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When UPS charged me a $684 tariff on $355 of vintage computer parts

(oldvcr.blogspot.com)
320 points goldenskye | 1 comments | 15 Nov 25 23:55 UTC | HN request time: 0.44s | source
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JSR_FDED ◴[16 Nov 25 00:41 UTC] No.45941785[source]▶
Tariffs are great. They protect the struggling domestic IT industry and gives it time to ramp up its production of vintage computer parts.
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varispeed ◴[16 Nov 25 00:53 UTC] No.45941825[source]▶
I know one US business that used to make niche electronic product. Most components they used were from China. Got hit by the tariffs that wiped all the operating profit. Guy also had to sell his home and is now couchsurfing. Business is unlikely going to recover.

Of course he considered making chips and other components in the US, but he was few billions short to start the fab.

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Gibbon1 ◴[16 Nov 25 01:10 UTC] No.45941888[source]▶
Reminds me of a comment I think by Nancy Teeters the first female Federal Reserve board member. She said the other board members thought they could savage the US manufacturing industry to kill wage inflation and break the unions and it would come right back once they stopped. And it didn't.
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1. trashface ◴[17 Nov 25 21:56 UTC] No.45958811[source]▶
FWIW Teeters was apparently one of the more dovish from that era and didn't think the high rates were a great idea: “You are pulling the financial fabric of this country so tight that it’s going to rip...once you tear a piece of fabric, it’s very difficult, almost impossible, to put it back together again.” An analogy which she also said none of the men understood because they had never sewn anything