall package seems directly targeted at established models like the Hyundai Ioniq 5 and Volkswagen ID.4. At a presentation in Tokyo, Automotive News reported that Foxconn showed off a rendering of a U.S.-spec version, and that American sales are expected to start in the fourth quarter of this year.
That’s an aggressive timeline considering Foxconn has no U.S. sales network, but don’t expect a full rollout at that time. As Automotive News reports, “Foxconn plans to export the Model C to the U.S. for customers there to trial in the fourth quarter of 2025, [Foxconn executive Jun] Seki said.” Beyond that, the company is planning a larger crossover called the Model D for America in 2027. It’s a little minivan-y, a three-row model expected to feature air suspension, and it looks pretty neat. Specs on it are currently vague, but we should learn more over the coming years.
A Little Bit Safer
Here’s a little bit of good news to lighten the doom and gloom: American roads are still getting safer. NHTSA reports that overall road fatalities in 2024 were down by 3.8 percent over 2023, falling to an early estimate of 39,345. That’s the lowest number since 2020, and means 3,885 fewer lives were claimed than in the most dangerous recent year, 2021. What’s more, with travel distance being up, fatalities per 100 million vehicle miles travelled have fallen to the lowest figure since 2019 and are almost on par with what we saw in 2016.
Although there’s still a way to go before we fall below pre-2020 road fatality levels, 11 consecutive quarters of year-over-year declines in deaths per 100 million vehicle miles travelled is a good trend, and one that’s expected to continue.
What I’m Listening To While Writing TMD
It’s been a big week or so for Skrillex fans, with a surprise project dropping on April 1 that’s, no joke, a love letter to the artist’s body of work. With sounds ranging from brostep to tear-out, this 46-minute album flows seamlessly from track to track and feels like a fitting final project released under Atlantic Records. As someone who was really into Skrillex a decade ago, hearing Voltage get an official release almost makes me feel like the food critic in “Ratatouille” being transported back to his youth. It’s good stuff.
The Big Question
What’s the last tool you picked up just to complete a repair? Mine’s a half-inch-drive manual impact driver, and you can probably guess where it’s made by the first story in this article.
Top graphic images: stock.adobe.com
Bought a cherry picker, load leveler, and engine stand to swap motors in the Roadster last year.
they were surprisingly cheap, yet decent for a casual diy job
I spent about $300 at HF not to long ago after picking up my MGB from BaT. Last thing I got was a shallow floor jack and some crows foot sockets. Doubt I’ll need anything for awhile. Thankfully no 10mm’s needed on a MG LOL
My last HF tool purchase was a 10-pack of 10mm sockets, so I got you covered.
I came across that item on a recent trip to Hobo Freight, and I laughed out loud when I saw it hanging on the wall. Somebody there gets us.
I should buy a set of crows foots. And another 1/4″ socket set.
I had to because the nuts that held down the weber card were almost impossible to tighten without them. I had to take off the linkage just to get a wrench on one. With the crows foot, I checked and it didn’t require the linkage to be removed. Next time I work on it, it will go much faster.
Metric allen head sockets to change the timing belt on my son’s Audi TT. I had metric allen wrenches but they weren’t gonna cut it. Needed the impact to get those balancer bolts loose. I used them again the other day for something so it was a worthwhile purchase. Yeah, it was Harbor Freight so it had to be from China.
Might’ve been India or somewhere in SE Asia.
I’m fortunate enough that i have Mac and Snap on trucks show up every week at work so ill be able to buy cheap MURICAN MADE tools, compared to that over priced Chinese stuff over at the crystal palace they call Harbour Freight, ooohhh faahhhncy!!
the same idiots that never shut about “durrr China durrr” are the exact same people who only shop at Harbor Freight, and none of them see the irony.
It was a joke, sorry you didn’t get it
Mac and Snap On sell cheap tools now?
