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178527194
story
Posted
by
BeauHD
y 31, 2025 @03:40PM
from the cease-and-desist dept.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: E-commerce giants everywhere felt the sting Wednesday when President Donald Trump announced that the US will be "suspending duty-free de minimis treatment for low-value shipments" worth $800 or less from anywhere in the world. Americans will likely soon feel the crunch, with one recent study estimating that the cost of eliminating the trade loophole overall to US consumers could fall between $10.9 billion and $13 billion while "disproportionately" hurting "lower-income and minority consumers" who buy a higher percentage of cheap imports.
Price hikes will likely come this fall, as the trade loophole will be closed starting on August 29, with Amazon emerging as perhaps the biggest question mark for US consumers wondering how hard their wallets may be hit by the major trade policy change ahead of the holiday shopping season. In February, Trump temporarily ended the de minimis exemption for all imports from China, prompting China-based retailers Temu and Shein to raise their prices.
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The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
bymspohr ( 589790 ) writes:
The tax will be one expense but the customs clearance and paperwork will be the largest problem.
If I buy a cheap gadget (say $20) from China, it currently sails through customs quickly with no added cost.
When the de minimis exception is eliminated, it will raise the price by whatever the tax is plus all of the paperwork by the seller and customs to process the few dollars of tariff due.
I guess that's the point... make it difficult to buy stuff from abroad.
MAGA!
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byfahrbot-bot ( 874524 ) writes:
I guess that's the point... make it difficult to buy stuff from abroad. MAGA!
Those things probably won't ever be made in the U.S. and if they are, it won't be soon and they won't be nearly as inexpensive.
The point is that Trump is using tariffs as a cudgel to make handshake deals he can boast about. At the moment, most (none?) of them are legally binding and/or are worded as aspirational pledges over many years. The EU and Japan even disagreed with Trump about their "deals" before the handshake was done. Sure the Treasury is raising a TON of money, but it's *our* money (and the tariff rebate being floated is insulting). What happened to those pledges every Republican in Congress signed with Grover Norquist [wikipedia.org] to never raise taxes? These Trump tariffs are one of, if not, the highest tax increase in a long time - born mainly on the backs of lower- and middle-income people. Assuming Trump doesn't TACO - again.
Trump's EU trade deal is based on massive energy purchases that are unlikely to materialize [cnbc.com]
The European Union has pledged to buy $750 billion of energy from the U.S. in exchange for a lower tariff rate under its trade deal with President Donald Trump.
But the bloc would have to triple its annual energy imports from the U.S. to meet the purchase target. Energy analysts say the pledge is unrealistic due to market and political constraints.
Did Trump impose ‘the largest tax hike in our lifetime’? How it compares, as it’s currently proposed [politifact.com]
When measuring how much revenue the U.S. expects to collect, economists rank Trump’s "tax hike" higher than any tax policy since 1982, and many estimates show it could be the largest increase since 1951.
Contrary to What Trump Tells You, Higher Tariffs Mean Higher Prices [cepr.net]
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byRoger W Moore ( 538166 ) writes:
The point is that Trump is using tariffs as a cudgel to make handshake deals he can boast about. At the moment, most (none?) of them are legally binding
True, but I expect that most if not all of them will come into existence more or less as negotiated, even the awful (for the EU) US-EU trade deal. This is because all our economies are currently strongly connected to the US and it is better to sign even a bad trade deal temporarily to give us the time to disconnect them than it is to unplug overnight.
I expect in a few years time they will go away as those of us outside the US have integrated with each other more and and no longer so reliant on the US. S
byfahrbot-bot ( 874524 ) writes:
I expect in a few years time they will go away ...
I'm guessing early 2029, maybe even early 2027 - or whenever Congress finds its spine and remembers they hold the power to tax/tariff and the "emergencies" being claimed, to allow the President to do this, aren't.
byceoyoyo ( 59147 ) writes:
to give us the time to disconnect them
That's the real bad news for the US, and very good news, minus some short term pain, for the rest of the world. Bye bye soft power, exhorbitant privilege, joint operational dependency via dictating what capabilities NATO members can and can't have, etc.
And reversing the policies, tomorrow or in a few years isn't going to make a difference.
bynecro81 ( 917438 ) writes:
I expect that most if not all of them will come into existence more or less as negotiated
Really? How'd that pan out for the US-China trade deal Trump negotiated back in 2019 [google.com]?
byfahrbot-bot ( 874524 ) writes:
Correction:
At the moment, most of them are not legally binding (none?)
byabulafia ( 7826 ) writes:
The point is that Trump is using tariffs as a cudgel
That's one of the reasons. The other is worse.
