Featured 100% Tariff on Chinese EV's in the USA.

Well, I'm seeing a lot of these rich towns run out of workers. Even here where I live, I've seen the majority of restaurants close up, in spite that this town lives off of turism. But when it gets to the point that living conditions are too terrible and you can't afford anything better, even though you make a lot less money in, say, Mexico, it makes more sense to move somewhere like that.

This is something I often think about for myself and my family. There's no way I'll ever be able to afford a house here. I've worked here for just about 20 years, but still make a median wage of around $50k, and homes start at $500,000 and up. Rents just keep going up too, and the conditions of those rentals keeps going down. These investment companies have no interest in improving their properties because right now they can charge $2,000 per month regarless if the appartment is nice and pretty or it's a basement with mold growing on the walls that the last tenants left dog feces on the floor. People don't make enough to afford a $2,100 appartment, they'll rent the dump that's $100 less, and as a result there's no financial reason to improve properties. So what do people do? They move out, then the town has no workers, and then the rich who own the multi million dollar homes have no place to go eat out, shop or teachers to teach their kids or police or firefighters to take care of their town and things like that. I think that's how the elderly ruling class won't be able to sustain this for much longer.

Maybe I should move my family to China and start working in a LFP plant.

 

I think that if a person is a good person and does good things, then overall he has a better chance at life. But that doesn't mean that all good people are well off financially, nor does it mean that all bad people are poor. I do agree that it doesn't help to victimize oneself as if not attaining something like the American dream is some sort of failure in life. How many people before the 20th century had two cars, air conditioning and an iPhone?

"I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need."

"For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and raiment let us be therewith content."

On the one hand, while "the love of money" is something one not "covet after" because, as I've seen time and time again, people who are willing to sacrfice time with their family for, say, two full-time jobs usually end up divorced and with children that hate them, or "pierced themselves through with many sorrows" so to speak.

But on the other, there's nothing wrong with "having compassion" on those who are struggling to make ends meet or for those suffering for some other reason. There's no need to throw all the blame on them, for "judge not" and "condemn not." The reality is most things that happen, both good and bad, are a result of the decisions of many people as well as unforseen circumstances. You can't tell me that what I get paid at my job is entirely my fault, nor is it entirely my boss's fault, for "the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all."

 

Compared to?
Trump?

I have no real idea, and don't understand politics at all. All I know is that he's decided put steep tariffs on Chinese EV's. For some reason I feel that Trump probably would have done the same thing. For better or worse, it is what it is.

 

The median individual wage is what, $50,000/year? And the household median wage is, $70,000/year or there abouts?

I make $50,000/year. That limits my spending possibilities like so:
I can afford up to a $120,000 home. (Cheapest home in my area is about $400,000, and it's an oddball because the next one is $500,000)
If I follow the 20/4/10 rule, with current insurance pricing, I can afford a $5,000 car. ($50k / 12 = $4,167 / 10 = $417 / month - $150/mo fuel and $150/mo insurance = $117/mo for car payments on a four year loan and maintenance and repairs.)

If I move somewhere I can make the same amount of money but homes are cheaper and car insurance is cheaper and perhaps a place where I can drive fewer miles, I could afford a home and a more expensive car.

 

If I were to buy a new car right now, I'd buy a Nissan Versa.

However, this is the last year for the Nissan Versa and other similar vehicles like the Mitsubishi Mirage. The smallest cars available are becoming land yachts. GM's smallest and cheapest vehicle is the new bigger Chevy Trax crossover. The cheapest Ford is the Ford Maverick pickup truck. The cheapest Dodge is the Hornet which is also a crossover.

Mind you that a lot of these are cheaper than, say, a Toyota Corolla (the Yaris was also killed off in the USA). And also mind you that after the death of the Nissan Versa, all of the cheapest cars in the USA will be more than $20,000, which historically if you adjust for inflation there has usually been, if not allways been, econo cars priced below $20,000 (again, even when adjusting for inflation to 2024).

 

What mostly makes a car proffitable is the mass quantity that can be produced and sold, as well as the price point. In other words, if they sell only a few of them they need to be expensive to be proffitable. But if they sell a lot of them they can be cheaper and still be proffitable. The best of both worlds is when a manufacturer can both sell a lot of them at higher prices. That's what they do with crossovers. They look bigger, even when they aren't actually bigger, so they can sell them for more since people think they're getting more car. Once people have been effectively upsold on crossovers then all manufacturers need to do to keep their proffits high is to kill off the cheaper cars that aren't as proffitable.