Month: October 2024

Politic: Tariffs Explained

I promised myself I would keep my mouth tightly sealed throughout this election season. But then Barack Obama interrupted my YouTube music program and told me I need to do something.

Well, here I am.

Here’s an example of how a tariff works. I’m pretty certain they all work in this fashion. I’ve been mentally explaining this to my Trump-flag waving neighbors:

For $10, I just bought a nifty little flashlight from Lowe’s. It’s LED and has batteries and three modes and is really nice.

It’s made in China.

We’re using round, simplified numbers for the sake of example.

I paid $10 for it, but Lowe’s, in order to pay their lease and their employees and their insurance, only paid $5 for it.

They bought it for $5 from a distributor who provides this kind of product to big retail chains. In order to pay his lease and his employees and his insurance, he marked it up to $5 from the $2.50 he paid for it.

He paid $2.50 to the importer, who… employees, insurance, etc., marked it up from the $1.25 he paid to the Chinese manufacturer.

Now, suddenly, there’s a 100% tariff on all goods coming from China.

The importer has to pay $1.25 to the Chinese manufacturer, and another $1.25 to the US government.

He can’t pay his employees or his lease or his insurance if he doesn’t raise his price, so he passes the increase on to the distributor. Instead of $2.50, the price now has to be $5.

The distributor has lost all of his profit on the flashlight at $5, and now must sell it for $10 to Lowe’s.

Lowe’s is big, big, but they can’t sell a product at cost or they’ll go out of business.

Now, when I go to buy another flashlight, son of a biscuit, it’s $17.50! Seems like just last month it was only $10!

At that price, it’s not such a good deal. Maybe I don’t want a new flashlight.

So, I don’t buy the flashlight – almost nobody does. Lowe’s actually stops selling them.

The distributor takes a huge financial hit on one of his biggest money-makers, and has to lay off half of his employees.

The importer goes out of business altogether because nobody in the US is buying what he imports. He lays off all of his employees.

Over time, the Chinese manufacturer will see that they are selling fewer flashlights to the US market, and will either make them more cheaply, or quit making them altogether.

At that point, the Chinese economy is hurt by the tariff.

Until that happens, it’s you and me paying the price of the tariff. And Lowe’s, and the distributor, and the importer.

A tariff is a tool, but it’s not a good concept of a plan for our economy. It hurts our country first.

That’s why I’m urging you, whether you’re red, purple, blue, or of no color whatsoever, to vote for Harris/Walz. Here’s a link to their website.

Choose freedom.

End of commercial.

Trying to Talk about the Ocean

It’s been a minute, I know, since I last wrote about anything serious. I know, I get it.

But my wife’s left me for a baby – a grandkid on the other side of the country. She’ll be back next week, after leaving me to my own devices for a week and a few days. Me, three dogs, and a cat.

The dogs are all upset – I know this because they leave “little bombs” in the most curious places. Oh, yeah! I have to clean that one up, too!

I got in a major car crash last week – rear-ended on the freeway that totaled my wife’s little car. I’d taken it to save on gas – her suggestion, you know. Blammo! They, they came from behind! I’m okay, car not so much.

Somebody, and I don’t know whom, left a plate of yellow citrus fruits on one of my front columns – we have these sort of three-foot-tall columns around the edge of our corner lot – with a sign that said “Limes – free!” and a smiley face.

First, they were lemons, not limes. Second, my house is not a place for you to give away your stuff. There were easily a dozen lemons on the plate – not your friendly “I thought you might like these” kind of plate that normal people put on the porch. Not. Going. To. Happen.

I distributed the “limes” into the compost bin and put the plate back out on top of the column. But I set up a camera, see, so I could see who came back for the plate. They were too sneaky: the plate’s gone and the camera missed them.

It’s because I’ve been binging “Monk” on Netflix in my wife’s absence. If you don’t know, he’s a germophobic Rain Man sort of character who is also a brilliant Holmesian detective who lives in modern day San Francisco. I had no idea there were so many murders there!

It’s a cute show- the acting is good and they’re good at finding awkward places to put a guy who’s terrified to shake hands. Although he’s brilliant, he can’t make simple yes-no choices. So, who do they volunteer to be the Little League umpire? Strike! or ball. No, no, strike. or ball. Do over, please!

So, I’ve been thinking about that movie Soul. It’s a Pixar piece about a musician’s lost soul trying find his way to the promised land.

All he ever wanted to do was play “the big time” – to be a real musician.

Someone tells him this story – I know I’ve told it to you before: a young little fish swims up to the old fish and says “I’m looking for the ocean.”

“Son, this IS the ocean.”

“Nah, this just water!”

I’ve been thinking about writing, and realizing that I’m still looking for the ocean. I’ve written about this before, too, I know.

Hey, it’s been a tough week, okay?

I am so lucky to do what I do for a living. I’m a technical writer for the marketing department of a major manufacturer. I’ve been tasked with producing videos – marketing videos, social media, promotion pieces, training videos, safety videos. I love writing them, and doing the voiceover, and then shooting the footage and building the animations and editing it all together.

There’s this movie-industry-standard 3D rendering software called Cinema 4D that I use to create animations for these things. Because of that, now I get to produce the website renders of the company’s products as well.

It’s a terrific job, and I absolutely love what I do.

For all that, I’m still looking for the Big Time. I was thinking about it today, thinking all of the “yeah, but” things you say when you’re trying to make yourself feel small.

And then came that voice. It sounded like the late James Earl Jones:

“Son, this IS the ocean.”

I don’t know if I should be elated or disappointed.

My wife just needs to come home!