This is his "answer" to tax cuts for the rich. Tariffs as a regressive national sales tax, similar to how Southern states farm their poor while not charging income tax.
byfahrbot-bot ( 874524 ) writes:
Yup, thanks for adding that.
byarglebargle_xiv ( 2212710 ) writes:
Could well be a bit of both. Or, given that Trump's understanding of economics is, from the words of numerous people who have worked with him, only slightly better than that of my cat, it could be whatever random brain fart he had this morning, a throwaway comment on Fox that he's turned into US national policy by lunchtime.
byabulafia ( 7826 ) writes:
He did cut my taxes - I'm well compensated.
But total tax load, counting tariffs, on the bottom 40% is up. And if you factor in benefit losses, like you should if you're looking at impact on real humans rather than gaming a spreadsheet, it is way up.
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byarglebargle_xiv ( 2212710 ) writes:
The European Union has pledged to buy $750 billion of energy from the U.S. in exchange for a lower tariff rate under its trade deal with President Donald Trump. But the bloc would have to triple its annual energy imports from the U.S. to meet the purchase target. Energy analysts say the pledge is unrealistic due to market and political constraints.
Interesting to see that Europe is adopting "Irren soll man ihren Willen lassen", something like "play along with/don't try and contradict, the obviously crazy person", as its mechanism for dealing with Trump. Pretend fo give him what he wants, let him brag to his fans about what a great deal-maker he is, and move on.
During the first Trump presidency someone wrote an article that had a checklist on how to negotiate with Trump, unfortunately I can't find it any more but it involved steps like convincing him
bySchroedingersCat ( 583063 ) writes:
Those things probably won't ever be made in the U.S. and if they are, it won't be soon and they won't be nearly as inexpensive.
They question is why that is? Why these things won't be made in the US and they cannot be inexpensive? Tariffs are the tax consumers are paying for compliance with environmental and labor regulation and minimum wage laws. Compliance comes at a cost and someone has to pay for it. Naturally, it is cheaper to produce goods in a sweatshop while dumping chemicals into nearby river. Perhaps there are goods reasons not to import these products or make them more expensive.
bykarmawarrior ( 311177 ) writes:
That's a tiny part of it. Most of the off shoring we experienced is because during the 1980s and early 1990s US manufacturing got into a huge union busting thing and there was a fad for simply closing down factories in the US to replace them with slightly cheaper off shore manufacturing.
And by itself, that wasn't great, but the end result was manufacturing basically destroyed in the US. Outside of a small number of industries the US was protectionist about, cars mainly, there's no serious manufacturing at s
bythegarbz ( 1787294 ) writes:
I guess that's the point... make it difficult to buy stuff from abroad.
It's not a bad point either. You shouldn't be celebrating the ability to buy stuff in a way that provides no accountability, no legal recourse, and no requirement for local laws to be followed.
The paperwork isn't an issue if you buy 1000 of something. Let an importer deal with something, and then hold them accountable for when that Chinesium breaks and burns your house down.
Maybe you'll think twice about that $10 power brick that doesn't meet UL specifications for spark gap distance from Aliexpress. Or maybe you won't buy that $10 shoe insole from Shein with 10x the permissible level of lead for consumer goods. Or don't buy your kids toys from Temu with phthalates levels 240x times the legal limit. Or children's toys which are obviously choking hazards and would be subject to a forced recall if distributed by a distributor locally.
You should want a middle man to handle the import who you can hold accountable because you as a consumer (the royal you, i.e. the general population) will outright fuck yourself over in order to save even a dollar.
Were the examples oddly specific sounding? That's because they were real. Also a consumer group in Denmark found recently 100% of products they bought from China were unsafe and failed to meet EU regulations. Is that what you want? All for saving a few dollars? Surely there's more effective ways of harming yourself.
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byArchieBunker ( 132337 ) writes:
Why do you hate the free market?
byfluffernutter ( 1411889 ) writes:
Conservatives only love the free market up to the point that it works for them.
bysabbede ( 2678435 ) writes:
Free markets have rules. They are generated within the market, and from outside of the market when the market players (i.e. everyone) vote to pass laws about what can and cannot happen within the markets. That's the Capitalist-Democratic political economy.
Consumer safety regulations are entirely appropriate for a free market.
byAmiMoJo ( 196126 ) writes:
Do you think the middle men, the importers, actually bother to check all this stuff? Of course they don't, and if it burns you house down and on the off chance that there is enough of an investigation to prove beyond reasonable doubt that the charger they sold caused the fire, they will just refer you to their business insurance or declare bankruptcy.
