Example: Hyundai has an auto assembly plant in Mobile Alabama that builds new cars
using less than 20 hours of human labor per car.
Tariffs are nothing but a huge new consumption tax. Tax increases rarely lead to job creation and consumers pay the price for it.
taylodl · 4h ago
Business favors predictability and consistency. It doesn't matter so much what politicians do so long as the business and financial market is predictable and consistent for long periods of time. Markets have enough volatility without politics adding to the mix. Businesses by and large aren't going to make significant investments in increasing US manufacturing without that predictability and consistency. There have been a few making promises to invest in US manufacturing, but you'll notice the details are always scant and a timeline is rarely mentioned. As such, it's understood to be posturing for the current administration in order to curry favor.
duxup · 3h ago
Another issue with constancy, the companies getting special deals with tariffs and so on are those who have cosied up to the executive branch. There's only so much room for those folks I'm not sure many businesses can count on that advantage or afford to maintain it (even some that seemed to be in found themselves out and having to suck up again).
nabla9 · 4h ago
It's not just Trump, it's also US public who thinks that domestic manufacturing brings jobs. Even Destin Sandlin (Smarter Every day guy) hinted it in a recent video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ZTGwcHQfLY
Manufacturing as share of jobs declines even in those countries that are big at manufacturing. China, Germany, Japan, South Korea. China buys half of worlds robots. Manufacturing can create only very low paying jobs that people do in third countries.
You can bring more manufacturing but not much more jobs. Most likely the lost comparative advantage means net welfare loss if you force it.
toomuchtodo · 3h ago
The US public thinks bringing back domestic manufacturing will bring back good jobs. Of course, this is not true. Most of this will be automated. Importantly, any job can be a good job with a sufficient wage and labor protections. The performance art around "good manufacturing jobs" is a carrot being thrown to an unsophisticated electorate so they don't find out there aren't going to be good jobs for them (and so they don't figure out that organizing and labor policy are the only ways to better jobs). Very similar to the propaganda of unskilled vs skilled labor and the justification for the pay disparity between the two.
This is true in China as well as the USA.
Example: Hyundai has an auto assembly plant in Mobile Alabama that builds new cars using less than 20 hours of human labor per car.
Tariffs are nothing but a huge new consumption tax. Tax increases rarely lead to job creation and consumers pay the price for it.
Manufacturing as share of jobs declines even in those countries that are big at manufacturing. China, Germany, Japan, South Korea. China buys half of worlds robots. Manufacturing can create only very low paying jobs that people do in third countries.
You can bring more manufacturing but not much more jobs. Most likely the lost comparative advantage means net welfare loss if you force it.