Last I heard they’d outsourced substantial manufacturing to places like Taiwan, meaning they’ll be far from unscathed.
‘Twas a joke, and yes more of their tools are from other countries.
Snap on and Mac make sense if you’re in the trade. Convenience of weekly visits, financing, lifetime replacements no more than a week away, and good quality. Problem is you pay a serious price for it. And that make sense when you do it for a living. But even auto techs buy the cheap stuff at home (if they don’t feel like bringing tools home from work all the time).
I have worked in industrial maintenanace for 25+ years as an engineer. Our go to is usually Proto (a Stanley brand) and almost certainly out of China.
I have a Proto 10″ adjustable that I bought at a yard sale for $1.00. It must be at least 40 years old–“Forged in the U.S.A.” stands out on the handle. I slip it in my back pocket for work as a stagehand.
Yes, i was making a joke which apprently wasn’t clear. I have a mix of tools from all sorts of manufacturers, based on price, warranty, availability, quality and how much i’m going to use it.
I do love Snap-On tools. But man a box full of those costs a small fortune. I would 100% do it if I turned wrenches for a living like my dad.
I had to buy some large sockets (30mm, 22mm and 18mm, 3/4″ drive), something to measure 406 ft lbs of torque, and some heavy duty jack stands to do the front struts on my F-150 a few weeks back. The sockets came from Menards, the rest from HF.
Not car related, I ordered some 20 volt wood working tools to round out my power hand tool set before those became too expensive, from the smiley big river company.
Hopefully I’m stocked for the long haul.
I don’t recall the last tool I picked up. It was probably a set of male torx sockets. From Harbor Freight, not positive, but almost certainly made in China. I’m fortunate enough that I have a sufficient amount of tools so I likely won’t need to add to my collection a whole lot, but if parts are all doubling in price too that’s going to hurt.
I bought a heavy duty cable crimper off Amazon to replace the corroded battery clamp on my S2000.
Admit it, your comment is just so you can tell people you have an S2000.
I had one too, but I’m WAY too classy to mention it. It was a 2000 in New Formula Red. But this comment isn’t about my old S2000 at all. I’m keepin’ it classy.
I’m not the only one who’s had to replace that clamp on their s2k. Though mine wouldn’t stay tight on the battery post anymore.
I think the last tool I bought for auto/bike troubleshooting was that inexpensive Yonhan battery desulfator that Mercedes wrote about. It cost $23. via Amazon and brought my neighbor’s Vespa battery that wouldn’t take/hold a charge back to life. I also ran my closing-in-on-a-decade-old big battery in my ’04 Volvo through it too, because why not?
The most recent tool purchase before that, I can’t recall exactly. With an old house, DIY lifestyle, salvaged/built computers, and a long series of almost exclusively well-used cars, I’ve manage to accumulate a lot of tools over the years. I prefer corded to cordless when it comes to power tools just because the batteries are so costly/short-lived and I buy a mix of higher-end brand-names and some Harbor Freight/Amazon-generic stuff too. If it’s something I’ll use a lot, or over a lifetime, I tend to go for the quality item: I bought a Bosch rotary hammer like 20+ years ago, used it a lot, lent it to friends… and it’s been worth every penny of the $250.ish I paid for it all those years ago (from a brick-and-mortar place in Burbank). I bought my first welder recently, and went for the smallest ‘Titanium’ wire-feed one they had mainly because the cheaper Chicago Electric one is so much heavier and my back is so bad. I’m only going to use it a couple times a year, so going with the HF welder is fine: I probably won’t live long enough to wear it out.
It has been a delightful 25yrs of no longer needing to tool up for the newest cars showing up at my repair shop, after closing up because of the economy of that time where I live. No more tool truck payments is nice too.
I have sympathy for the few young guys around here trying to make being in auto repair worth all the trouble.
16 Mil deep well socket. Ace hardware
I love Ace.