There are many items for which those kinds of safety issues are not a concern, so there is no point paying a middle man anyway. I recently bought an Android Au
bymjwx ( 966435 ) writes:
I guess that's the point... make it difficult to buy stuff from abroad.
It's not a bad point either. You shouldn't be celebrating the ability to buy stuff in a way that provides no accountability, no legal recourse, and no requirement for local laws to be followed.
The paperwork isn't an issue if you buy 1000 of something. Let an importer deal with something, and then hold them accountable for when that Chinesium breaks and burns your house down.
Maybe you'll think twice about that $10 power brick that doesn't meet UL specifications for spark gap distance from Aliexpress. Or maybe you won't buy that $10 shoe insole from Shein with 10x the permissible level of lead for consumer goods. Or don't buy your kids toys from Temu with phthalates levels 240x times the legal limit. Or children's toys which are obviously choking hazards and would be subject to a forced recall if distributed by a distributor locally.
You should want a middle man to handle the import who you can hold accountable because you as a consumer (the royal you, i.e. the general population) will outright fuck yourself over in order to save even a dollar.
Were the examples oddly specific sounding? That's because they were real. Also a consumer group in Denmark found recently 100% of products they bought from China were unsafe and failed to meet EU regulations. Is that what you want? All for saving a few dollars? Surely there's more effective ways of harming yourself.
And that group in Denmark, did they manage to get any, let alone all of said products made in the EU, let alone Denmnark?
No, then what the fuck is your point?
I've lived in Australia before the age of grey importing, making it harder to buy from overseas didn't make Canon make cameras in Australia, didn't make Dell produce laptops in Australia, didn't make Warner Brothers make press DVDs in Australia, didn't make Nike make shoes in Australia... All it did was make everything more expensive to import, me
byebunga ( 95613 ) writes:
The de minimis exception was fine when it was for something like shipping a knicknack back home to your Aunt Gertrude while you're on an overseas trip. It's a completely different beast when there are massive direct-to-consumer marketplaces for products that are not legal for sale even in their country of manufacture. In the olden days of less than 20 years ago, if you wanted to sell cheap crap you ordered it from some company that was an importer, and they took care of all the import hassle, and you got to
byScienceBard ( 4995157 ) writes:
Yeah, while a lot of trade policy under Trump has been handled pretty stupidly IMO, reforming de-minimis isnt in that camp. Direct shipment of some random $3 piece of crap from Asia to your front door with zero standards, liability, and subsidized by the somewhat bizarre international postage rules that heavily discount shipment out of developing nations, is a relatively new phenomena. And as you outlined there are good reasons not to let it happen.
The real issue isnt this change, which is overdue. Its that
byJaredOfEuropa ( 526365 ) writes:
Trump wasn't the first... The EU lowered the de minimis threshold ages ago. On a lot of imports we have to pay duty now... and worse: the shipment will languish for weeks in some warehouse, and then the carrier will charge €50 for "customs fees".
byTheDarkMaster ( 1292526 ) writes:
Welcome to the Brazilian way of buying abroad. The goal is to force you to buy locally to supposedly "favor the domestic market," even though what you're trying to buy doesn't exist in your country and probably never will.
At the same time, some big local retailer in your country will buy really cheap stuff in China and resell it within your country for at least double the price, where you will be practically prevented from buying the same product yourself from China because of exorbitant import tariffs (
bysabbede ( 2678435 ) writes:
Well, the exemption basically subsidized imports, and I cannot see any long-term benefit to Americans in that. Certainly not to American businesses that had to compete with subsidized shipping.
byOrangeTide ( 124937 ) writes:
Last month I bought two guitars from Aliexpress and a bunch of pedals from Japan (effects bakery). I've got some gear to play with while the Mango Mussolini plays games with our economy, most likely resulting in a decades long crash of the US economy.
Speaking of games, I received "Trump: The Game" as a gift back in the early 90's. My friends and I played it maybe 4 or 5 times. Absolute trash, the only fun we had was ripping on how bad it was. Sadly, Trump was laughing all the way to the bank for putting his
bycayenne8 ( 626475 ) writes:
most likely resulting in a decades long crash of the US economy.
So many people predicting doom and gloom .....yet last numbers I've seen show the US economy doing very well, market up, consumer index looking good, etc....
bybill_mcgonigle ( 4333 ) * writes:
They yammer on about Temu but the hardest hit sector will be small R&D shops that get parts and components as the need comes up and now they'll have 2-3 week delays on every order at Customs.
I've seen stuff disappear into the Customs black hole for six weeks and there's nothing you can do but reship and home the Chinese Roulette favors you.
It would be great if Adafruit and Sparkfun were 50x their size but that's not reality and manufacturing was driven out on purpose. It can't return for a decade even if a project were started today.
