Donald Trump the Megathread part II - mod warnings in OP, Updated 18/03/25

maybe recharge was the wrong term.

if i was importing X knowing there would be a charge, i factor that into the price i buy at.

i dunno, its seems simple to me.

You would make sense if you found that Kerry Gold found it hard to sell their butter, so reduced the price. They don't find it hard to sell their butter, so bye bye American sold Kerry Gold.

It's funny watching the 'Occupy Wall Street" crowd having a proverbial meltdown about Wall Street having a bit of a meltdown. Just saying! 😃

Everything in the retail chain is based on margins or markups. Margins and markups are essentially the same just calculated differently. A margin is calculated based on the difference between retail and cost, markup is the difference between cost and retail. Now both of these are excluding VAT, so for simplicity let's assume the item is at 0% vat.

Cost of item = 50

Sale price = 100

Margin = (100 - 50) / 100 = 50%

Markup = (100 - 50) / 50 = 100%

Whichever the retailer/wholesaler decides to use doesn't really matter, the idea is that you calculate your retail price based on an expectation of what profit you want to make. Typically it is the buyer (by buyer I mean the person in the chain the decides what the company will buy) that determines the retail price dependent on the expected margin/markup for the type of item they are buying. This can vary massively. Clothing could be 50/60% margin, specialized electronics could be as low as 5/6%.

So, finally, back to tariffs, assuming the distributor/retail want to maintain the same margin.

No Tariffs:

Company A in Country B makes a T-shirt and sell for $10

Importer C, buys this and sell on to retailers for their normal 20% markup, so $12

Retailer D, buys for $12 and sells for $18, their normal 50% markup

Lets say 20% tariffs

Company A in Country B makes a T-shirt and sell for $10

Importer C, buys this, PAYS the 20% tariff, their cost is now $12. So they now sell on to retailers for their normal 20% markup, so $14.40

Retailer D, buys for $14.40 and sells for $21.60, maintaining their 50% markup

Who's lost out here?

Manufacturer still sell for $10, they're happy out

Importer, was making $2 per shirt, now $2.40, having paid the tariff

Retailer, was making $6 now making $7.20

Consumer? T-shirt was $18 now $21.60, so +$3.60. Remember tariff was 'only' $2.

Who lost out here????

People call Trump dumb... OK, he may be a boorish ignoramous in many ways, but he said in 2016 that he could shoot someone and not lose voters. He recognised, then, that his cult would defend him to the hilt on pretty much anything. This is a realisation it seems to have taken his opponents years to realise because they thought that "grab em by the pussy" would finish him, that Charlottesville would finish him, that Covid would finish him, that Jan 6 would finish him, that the rape suit would finish him, that the criminal conviction would finish him.

And none of it did.

So, with respect to that tweet, is anyone surprised? Do ye need to see him actually shoot someone on 6th Avenue to really take the point or what?

Pretty much bang on there, it's all done on profit margins and gets compounded the more people there are in the supply chain. They all want to maintain their margin.

My American Trump-supporting friend is basically just claiming ignorance of how tariffs work and is mentally checked out from all of it. It's like a defence mechanism where if he can't see the good of what's happening, it must only be because he doesn't understand it. Like the good is absolutely 100% there. For sure. Totally.

Yeah but if you ignore all the lost jobs and only count the added ones, it looks very positive. They’re just looking at it through the Kermit.de.frog methodology

No he isn't, but even if he was anti free trade, its very different to put on sensible tariffs on selected goods or industries for sensible reasons.

The EU puts trade restrictions on blood diamonds, products that cause deforestation etc. these are sensible. Trump is just sabotaging global trade to cause chaos deliberately

"Telling poor people they are racist because they bought what Trump was selling has only emboldened him and his cult."

Always blaming Democrats for the **** position we are in, caused by Trump's actions.

Listen. If poor people voted for Trump knowing he is a f**king racist, which the dogs getting eaten on the streets knew, and they are called on that, then tough sh1t.

If they didn't do their homework and pay attention to the vast evidence that Harris' plan was better, then tough sh1t - that's democracy for you.

Another candidate even if Harris should have been prepped for at least a year prior to the election.

Avoid discussing how hitching to Bidens wagon instead of putting everything into a candidate who could win helped caused this reelection shur.
You do understand there’s a credibility issue when the same people telling us Joe Biden was in full faculty are more or less the same people calling Trump voters undesirables?

You do understand there’s a credibility issue when the same people telling us Joe Biden was in full faculty are more or less the same people calling Trump voters undesirables?

I couldn't care less what Trump voters think of me, for calling them idiots or racists.

If they don't want to be called that, then don't be an idiot or a racist.

Disagree. The dog on the street would be a better leader than CFTrump now, tomorrow and going forward. The man is senile and corrupted. Sanders appears to care a bit about the public, putting him light years ahead of CFTrump and his GoonOldParty.

is it not a ponzi is scheme since after 2008 as in stock value is not linked to much of anything real?

Maybe if you were good at bargaining and didn't need the item as essential, and the wholesaler or retailer was really prepared to bargain with you about the price. If that did not apply, you would be shown the door. The retailer is not going to be charitable enough to pay the tariff for you gratis.