Trump single-handedly fighting a war on all hobbies and small businesses.
I look forward to a New York Times article interviewing people who feel personally betrayed by Trump’s idiotic trade stuff. No interviewee will be honest and say “I wanted Trump to make people I hate suffer a lot. And I’m very happy he is. But I’m going to go bankrupt. I never thought he’d make me suffer too.”
he’s putting the small town mom and pop gooner anime figurine shops out of business 😔
My waifus
If the goober anime waifus and gunpla can’t be made here in America then no one should have them. Don’t think too hard about whether there is any chance in the slightest for this to happen, ever.
It’s always some obvious bullshit like ‘I expected him to promote science’ instead of ‘I wanted him to kill all the undesirable but now I am part of the undesirables’
It’ll be 7 small business tyrants trying to garner sympathy for their import costs tripling on items that have no domestic alternative while trying to be friendly to Trump. “Please, God-Emperor! Surely you didn’t mean to do this! We will keep telling you what is happening so you can fix it!”
Nah I’m pretty sure we’ve already seen some already honestly go they wanted other people to experience hell on earth but no themselves out of a delusional sense everyone agrees.
No interviewee will be honest
I kind of thought some already did do that lol
Welcome to Brazil, my friends! Grab a caipirinha and join us in complaining about import fees!
We recently got rid of de minimis here too, although whether or not it really existed is up for debate. If I buy anything that costs more than $50 from AliExpress, I have to pay a 92% tax, and there is literally no way not to do that. The reason why you can’t dodge this tax is that this government program, called Remessa Conforme, is done in cooperation with massive Chinese sales portals like AliExpress, Banggood and the like, who collect the import taxes and then forward that money to the government (supposedly).
It’s not really a single 92% tax. Technically it’s 60%, but it’s actually an unholy mathematical abomination, a rat king of duty fees that includes amazing things like a fee that is applied to the purchase value with the very same fee already applied. It’s called “cálculo por dentro”, something like “calculation from the inside”, and what it means is that if you, say, buy a product that costs R$1000, the import fee is R$600 and there is a state tax called ICMS which is an additional 17%. However, this 17% is calculated over the cost + import fee + the ICMS itself, so it’s essentially calculated twice, which means the final price you’re actually going to pay is about R$1920. Don’t ask.
The way it used to be before, and also the reason why our de minimis was a weird gray area, is that import fees were the result of a random sample inspection. So, if you’re lucky, you won’t be inspected by customs, and you’ll get your treat tax-exempt. Also, if your product is inspected but the price + shipping cost is less than $50, you’re golden, unless the customs inspector looks at your packet and decides that you’re lying and this product is actually worth more than that amount. In that case, they decide how much they think it costs and charge you accordingly. Also, the de minimis exemption was technically only for gifts, but eh who gives a shit, just let that 3m paracord USB cable through.
Now, with our new system, you pay these taxes directly to the online retailer, so you don’t even get the chance to get your tax-exempt treats. Well, technically, under $50 you’re tax-exempt, but there’s still the 17% ICMS fee. Still, for small items like computer accessories and niche hobby supplies, it’s still worth it buying from AliExpress, even with the 92% tax, because Brazilian stores either a) don’t carry that product or b) sell it for even more than you would pay with taxes included. I recently treated myself to a really nice mech keyboard (Aula F108 Pro, ask me about it) and paid a ridiculous amount of money for it. It was still cheaper than a lower-quality keyboard bought from any local store (and I fucking love my treats).
Now, guess who pushed for this new tax regime? Major retailers, of course. Magalu, Havan, as well as a bunch of other parasites who either a) sell generic white label garbage with their name on it or b) act as Amazon-wannabe middlemen and used all of their power and infinite money glitches to push for this ridiculousness. If your auntie has a side hustle reselling clothes from Shein or your dad does some woodworking on weekends and gets router bits from AliExpress, well, fuck them very much. Think of our local retailers. How dare you try to bypass them. Also, I’m your dad in that scenario.
So the point of this rant is: as a fellow treat enjoyer who needs to be extra picky because my currency is very undervalued in relation to the US dollar, I know the pain of not getting my gizmos and doodads straight from Xi’s loving hands, free from any taxation (all of which is theft, whenever my treats are concerned). Do the materialist thing and ask qui bono, for sure there’s an interest group that will benefit tremendously from this import fee, and it’s absolutely not us treatlerite peasants.
Ha ha, I’m going to make all consumer goods more expensive for Americans! That’ll really stick it to China, who has no other countries to trade with, I’m sure!
I mean considering their other major market is Europe and they can’t just dump everything there (prices would be devastated for producers and the Europeans would be annoyed) it does put China in a position that isn’t that positive. The European market can’t just absorb the production and consumption habits of 300 million people or even 1/6th of that without a major impact to both China and the EU.
More importantly it puts the power back in the hands of major importers and American companies like Amazon or say some companies like Digi-Key or other US based electronics parts wholesalers who charge more for components (and have high order minimums) than buying them on a Chinese site or ebay from China and makes them more profit while ensuring slimmer margins for Chinese producers who previously by selling direct could take a portion of the difference in cost and pocket it as profits while still beating local warehouse pricing.