Watch: the media will say small businesses are complaining about the 15% to try to fool everybody. In prototyping almost nobody cares if an SoC is $10 or $11.50.
Trump's Corporate donors will be just fine and face fewer upstart competitors so it is working as intended.
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bystabiesoft ( 733417 ) writes:
The big one for DIY'ers I think is going to be JLPCB. As you say, I've not cared about the tariff digikey has tacked onto orders in the past year or so. Adding 15% to a couple bucks doesn't move the needle for DIY. And De minimis has never been a factor for digikey I don't think. They order quantities way above 800 dollars.
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byArchieBunker ( 132337 ) writes:
You haven’t really been hit yet. An OPA549 is $21 with an extra $7 on tariffs. That will absolutely cut into people’s bottom lines.
bystabiesoft ( 733417 ) writes:
If you are using a 15 dollar op amp, then you will drop the coin for the tariff. 549 is fairly specialized high end opamp. Now if you're a biz making a small batch of 100 units, that's going to smart. You'll pass it on to your customer who may or may not accept the price increase.
byPascoea ( 968200 ) writes:
This is a big one for me. I don't order a lot of cheap shit for place like AliExpress, but I've done quite a few board runs from JLCPCB for various hobby projects. Sure, I could go to someone like Oshpark, but they are quite literally 10x more expensive. That just isn't feasible for a hobbyist.
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byPascoea ( 968200 ) writes:
Man my grammar is awful.
I don't order a lot of cheap shit for place like AliExpress
I don't order a lot of cheap shit FROM PLACES like AliExpress.
It's 2025. Can we have an edit button, ffs?
bystabiesoft ( 733417 ) writes:
I've posted this before. I had JL fab a 50 sq in board for me. Less tha10 shipping was 15, so 25 to me in less than 2 weeks. I've used osh for smaller boards, before I knew about JL. Average was 2 week turn from submission to at my door. At osh pricing, 50 sq in would be 250. 10X as you say. And to my door times used to be (de minimis active)about the same. Difference was JL builds it practically overnight and ships taking a week and 1/2. Osh takes a week and 1/2 to fab and a couple days in transit. One thi
byarglebargle_xiv ( 2212710 ) writes:
Was going to say the same thing about JL, as long as you stick to the defaults for everything they really can't be beat. It's when some plonker insists on you going via some special-snowflake path where you now need to spend a week of round-trips making sure it's snowflaked right that things get slow, and cost a lot more. "Well if it's like that we could just get it made locally" - no, "we" shouldn't insist on a special-snowflake variant when a bit of rework will make it fit nicely into JL's standard prod
bystabiesoft ( 733417 ) writes:
To me the real thing that has been screwed is the loss of de minimus more than the tariff. I'd happily pay even 100% tariff on JL stuff, its the time factor. Going from less than 2 weeks to possibly months while you wait for a customs guy to get to it. Because well, we are going to cut the budget of customs too.
byRoger W Moore ( 538166 ) writes:
There was an interesting video related to this on the Smarter Everyday [youtube.com] Youtube channel about trying to make something in the US. One of the problems a US innovator found manufacturing his idea in China was that once the manufacturer had run of the parts he needed, they then ran off more parts from themselves, added it together with cheap, shoddy components and then undercut the original innovator on price selling crap versions of the original patented idea online.
If the effect of removing this exception is that it motivates the development of more small-scale manufacturing in the US then the result may actually protect US inventors because it will let them build their devices in the US where it will be much harder to make illegal knock-offs and while the cost may be higher, and so volume lower, the result might be higher quality items in consumers hands and more money in the pockets of the actual innovators.
I'm not American so this does not affect me either way but I can't help but wonder whether this might help the US far more than it hinders....even an idiot can stumble into a good idea by accident sometimes.
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bygweihir ( 88907 ) writes:
even an idiot can stumble into a good idea by accident sometimes.
Not really in this space. This will just make poor people even poorer in the US. No beneficial effects though.
byTuballoyThunder ( 534063 ) writes:
I think there could be a benefit to the environment if this gets the US off of buying cheap crap that they end up throwing away. I know, unpopular opinion but between manufacturing and shipping, it adds up. Yes there are bigger sources of pollution, but what-aboutism provides no benefit.
bygweihir ( 88907 ) writes:
With a ramp-up of 30 years or so? Maybe. Unfortunately, during that ramp-up things will go to shit. So, no, no beneficial effects.
byScienceBard ( 4995157 ) writes:
You're assuming eventual US replacement of production capacity, but realistically a lot of stuff just won't get bought. There are many teenagers who refuse to wear the same outfit twice for fear they'll have the same outfit on in two social media posts. They buy clothes that literally disintegrate after a few uses for a few dollars, and either throw them away or "donate" them. Nobody is going to replace that production here, the culture will just shift away from disposable clothing and the consumption will
bypz( 113803 ) writes:
Have you followed-through and seen what Destin is charging for that knick-knack? Yes, it seems to be a nicely-designed grill brush. But it is a frelling grill brush. It doesn't need to be high-tech.
