let's say i'm a rich businessman looking to build a new plant.

[unblock]

the supposed point of the tariffs is to encourage investment in america. the right-wing pretense for the tariffs is deter international trade so americans buy american, so that's good for the economy.

as if an isolated, domestic-only market could ever be stronger than a global one.

anyway, though, the economic environment donnie is creating is a disaster for business planning, if nothing else. tariffs themselves aside, the *uncertainty* in implementation makes planning nearly impossible.

if i'm looking to build a plant somewhere, why on earth would i build it in america? if i build it in america, i'm already confined to the american market, plus i have to worry about donnie changing rules about labor and immigation and citizenship and hell, maybe he'll shake me down for money, especially if i want to do business with the federal government. or what if one of my employees goes on tv and says something donnie takes offense to?

but if i build that plant in canada or mexico or europe or wherever, then i have access to the entire world (except america), and that entire rest of the world is now actively growing stronger ties with each other as they look to build a new world order that is no longer centered around america, now that america is an unreliable trading partner at best.


none of this will play out the way the right-wingers are claiming.

at my day job, we deal with a lot of businesses, none of them are happy. *none* of them. nearly all are showing declining sales.

the only businesses i can see happy now are counter-cyclical businesses that thrive during recessions.

not a good sign....

[dalton99a]

1. Plus it takes years for a manufacturing plant to be production-ready

[Emile]

2. Even if they did build a plant here, that would

be years down the road and full of robots doing the work.

[dalton99a]

3. +1. An important point - automation

You want your production processes to be reliable and repeatable 24/7

Humans will be hired to service the machines.

[Irish_Dem]

4. Investing anything in the US is a bad bet.

The GOP can come to power at any time and destroy you.

[genxlib]

5. Everything you said is true

But it is even simpler than that to me.

The biggest risk is the stability of the tariff program itself.

Protectionism is not great policy but to the degree that it works, the policies need to be generational on a long enough time frame that will ensure the investment pays dividends. These tariff policies have been appearing and disappearing from week to week.

In addition to everything you say, the largest risk of all is that a company could invest in making American goods only to find the tariffs gone when they are finally ready to sell to market. Imagine trying to sell garments or sneakers into a market with the tariffs lifted.

It makes no sense for companies to make those kinds of investments without a clear understanding of what the tariff situation will be when the plant becomes operational years down the road.

[louis-t]

6. My thought was similar, but simpler.

Why would anyone want to build a factory here after donny dipshit tanks the economy?

[unblock]

7. In a nutshell....

[Bev54]

8. It seems, from what I have seen in the rich men already in America, they are only concerned with

their own pocket book with low taxes and easy manipulation of the government. I don't know how so many rich people survived at the level of stupid we have seen from them.

[unblock]

9. the problem is that donnie is becoming a problem for big business.

what selfish ceos loved first and foremost was access to a huge base of spending consumers with a backdrop of a predictable legal, tax, and regulatory environment.

second to that was an easily manipulated government that would create loopholes and breaks and look the other way in exchange for cost-effective legal bribes.


the problem is now donnie is shaking down businesses for tens and hundreds of million dollars without anything specific in exchange, only perhaps temporarily removing a threat to do damage.

that predictable environment for business is gone.
the legal bribes are no longer cost-effective.
and the spending consumer just got hit with the cost of a massive tax hike, and we'll almost surely enter a recession if we're not already in one.

donnie killed the goose that laid golden eggs.


if i was able to start up a business, i certainly wouldn't do it in america.