I need to vent, so this will be a political!
what a fucking ass hat moron 47 is (I refuse to type him name anymore). I am convinced more than ever he is deliberately tying to tank the world economy. A first grader could tell that a 100% blanket tariff will jack prices on everything. There are so many components made in china that go into everything from cars to refrigerators, no matter its final assembly.
He can’t seriously believe that American manufacturing is going back to the 70’s? And who would want to work in a chip plant?
And even if (and its a big if) some companies do bring some jobs back here, will it be 100k jobs? no maybe 10k jobs. Meanwhile the global econ will be in the toilet, or worse a great depression number 2.
Seriously the folks that voted for him is this what you want?
Sigh, FAFO.
Yeah, we really need to knock off the narrative that this is due to incompetent idiots running things. This is straight malicious.
Fearless leader is an incompetent idiot, but he’s surrounded by genuinely malicious, scarily evil people that see his incompetency as a means of getting the Fascist utopia they’ve long dreamed of.
47 is still harping on making coal great again, too.
Once coal comes back I hope we will see the return of the great steam locomotive engines. Nothing rolls coal like a Union Pacific 4-8-8-4. Suck on that Cummins Boys!
More coal rolling: check out Kory Anderson’s 150 CASE Road Locomotive pulling 44 bottom John Deere plow
on the youtube
Coworker walked into my office stoked that coal was coming back…there is a single coal plant set to shut down this year in our state and don’t think there are any coal mines on the west coast in general. So yea, they want whatever they’re told they want. Just throw in the trigger word “anti-woke” and the dopamine hit keeps them in line.
Lots of coal mining in the west. A single mine in Wyoming produces more coal than all of West Virginia combined.
Coal’s decline is due to cheap natural gas from fracking.
I looked it up after commenting and the closest large coal mine in the west is New Mexico. So definitely zero benefit to the west coast economically.
Also, natural gas is more efficient than coal and we’re going to lose more customers of our exported LNG so doubling down on LNG makes way more fucking sense that the coal horse shit.
Doesn’t matter. I’m sure if we trace the money back, he’s gotten huge donations from the coal industry. I would not be at all surprised if there’s a coal industry exec high up in the administration somewhere.
Probably heading MSHA, a safety agency that exists because of a coal mining disaster, if I had to guess.
Probably. They just gutted that agency, btw, and also a program to help miners suffering from black lung.
The working class are completely expendable to these choads.
This.
2 years ago, the largest coal fired power plant in PA went bankrupt. (could not compete with natural gas and renewables). 2 Weeks ago, the demolition guys blew up the smoke stacks and the cooling towers. Plan is to install the country’s largest gas fired power plant in the US along with a computer data center. (This leverages the existing power lines).
This is happening in what WAS a coal stronghold area.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/coal-fired-power-plant-now-retired-to-become-massive-gas-powered-campus-for-ai-data-centers/ar-AA1C9I4z?ocid=BingNewsSerp
About 15 years ago, fracking went crazy in PA. We have the natural gas.
They want to “bring back coal”, but also just gutted the mine safety agency and eliminated a program to treat black lung.
They HATE the working class.
Not at all, “they” love the working class!*
* As long as the working class is working as hard as and for as little benefits as possible and keeping their working class mouths shut unless performing a sex act on “them” or otherwise emanating praise for how wonderful and generous “they” are.
“I refuse to type his name anymore”
I’m going for more of a silent protest. I shall no longer enunciate the T.
I like it!
Referred to as “the Turd” for several years now.
Just works for me.
YMMV of course.
Our household still just says “45”. That name will not be spoken aloud in our home. Maybe we’ll switch to “47”.
Yeah, we will all be paying Snap-on prices soon. The biggest issue is that replacement parts will quickly become unobtanium. There are a lot of car parts that have zero options from the OEM. If the folks that make knockoff replacements can’t access the market, the market doesn’t have parts.
I needed so both short and long 4mm allen wrenched to put on the roof rack on my jeep. Damn recessed button head bolts by the gross.