And it most certainly doesn't need to cost over $75 when a Chinesium version is $20.
bycodebase7 ( 9682010 ) writes:
And the $20 Chinesium version is likely to put you into the hospital due to the sheared off bristles getting into your food. (Which the video in question addresses.) In China that hospital stay might not cost so much, but in the US? Better hope you can reach it with forceps at home.....
bysabbede ( 2678435 ) writes:
Really? Do you think that when you order a pack of resistors it comes by itself in an envelope from China? No, it comes from a warehouse in the US that had thousands of them shipped in one order.
byMikeDataLink ( 536925 ) writes:
As far as I know DigiKey nor Mouser offer custom PCB manufacturing.
bydalosla ( 2568583 ) writes:
I haven't tried it, but DigiKey does: https://www.digikey.com/en/pcb... [digikey.com]
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bythegarbz ( 1787294 ) writes:
The last couple of times I ordered custom PCB manufactured boards in small quantities they were 100% made in the USA. There's many companies which offer this service, and quite a few of them are cost competitive with China unless you're going high volume mass production with complete assembly.
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bytepples ( 727027 ) writes:
I've noticed that a lot of these US-based PCB fabs that offer manufacturing have a limited selection of board thicknesses, such as 1.6 mm and little else. That doesn't help if you're interfacing with another device that needs a 1.2 mm thick PCB, such as a Nintendo Entertainment System Control Deck.
byPascoea ( 968200 ) writes:
and quite a few of them are cost competitive with China
Care to share which ones? I'd be perfectly happy to order domestic, but the last project I quoted would have cost me 10-15x what it did from JLCPCB.
bylocater16 ( 2326718 ) writes:
This is the thing that causes Trump's downfall. In the US you can lock up as many people as you want, ignore the law all you want, threaten and cajole anyone you want, every President has done. But you mess with people's cheap shit and they'll come for your head.
bySpinyNorman ( 33776 ) writes:
Perhaps, although evidentially his supporters are also plenty mad about Trump's Epstein cover-up.
I think this has been simmering for a long time - part of the whole Q-anon thing from Trump's first term, which he did nothing to shut down, was that the government was full of pedophiles, and it seems his supporters were expecting the Epstein files, which Trump promised to release, to contain the some of the names ... But of course when Trump realized how prominently he himself featured in the Epstein file (perhaps videos too? - something spooked him), then he decided that protecting his own ass was more important.
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byceoyoyo ( 59147 ) writes:
Live by the sword, die by the sword. The problem with riling up delusional conspiracy theorists is that they're delusional conspiracy theorists.
Admittedly, riling up delusional conspiracy theorists with stuff that you actually did yourself is extra special.
byMachineShedFred ( 621896 ) writes:
I'm pretty sure protecting his own ass is always priority #1.
Remember, this is the guy that stood at a cemetery in Normandy and reportedly said that he didn't understand what was in it for them to die liberating Europe from fascist occupation.
Personal sacrifice is a completely alien concept to that cunt.
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byDru Nemeton ( 4964417 ) writes:
The MAGApublicans are a cult. Full Stop.
It won't matter what he does, they'll blame it on the Democrats (or anyone else), the MAGApublicans will continue to gulp down the "Orange Dick" flavored Kool-Aid, and nothing will change.
I mean we are (and have been) staring right at Trump all over the Epstein files! Trump just admitted that J.E. "took" an under-aged girl he was employing (who later took her own life), and the legacy media (and the public at large) doesn't even blink.
If Child Sexual Assault & Trafficking isn't the point where you walk away, you have no point where you'll walk away.
So higher prices at Walmart is an easy, "Biden did it, and that's why we're renovating Alcatraz so we can throw all those nasty, evil, democrats that ruined our beautiful country in there, and finally have a chance to 'Make America Great Again' in 2028 during my 3rd term," and the MAGApublicans will go mad with The Rapture of Trump.
And blame those evil democrats because they're even poorer then before...
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bystrikethree ( 811449 ) writes:
If Child Sexual Assault & Trafficking isn't the point where you walk away, you have no point where you'll walk away.