This is violent stuff but it’s also the kind of thing you’d be doing if you are determined to war with, decouple, and blockade China within say the next decade. If people already have accepted a lower quality of life, already don’t see things as coming from China but “Amazon” and increasingly cannot afford them already then the blow-back to a war with China will be much lessened and result in a collective consumer shrug because they were already pushed out, priced out, etc by these prior moves. It doesn’t hurt big capital to do this, it fucks petit boug and in fact pushes them into a material condition more conducive to supporting fascism/naked reaction as their own class position is eroded or removed and they’re re-proletarianized against their will and wish to claw their way back with fascism. They’ll be much more on-board with enslaving Americans with mental illness, with enslaving the homeless, etc in special camps to produce goods or whatever the promise may be if there is even a chance it gives them the chance to get back on top again.
Thank you for fleshing out the theory behind my shitpost, comrade. The situation is not ideal for China’s small businesses, but it will be catastrophic for Americans who rely on affordable imports for more than just treats. For example, home medical equipment, like CPAP parts. While I’m pretty sure the Chinese petit bourgeois will mostly land on their feet, Americans are about to get backed into a corner where they get to choose socialism or barbarism—except socialism isn’t on the table, so…
Long term this also destroys small scale engineering people who can no longer afford parts for their projects, which will hurt Amerikkkan R&D efforts. If all your STEM grads are just people who only talked to LLMs and never had hands on experience they won’t be much good at making the torment nexus.
JDPON DON SAYS DEATH TO THE AMERIKKKAN TREATLERITES
So does this mean if i need mop pads to replace my roombas they’re gonna cost 200 dollars
It means you will buy from a big monopoly warehouser like Amazon instead of anything 50-80% cheaper directly from the country of origin. And if you do the latter you’ll likely get slapped with a bunch of fees from the companies that now need to inspect everything.
i bought replacement shit that amazon said would fit and guess what? with the side brush they sold me it MAKES A WEIRD NOISE
Amazon is wrong about compatibility half the time i swear
TRUMP EXTRA-GOLD MOP PADS ONLY $189.99!
The De Minimis Tax Exemption is a law that Congress passed on a bipartisan basis that allows shipments bound for American businesses and consumers valued under $800 (per person, per day) to enter the U.S. free of duty and taxes.
Full spectrum war on treats?
Somebody like Schumer will be the go-to dem point guy to explain the tariffs stuff and he’ll give 30 minute press conferences that nobody will pay any attention to. Instead he could just saying something simple-as-pie like "Trump and the republicans made everything more expensive. We’ll remove that stuff and lower your prices for everything. In short ‘Vote dem - get lower prices.’ "
he’ll give 30 minute press conferences that nobody will pay any attention to.
In which he’ll also argue the US should increase its funding to the entity
But that’s cheating! You can’t offer people policies that benefit them. That is the same as buying votes!
Actually buying votes on the other hand is completely fine
Everything is buying votes except actually buying votes, which is fine.
But that’s cheating!
I’m naughty.
The treats will NOT flow!
That is going to cost more to enforce than it will make.
That cost is also borne by purchaser
I doubt the fees on my 1.50c pen from ali express will pay for the time to process the customs paperwork to process it. That is why de minimus exists for a reason
You’ll have to pay the duty fee for your package to be released to you. Shippers usually want to cover this for you on your behalf, which will be offered as DDP (Delivered Duty Paid), in contrast to DDU (Delivered Duty Unpaid). If the package needs to be inspected, the carrier might charge $80-$200 (as per the image). If you got your package DDP then the shipper will cover this for you and shippers will generally amortize this cost over many customers so you’ll see the cost of shipping go up depending on how often these fees are levied.
and they say there’s no ethical consumption under capitalism 😏
The flow of treats will stop
Good thing America is going to pay my grocery bills
thank god, we finally have $150 billion to give to Raytheon
I guess I gotta order some stuff huh
consider ordering: stuff, goods, products, matter, sundries
No more de minimis for labubu
Oh shit not the mini-me exemption
minimi? like the guy from austin powers?
I just got flashbacks to the Just the Two of us Dr. Evil/Mini Me cover
You couldn’t make a scene like that anymore. Because woke.
Ok are they just pulling the ripcord on this kind of shit to get the people more pissed off and more likely to do crime/protest so their camps get bigger faster? Its malicious and incompetent wtf
They keep doing things that would need more layers of bureaucracy, then gutting the agencies that would oversee that bureaucracy, then going back and saying they never even wanted to do the first thing. It’s confusing and pointless.
Like how is US customs going to enforce tariffs and customs on literally everything coming in
Like am I going to have to declare that I’m carrying an $18 t-shirt and 3 euros in cash if I’m returning from a trip? And customs is going to process that? Even if I pay a tariff on that it doesn’t seem like it’s worth the time for multiple government workers to do an interview, paperwork, then process a payment. Fucking waste of time that will only serve to confuse and piss off everyone
Like am I going to have to declare that I’m carrying an $18 t-shirt and 3 euros in cash if I’m returning from a trip? And customs is going to process that?
That would be a pretty funny outcome. A lot of countries already have awkward and inconsistently applied enforcement for people who are simply traveling with expensive equipment that is subject to customs duties. Imagine if the distinction between market goods and personal property was simply eliminated, and everyone had to pay duties on everything they brought into the country.
They’ve decided too many people think they’re people.
again?
