Trump China Tarrifs

[dyode]

If Trump actually imposes up to 60% tarrifs on Chinese goods as threatened, I wonder if displaced Chinese goods from US market would result in cheaper astro gear from Chinese manufacturers in Australia. hmmmm... eg. SW180Mak, mounts etc.

[TrevorW]

We can only hope :)

[wavelandscott]

If they keep making them, they will need to go somewhere…not sure what the price elasticity of demand is for Astro gear.

[Mosc_007]

If Trump does put a %60 Tarrif on Chinese imports it will Cripple America. Can you imagine what will happen if suddenly all Electrical goods, Cars etc etc jumped by %60. The Economy would be crippled.

Trying to force American companies to return to the USA wont work. Like Australia, the average American couldn't afford to buy goods made in the USA.

[TrevorW]

Its a shame you can no longer say what you think :)

[skysurfer]

Partly true. Electronics has never been so cheap as now. Two reasons:
* fast and efficient production methods and better technology
* cheap labor (not only China, but other Asian countries)


And the side effect is that we live in a throwaway society with lots of e-waste.
So making electronics 60% more expensive can result in manufacturing more durable products but I think this only works out partially.
We (in the West not only US, but also Australia and EU) are spoiled with cheap electronics.

[Leo.G]

Back in 1977 I paid $2800 for a 28 inch stereo colour TV from Rank NEC directly. I got a decent discount as an employee of Rank. I didn't actually buy it for myself, I spent someone else's money and got them a big saving over retail and I made sure it went down the production line with care and was built to higher standards than most of Ranks JUNK.


I'd hate to think what size TV I could get for that money today in a cheaper brand. Rank were OK but not great quality for the money.
I then went to working for National Panasonic and their products and standards were far superior.


In saying that when I studied electronics back in the 70s I couldn't afford half of the equipment I needed to play at home, I didn't even get my first oscilloscope till the 80s. I had them at work but couldn't afford one for myself at home. Now I buy my son all of the electronics equipment I wanted when I started out that I could never afford and it's all cheap, well made and quite good for the money. Now we have everything.


God made the heavens and earth, everything else is made in China.


Sorry, a joke I was told the other day but it's close to correct I think.

[Bevan31]

Yeah it’s quite scary isn’t it.

[Leo.G]

The scary part is we have little to no manufacturing jobs in Australia and while a lot of older members here would remember having steady 40 hour per week employment now many people I know work 3 jobs (and have children) to get enough hours up per week to pay bills and raise children.
I think we older folk had it good in a many respects, steady, reliable income and the ability to plan. Since all of the manufacturing was moved offshore, while prices are cheap it doesn't help if there's no job and no money coming in to buy them.


The problem I've been told is the Australian workers expected too much pay while the people overseas (in Bangladesh, a story on ABC the other day about the owners behind Rivers and several other brands owing the sewing/clothing manufacturing company in Bangladesh millions of dollars they've been told they are not going to get) get paid very little for long hours.
Those people in the Bangladesh factory work for $6 per day.
All of the BIG brands got very rich off of slave labour overseas.

[toc]

I guess companies like Losmanby could do ok, but I suspect that some of their raw inputs come from China.

Celestron will be royally boned :D

[toc]

Would be interesting to see how much a basic Dob could cost if EVERTHING needed to be sourced from the US. (i.e Glass, figuring, Aluminium for tubes and spiders etc)