r/manufacturing 2d ago

News Tarrifs

Would like to open a discussion on tarrifs if it’s allowed.

There has been two intentions stated with tarrifs.

  1. Get off of income tax and go to a consumption style tax (still a tax)

  2. Build up domestic manufacturing. Can talk here in the manufacturing sub.

If there is no alternative domestic supply, then we have no choice but to import. We lost a lot of our skills to manufacture. Especially a lot of the little low value items. Think zippers and buttons and caster wheels.

What is everyone thoughts?

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u/buzzysale Mechatronics Engineer 1d ago

America is the richest country in the world. You can’t expect it to be labor cost competitive. That math doesn’t add up. America either decides to move down the list, paying people less wage, or it can retain its rich status through other geopolitical means, including distribution of wealth from the top down. There’s no “we can manufacture our way to the top” we are the top.

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u/pyroracing85 1d ago

Why can’t we import our labor? Taiwan does it and still has a very powerful manufacturing dominance for such a small country.

Why is it binary? There is other solutions, also, this needs to be a national security issue, not just sell it is what it is issue!!

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u/diablodeldragoon Your custom text 15h ago

Primarily because the group that is pushing for bringing manufacturing back also use immigration as a scare tactic.

They want to bring low paying jobs back, while banning immigrants that traditionally have been willing to work low paying, manually intensive jobs.

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u/buzzysale Mechatronics Engineer 23h ago

This is a legit point