On the one hand, I dislike tariffs*. On the other hand, I don’t like how the gaming and independent fiction industries talked themselves into using products and services from the People’s Republic of China, despite the fact that the PRC’s supply chain is corrupt and unreliable at best, uses wink-and-a-nudge slave labor at worst, is run by people who are ideologically opposed to several core principles of Western society, and is about as ecologically friendly as a guy spraying out chlorofluorocarbons from his extra-leaded gasoline-powered mobile throne while directing a Soviet-era hydroelectric project.
And on the gripping hand? This has been a possibility for about a year, a certainty for four months, and a ticking package for weeks. There’s a lot of people out there suddenly blinking on how their books’ profit margins have just taken a huge (and frankly inevitable) hit, and it’s all I can do to not shake them while asking, Why did you not plan for this situation? I publish with Amazon and DriveThruRPG for reasons, and this is one of them. They’re not immune to tariffs, but my per-book costs with them aren’t going to go up by a half next week, either.
I guess I just don’t get why any of this is a surprise.
Moe Lane
*Just accept that I do, please.
#commissionearned
“Soviet-era hydroelectric project.”
Point of order – Soviet-era *nuclear power* project.
The Aral Sea disaster is arguably worse.
What Aral Sea? That is a capitalist myth, comrade!
Not gonna argue that one…
China’s policy on birds though..
Mew
Embrace the healing power of “and”. A hydrologic project to bring water to a nuclear plant. And carry the waste water on for irrigating a poorly managed cash crop.
We live in a fallen world.
There are all sorts of things I dislike that I like much better than other things I dislike.
I dislike tariffs.
But administrative tariffs are necessary.
Reciprocal tariffs are the least bad way to deal with a trading partner that refuses to trade fairly. (Which is nearly all of them.)
I have objections to the use of slave labor that far outweigh my dislike of tariffs.
Being dependent on a foreign power for the ability to defend ourselves, feed ourselves, or basic medications seems very ill advised.
I don’t like to see communities and lives destroyed by the outsourcing of production. (It may sometimes be necessary, but the times I’ve been a direct witness, it hasn’t been.)
So, all and all, two cheers for the lesser evil.
I don’t like corruption and collusion within federal agencies to twist rules to enrich select groups.
I favor using sunlight to keep back the corrupters, but sometimes it’s better to shake and bake the entire kettle.
Mew
Self-sufficiency was not the main drive but was certainly a factor in our colonial rebellion. Requiring raw materials to be exported for conversion to durable goods and then imported back was evil then and it still is now.