What’s the last tool you picked up just to complete a repair?
At least the last six tool purchases. I thought I had a decent set of tools around the garage, but my current car has convinced me otherwise. At this point I’ve added at least a dozen tools and accessories that range from the ‘rarely used’ to the truly esoteric. I think the last thing I picked up was a set of triple square sockets to change the sway bar links in the front. I’m slowly rebuilding my suspension (it’s about to speed up once these tariffs really hit), and at each turn I find myself in need something I haven’t had to purchase yet.
Yeah, I note the local parts stores don’t rent out like they did decades ago.
Autozone still has an extensive supply of rental tools, I use them semi regularly.
And they basically don’t have a time limit on rentals, unlike O’Reilly. I’ve rented tools proactively to take to a race and then returned when I got home.
Haha yeah it’s 90 days on most of them. Pretty awesome.
And if you decide you like the tool, you can just keep it. They already sell it to you at full price when you rent, so if you end up needing it more than you thought, it’s yours.
I was going to do that on a brake kit years ago, but it was about $75 for the kit from Autozone, and I think I paid $22 on Amazon. It’s probably going to be more than that after today, but still a better deal.
Loaner programs at most of the box stores seem to just depend on the store itself in my experience. The Autozone by me never has a tool to loan, the oil drop off is always locked or full, and no one there seems to go out of their way for you. The O’Riley’s across the street is a different story and is pretty much the exact opposite.
Hmm, I once rented a giant socket to remove an axle nut at O’Reilly and they basically just charged me full price and said it will be refunded when you bring it back. Which I did about two months later (just forgot to do it) and they had no problem taking it back. Low stress and it cost me nothing but the fraction of a cent that money would have earned in my savings account. 🙂
In my experience O’Reilly asked loaner tools to be returned within a few days for a full refund. Their own site even states “To Receive A Refund Product Must Be Returned Within 48 Hours” which is why I prefer to rent from Autozone instead.
https://www.oreillyauto.com/detail/c/evertough/tools—equipment/rental-tools/suspension—steering-rental-tools/9e8ada6cd6e2/rental-tools-evertough-pitman-arm-puller/ren1/67025
There’s another thing that really sucks about wrenching a being a gearhead today; almost ALL of the junkyards I grew up going to, no longer allow people to walk the yard and pull parts “FoR InSuRaNcE ReAsOnS”. This is a problem for a lot of reasons; first off, I loved walking the yard and learning about other vehicles that I didn’t own; did you know Merkur Scorpios have a turkey baster thing under the seat that INFLATES the bolsters?! Me neither. Til a junkyard.
But pulling parts yourself is AWESOME, because you can grab tiny little parts that yards simply won’t pull. I had a relay go out in my Astro van, located in the spare jack tool area, that lets the rear hatch function. Called all sorts of yards, nobody would even go out and look for the tiny little relay. Had to resort to a facebook group. Also, finding parts off OTHER cars is way harder; I wouldn’t know the lip spoiler on a Mk3 VR6 Golf would fit an EF Honda, or prelude seats would bolt into a civic, etc. This ruins creativity and hurts the builds of so many potential combinations.
The lack of real junkyards you can go exploring, find parts, and dream up cool mods is a HUGE loss, and most of the yards changed their tune during Covid, and never changed it back. It’s hugely shitty and nobody is talking about it.
Agreed. And, most of the yards here don’t carry anything older than 2005 or so. And even those are rare. They just have wrecked versions of 2010+ cars. So, us guys with older vehicles (like my 1990 Pontiac) are laughed off the phone when we call about a part.
Kenny U Pull up here in Canada has the opposite problem. They don’t carry any car newer than 10 years old.
Yeah what’s with that! I don’t mind actually. The one near Arnprior has a decent mix.