There are over 300 million people in the USA. Over 100 million are one hiccup away from homelessness and many are close to starving. Yeah, yeah. I get it. You don't see it; therefore, it doesn't exist.
I gotta say though, that is an interesting take you have. That sexual issues are more important than life and death issues. "Sure, let everyone starve, but if you so much as act perverted for a second, we will finish you!" ... it just sounds... twisted. Perverted even.
But of course, putting anything sexual in
byOrangeTide ( 124937 ) writes:
Unlikely to have any consequences for the administration. Most Americans roll over and take whatever the government does to then. There is always some vague rationalization that help us accept it. Terrorists, the economy, "unfair" trade, etc.
If we accept the Patriot Act, Real ID, and GitMo. Then surely we will accept that cheap beauty producta from Temu cost more (tax) and there is a much smaller selection available. Pack of cigs in my area has been over $10 for years, and no riots. As long as we have a rig
byArchieBunker ( 132337 ) writes:
Nah, look at Jonestown or Heaven's Gate.
byfahrbot-bot ( 874524 ) writes:
the cost of eliminating the trade loophole overall to US consumers could fall between $10.9 billion and $13 billion
Trump, his Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick and Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent have repeatedly assured us that, like all the tariffs, the cost will be paid by the foreign companies and countries. /s
(Trump graduated from Wharton and Lutnick and Bessent are both rich Wall Street wonks; they all actually know better.)
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byArchieBunker ( 132337 ) writes:
Trump threatened to sue the school if they released his grades.
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bygweihir ( 88907 ) writes:
The technique is called "Big Lie" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_lie) and it works, unfortunately, because too many people are as dumb as bread.
byPuls4r ( 724907 ) writes:
At this point, you are an absolute idiot if you don't realize that Trump gave high earners an enormous tax break and is placing the burden of that on the lowest paid class in our society in the form of tariffs. Even those tariffs will not fully pay for the insane debt he has summarily created, but our future generations certainly will be.
DOGE was a joke, and the savings they generated amounted to nothing. Especially after all the litigation and 'oops have your jobs back' that ended up after they realized they had fired critical personnel. DOGE was nothing but a hidden-in-plain-sight way of firing dissenters and dumping organizations that he wanted gone.
Our country is the laughingstock of the world. We no longer have countries that call us friends. At best, we are a slightly challenged older brother who throws his weight around when he doesn't get what he wants.
Trump has finished putting the last nail in the American century.
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bystrikethree ( 811449 ) writes:
You still don't get it. You literally do not matter. Anyone in government could walk over to your house, knock on your door, shoot you, and then walk home and never give it a second thought. The Truth is, they don't walk and they won't shoot you themselves. They will send someone to do it. And nothing can be done about it as the people they send have Qualified Immunity.
Your children, existing or not, also do not matter. They will have burdens placed upon them and it will all be blamed on YOU. YOU spent too
bygweihir ( 88907 ) writes:
I do not accept that excuse. It was clear before what would happen and what the effects are. The core problem is people being dumb as shit and unable to fact-check, but being stupid about even that and thinking they are really smart. And then some complete asshole exploiting that. You know, the usual.
byRinnon ( 1474161 ) writes:
The core problem is people being dumb as shit and unable to fact-check, but being stupid about even that and thinking they are really smart.
It used to be that people were ashamed when they realized they believed something that wasn't true. Gosh I wish we could get that back.
bygweihir ( 88907 ) writes:
Yes indeed. Now they aggressively double down and claim they are still right and damn the evidence. It is like many people do not know what a fact is anymore and think reality simply changes if they just believe hard enough. Pathetic.
bycayenne8 ( 626475 ) writes:
Last I looked this week....the numbers look pretty good.
Market is up...consumers spending and other numbers is up and looking good...
I don't see all the doom and gloom ya'll keep throwing out there like chicken little....?
bySoCalChris ( 573049 ) writes:
So now egg prices will come down? And thankfully I'm on a few medications, I heard I'm going to start getting paid for buying those too.
Anyone who voted for, or supports this clown is an idiot.
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byhebertrich ( 472331 ) writes:
Don't forget , gas is 1.98 everywhere in the USA ... Trump said so , so you know it's true ..
bycaseih ( 160668 ) writes:
Never mind that it's American consumers who are demanding this. With Trump it's all about blaming others for his/America's problems. He never takes responsibility. Ever. Unless it's something others praise and then he's quick to tell us all his opinion of himself.
As someone who is self-deprecating and embarrassed by any sort of praise, my mind is boggled by his behavior, and how many people are cheering him on. Perhaps a solid third of the population is mentally ill? Probably, no matter what team you cheer for.
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byKernel Kurtz ( 182424 ) writes:
Unless it's something others praise and then he's quick to tell us all his opinion of himself.
The part I just don't get is how someone so incredibly vain and narcissistic in life can have no consideration whatsoever for how he will be remembered. A significant majority of the free world will one day celebrate his death with dancing and drink specials. Hundreds of years from now school children will read about America's laughing stock era and their clown president, perhaps illustrated with a still from South Park. It is hard to imagine anyone could possibly arrange a more horrible legacy if they s
bynewcastlejon ( 1483695 ) writes:
Yesterday morning Melania crossed the hall into Donald's room to tell him about a dream she'd had.
"My darling, last night I dreamed about a great parade in your honour. The streets were filled with smiles and cheers and laughter. Everyone was so happy, and you were at the centre of it all!"
"That sounds great Melania! But... how did my hair look?"
"I couldn't tell. It was a closed casket."
bygweihir ( 88907 ) writes:
About 30% of any human population is as dumb as dirt and understands nothing. At the same time, these people think they are pretty smart and doing the right thing. Example is that famer that voted Trump and then was surprised (!) his undocumented farm workers got arrested and deported. He just never made that connection until it happens! I mean how abysmally mentally incapable can you be?
But there is a lot of such people around. And, unfortunately, these people are enough to turn things to shit, if the rest
bywill4 ( 7250692 ) writes:
This follows the earlier US action to pull out of the Universal Postal Union (UPU) in 2018. The US eventually did not pull out of the over 100 year old treaty.
A one pound package shipped internally within the USA by the US Postal Service cost $10 in 2018 versus shipping a 1 pound package from China to the USA for $2.50. The US Postal Service loses money on each of those packages coming into the USA from abroad.
Based on the 1.36 billion inbound de minums packages in 2024, the US Postal Service is losing $
bywill4 ( 7250692 ) writes:
A quick youtube search for "temu haul" gives hundreds (thousands?) of excessive shopping and attention seeking personality types trying to be popular on social media.
bymjwx ( 966435 ) writes:
Cried the person who insisted the Leopards Eating People Faces party wouldn't eat peoples faces as a leopard chewed down on their face.
The same people who cry "bring the fac'trees back to 'Murica" are the ones who will shortly be crying "why is everything so expensive". They are literally people who are incapable of putting two and two together.
byrsilvergun ( 571051 ) writes:
Posting about how their businesses are basically finished. There's a Reddit forum dedicated to them called leopards eating faces and it's just one after another.
There's also a healthy mix of people posting about how in two years or so they're going to be dead because they are losing access to Medicaid.
I can't help but want to say, have the day you voted for. Every one of these bastards has learned nothing and if they happen to still be alive in 4 years will be voting for Trump again in the primary and the general election.
Oh and so far we have lost 30 billion dollars in tourist revenue because people are afraid to come to America because they might be thrown into a El Salvador gulag. Which has happened two or three times now to tourists.
I mean is there anyone here on this forum who will defend Donald Trump or their vote for him? Anyone? Bueller?
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bytest321 ( 8891681 ) writes:
I mean is there anyone here on this forum who will defend Donald Trump
Not that I enjoy defending him, but headlines read: "Forget TACO. Trump is Winning His Trade War" (paywalled) https://www.wsj.com/economy/tr... [wsj.com]
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byrsilvergun ( 571051 ) writes:
This is about a national sales tax. It's about shifting $300 billion a year of tax burden from the top 0.1% to everybody else. Especially the bottom 99%. That's you and me.
We have a cult like admiration for the office of President and so we aren't equipped emotionally to deal with the president who is actively opposed to the interests of the United States of America.
byPascoea ( 968200 ) writes:
Not that I enjoy defending him, but headlines read:
I don't give a hoot what the headline is, what does the article read? Anything I can find that referenced that particular article seem to indicate the "tone" of the headline doesn't match the article. From what I gather, the article indicates Trump wants as high of tariffs as possible to offset the income lost from his recent tax bill. That may sound like "winning" to you, but it sure as hell doesn't to me.
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bythegarbz ( 1787294 ) writes:
Defend Trump? No. Defend the end of de minimis? Yes. Shitty goods imported from overseas should absolutely have additional hurdles to obtain both bureaucratic and financial. It's an effort to outright save a consumer from themselves. You want that cheap Chinese shit? Find someone willing to import 1000 of them, put an American legal name to it, and stand by the product that meets the legal requirements. Despite what the idiot consumers chasing a cheap gadget think it's not in their best interest to short ci
byceoyoyo ( 59147 ) writes:
There are LOTS of people who run companies that import stuff that doesn't meet legal requirements in the importing country. They're not going to stop. They're going to get more customers though, because they don't have to compete with untaxed direct imports.
byrsilvergun ( 571051 ) writes:
You will notice that people immediately point to temu and other sites that sell incredibly cheap junkie Chinese garbage.