I’ll have to check them out, I’m just on the other side of O-town, so it’s not far
Haven’t been there in 4 or 5 years so it could be different. The kid spends a load of time in yards around here, Ottawa and down in the Toronto area maintaining his fleet of Japanese and German toys.
I’ll have to try the Toronto area myself. The local yard has been fairly dry of Benz in my vintage.
Where do you live that it’s like this? I’m just purely curious, because there are TONS of yards around me that allow customers to pull their own parts. They’ve been a game-changer over the years when it has come to little upgrades and replacement parts for my cars.
Southern Wisconsin.
All the yards near madison? No access.
Milwaukee? No access.
I need to drive up north or into illinois to find a decent yard with the ability to walk around and grab things.
Shoot, I’m really sorry to hear that. Where I’m at in northwest Indiana, luckily it isn’t the same way. I know it’s a haul, but if you’re up for a road trip, there are a few large yards around me have pretty solid stocks of European and Japanese cars. The one closest to me even has a row of Saabs.
There are also a few in Indianapolis that have up-to-date inventories of the cars they have on the property, complete with photos.
Interesting, we have several junkyards in one general vicinity around here. One is a Pull-A-Part, others seem to be locally owned, but they all let you out on the yard to pull your own parts. Pull-A-Part has a great variety of vehicles, last time I was there I picked up some trim for my Sportwagen and my partners mom’s Audi TT. There was even a Fiero on the lot! If all I’m grabbing is little pieces of trim or other small parts, I usually only get charged for one or two of them as well. They even have a warranty on their parts! So if I pulled a radio and it didn’t work, I could go back and exchange it for another.
Interesting. Most junkyards in my area are still pick n pull style.
The single biggest reason a local yard stops allowing U-Pull parts is because of excessive vehicle damage. It can be from novice wrenchers getting frustrated, bored teens just breaking things, or inadvertent by nature of how modern vehicles are constructed. Each vehicle in a yard needs to make 4-5 times it’s purchase value to be a net positive for the business.
Insurance may also be a significant factor, but that has never been mentioned to me while working on behalf of my family’s shop. Unlike vehicle damage.
I expected 25% of this article to be missing since it’s a Canadian import. Or maybe I get the full version because I’m up here as well.
My last purchase just to complete a repair was a floor jack and a transmission adapter for it, from the wonderful Princess Auto.
Assuming they source their wares directly from Chyna, I don’t imagine pricing will substantially change for tools in Le Nord.
That being said, I’m extra grateful for the 307pc Pittsburgh set a buddy gave me after completing a US road trip last fall. It’s been chosen as my dedicated junkyard/road trip toolkit.
May warrant a road trip, I’m only 5 hours or so from the Canadian border. Slip over, see the Falls, load up with contraband (tools, auto parts).
I’m an hour from the border, and my hometown IS a border town. However, that still won’t motivate me to visit upstate New York.
Sounds like you are very close to me. Buffalo is only for concerts and museums to me. And the less said about Niagara Falls NY the better. Rapids theatre has some good shows but man that area is BAD.
We used to regularly hop the border to hit up Taco Bell in Massena, NY when I was in college. It was a 20 min drive including the bridge and border stop.
My buddy’s dad also bought all his car parts at the Advance Auto there. So much so, that he has, to this day, a permanent 15% discount at that location.
Family of 5, and I’m pretty sure his fleet of vehicles was up to 10 at one point, lotssss of parts. The w126 in my profile pic I actually bought from him over 3 years ago when he started downsizing. I’m eying his ’01 Ram 3500 next.
We’re doing Europe this fall instead of Long Island.
Probably a set of Irwin Bolt-Grip sockets to free a seat bolt I rounded off trying to break it loose when repholstering the seats of my Miata.
HF tools follow the good-better-best business model, with some of the “best” hand tools being made in Taiwan. Seems like the price tags on the Taiwanese-made stuff will be less than the Chinese tools at the “good” and “better” levels.
HF will likely just inflate the Taiwan tool prices and use the tariffed Chinese tools as loss leaders. 150% profit on Taiwan to pay for a 15% loss on China.
Wouldn’t be surprised if they do away with the lifetime warranty on the cheapest grade hand tools to try and offset some of the increased cost. Make people step up to the midgrade or higher for the lifetime warranty.
Highly possible, but I personally doubt it. Most of their marketing gimmick is trying to get you in the door as often as possible via deals and freebies. The ones by me already require you to return swap out the entire set for one broken tool, so I assume the costs are already factored in.
Easier to increase your prices when everyone else is doing it and you’re still the cheapest option.
American roads got safer just in time for many Americans to seriously consider driving their cars into a stationary object at high speed.
I’m happy that my tool collection is fairly well stocked, but you’re right, it’s pretty common for me to just pop down to HF to get some specialty tool that I’ll only use once or twice. I may not be so willing anymore.
Bingo – there is stuff I will buy at HF and stuff I won’t (although their quality is vastly greater than in the past). I’m not making a daily living using my tools so they suit most needs.
I bought a pop rivet squeezer from Hobo Freight to rivet the rear door handle in a Ford Ranger that I was replacing door cable bushings on.
It’s okay! Trust the process! All we need to do is hope that every single company that makes things builds factories here in the US, and that they’re able to source everything needed to build those factories from US suppliers so they’re not too expensive to build! After that, they just need to hire hundreds of thousands of people to work in these factories! Those people also need to be willing to work for like $2.50 an hour, but we’ll figure that out! We also don’t know where we’ll find hundreds of thousands of people who want to work in factories, but that’s okay! We’ll figure that out, too! Everything will be okay as long as the constantly-changing plan made up by one guy works out, which could happen in a year or a decade or maybe 6 months! It depends!
Not to mention the hundreds of thousands we need to harvest our crops seasonally. It’s all good.
Not to worry! We’re coming up with a plan where we pay a flat rate for, say, 100 human beings from a foreign country and provide those humans with all the necessities of life! Food, water, housing, everything! We don’t pay them, but they get everything they need to live! They can work on the farms and harvest the crops! We’ll have this all set up in an app.
I hear they are starting a corporation called the Freedom East India Company that will provide no-cost cruises to all the new workers, so they don’t even need to pay for transportation!
Sadly, I see this as a coming reality, not parody.
lol there’s an AI generated meme video with fat American workers in sweatshops floating around already. MAGA baby!!!
Just read something about that. Apparently it was created by China. (They snuck it in under the wire before the tariffs kicked in.)
There’s also one with lots of kids doing the same.
But by making stuff in the US, that reduces shipping costs. So that should enable these companies to raise wages to something more competitive in the US market, like $2.52 an hour or even $2.53 an hour. That will definitely motivate a few extra thousand to apply right there.
Honestly the easiest way is if the other country agrees to drop their tariffs on us. It would be a win win for all of us. We get cheap tariff free stuff and our things sold there go in tariff free and likely will sell better.
This was already what was mostly happening.
The “tariff rates” that other countries were supposedly charging us weren’t in any way related to actual tariffs. It was literally just the trade deficit divided by the total imports or exports to that country (I forget which, it doesn’t matter for the purposes of this discussion). All of the greek letters in their formula were just to convince people there was some intelligence behind the math. There wasn’t.
Aren’t employers with more than 50 employees also expected to provide some kind of health-insurance plan to full-time workers? I suppose that’s nothing to fret over given the completely reasonable costs of health care in the US.
If cost does become an issue, hopefully copays can just be paid in phone screws and lumps of coal.
“Factory owner walked up to me the other day.