The point of my post is that there are tons and tons of businesses that aren't importing cheap Chinese junk. They have things built overseas that can't be built here that qualify for the exemption and they have successful small businesses selling them.
We could bring the manufacturing back but it would require trillions of dollars of government infrastructure spending and we just g
bygweihir ( 88907 ) writes:
I have no problem with the MAGAs fucking themselves, hard. I have a massive problem with all the others getting fucked as well.
bystrikethree ( 811449 ) writes:
I can't help but want to say, have the day you voted for.
I hope you enjoy the day that you voted for. What? You claim you didn't vote for this? Too fucking bad asshole. You get to experience it with the rest of us. Perhaps you should have rejected the two-party system that made all of this possible, nay, inevitable.
byArchieBunker ( 132337 ) writes:
It’s very difficult to do satire anymore.
byRinnon ( 1474161 ) writes:
Trump has high approval ratings and is doing great.
Trump's approval rating is currently the lowest it has been this term, at 40%, based on the latest Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted July 15 - 16.
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byrsilvergun ( 571051 ) writes:
It was 38% in the days before covid.
It doesn't matter what his approval is except right before the election. The propaganda is at a lull and journalists are being allowed to criticize him so yeah his approval rating has dropped.
As we get closer to the midterm elections journalists will be instructed not to criticize Trump and anyone who does will be fired. That is exactly what happened in 2024 and it'll happen in 2026 and again in 2028.
A little bit of voter suppression and a lot of propaganda and
byGideon Fubar ( 833343 ) writes:
We don't need this site being a left wing echo chamber.
I have some bad news for you about what is considered 'left' these days.
If you didn't want science engineering to be considered 'left', maybe you shouldn't have politicised things so you could prevent people from commenting on obvious arithmetic mistakes.
byPetr Blazek ( 8018844 ) writes:
before barking at Trump, note that in the EU, the de minimis threshold is zero for VAT and a mere 150 EUR for customs duty. (And discussions are underway about the elimination of the latter as well).
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bythegarbz ( 1787294 ) writes:
Indeed and for the same reason. Such an exception promotes individual international import which in turn removes legal protections and promotes dangerously poor quality products flooding into the market. If on the other hand you are a registered business bringing in 1000 of something for resale, you're more likely to scrutinise if that CE logo actually is there because the product meets the market requirements, or just there as a fake.
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byspitzak ( 4019 ) writes:
VAT is paid on non-imports as well.
bygweihir ( 88907 ) writes:
Also note that in the EU, small-stuff importers can typically pre-declare via web-form and their stuff just goes through, minimal cost and minimal bureaucracy.
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byceoyoyo ( 59147 ) writes:
In Canada it's $20, despite the US constantly pressuring us to raise it (lol).
But neither of us have 200% import taxes.
byArchieBunker ( 132337 ) writes:
Whataboutism.
bynospam007 ( 722110 ) * writes:
For border-near people.
Order it poste restante to Canada and smuggle it over.
byOgive17 ( 691899 ) writes:
This is one of the few areas that I actually support Trump on. There's no reason to subsidize imported goods which is what this program had become.
Now I'd probably put a few commodities on an exemption list that prove to be very beneficial to the US economy but I really don't give a shit if a bunch of cheap crap from overseas is a bit more expensive. I never needed any of those items, everything I've purchased from Amazon has been a want.
I do wish they'd do more about cost of food and energy. My utilities keep going up.
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byYuppieScum ( 1096 ) writes:
It's an legally-established threshold meant to ensure that the cost of collection doesn't exceed the revenue.
After all, spending $100 to collect $5 is a foolish exercise.
Of course, no-one is asking how much this plan will cost the American tax-payer - all that matters is "sticking it to them damned foreigners."
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byhebertrich ( 472331 ) writes:
And everything he does is based on lies , disinformation and media manipulation. I pity Americans , living under such an existential threat to their way of life. Canada is singeled out for it's recognition of a Palestinian state , like most of the world does. It's singeled out for fentanyl , which is one fat whopping lie. It's singeled out for lies and total deception of Americans. The real reason for all his tariffs and trade disruptions satisfies only Russia. They're the ones laughing and rolling on the f
bysabbede ( 2678435 ) writes:
Or the media, which is overwhelmingly left-wing, has manipulated you into believing that rubbish. Did you never consider the possibility that you were the one who was being deceived?
byPascoea ( 968200 ) writes:
They still think China is paying for it.
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