Huge tear running down his face…”
He said to me, “Mr. President, sir, it’s so hard to build things because of China, the Chinese,” . The Chinese. Very smart people, very beautiful people, not good people. Very bad, very bad country that treats them poorly and treats us even more badly, it’s not good. If we tariff, we need to tariff, by the way, it’s a good deal. I’m all about making deals, need to tariff, need big tariffs against CHINA. Worst place when it comes to manufacturing. Very, very, unfair to us, not good. Very, very bad. If we do tariffs they’ll come to us on their knees, it’s only a matter of time, they need our trucks. Very big, very beautiful trucks we build. Nobody buys them, you go to Korea, nobody buys our trucks there. All because of China, Chinese trucks, we need to build those. Need to build the Chinese trucks here. Need a glorious revolution. Many people want one. Should we have one? We’ll see. We’ll see. Chairman Mao, really good guy. Really smart, lead very strongly. May have been on to something. We’ll see.
I just had to buy a set of crow’s foot wrenches, but it is getting rare now that I don’t already have the necessary tool in my box.
I just had to pick up a screwdriver set couple weeks ago. Finally started building out my own toolbox last year after my bonus hit. Just basic sockets/wrenches to start. But my car is new enough that those should be all I need for a while.
At work is another story, just re-stocked our toolbox and a bunch of specific consumables before prices go up.
What I’m hearing is that I have a valid excuse to get to HF pronto and load up now. Thank you for your blessing.
Fortunatley I’m fairly well stocked on tools – I bought a lot during early COVID lockdowns when I had time to organize and restock tool boxes. I’m considering proactively buying and stocking a few consumables I know I will need in the next year or so. I have one car that will need tires before winter – do I buy now and just sit on them unmounted for 6 months?
Since moving from Blue collar (diesel tech) to White collar (technical instructor) 3 years ago, my large collection from 17 years of professional wrenching has come home to join my medium sized collection that was already here.
I feel like I should sell one of the Snap-on boxes and move to a cheaper box.
I worked for about 20 years as a Maintenance Engineer in the steel industry prior to my current position.
Don’t do it! Quality tools are the same as firearms, keep and don’t sell them. (21 years as an automotive technician before migrating to law enforcement, I am very familiar with both 🙂 )
Oh I’m not selling any tools, but I could downgrade at least one of the storage cubes.
Oh yes, true quality tools are gold.
God bless you brother, you are a stronger man than I in that respect!
I don’t think I could ever replace my Snap-On cabinets with anything else and I hope I never have to find out.
I’m fortunately in the same position. Between me and my dad who is a hardcore weekend wrencher equipped with a lift, I don’t think there’s much we don’t have in terms of tools to work on any of our vehicles. However, this still sucks ass for those who aren’t in that position, and for all future parts my cars will inevitably need.
It’s just so profoundly insane that the administration that ran on the talking point of everything being too expensive has done everything in their power to make everything as expensive as possible, as quickly as possible.
Honest truth is the US does not have the labor and resourses to on shore everything. That is the entire point of international trade!!! Do what you do, and do it well. Bring in raw materials and low cost goods to fill the voids. Export your raw material and value added goods.
Damn, put me in charge of intertnational relations, I’m a realist.
Stop making sense! Such talk on a college campus will get you deported.
Sadly you speak truth. I’m an engineer and a realist. If it’s cheaper and more efficient to do elsewhere, you do it elsewhere. The US exports some raw materials but adds most value at the top of the chain. We can’t compete with Cambodia, Bengledesh and Vietman on textiles, nor should we! We export a number of raw materials, and import others to add value further up the chain. US unemployment is at historical lows, we don’t need jobs. Also, our culture has denigrated manufacturing and other blue collar jobs for decades. It’s no wonder our youth don’t want these (at times lucrative) careers.
Perfectly put, and I couldn’t agree more. What a shame that the people in charge don’t see this as clearly.
I’m from an engineering background as well, and my mind is always in a state of efficiency.
The us is effectively a services based economy at this point and damn good at it too. Why anyone would think that reversing that process is good for the economy is beyond me.
Word is DT has some “extra” tires in his garage…LOL