While tariffs aren't a secret, they are a new reality for majority of americans. They never had to bother with any of that before they ended De Minimis, now every single package must go through a complicated import process and if you are somewhat inexperienced with it (as most people do), you might end up with UPS screwing up the paperwork and charging you wrongly hundreds of dollars.
That's ultimately what the US citizens voted for and I think that's important they know what they are dealing with.
The annoying thing about this setup is that people outside the us pay tariffs going both ways. They must pay the us tariffs to send into the us and then they must pay their countries tariffs receiving goods coming from the us. I read that the EU is ending de minimus in 2026. This is going to really put a hurt on small businesses like crafters, used bookstores, antique dealers, …
Yeah, it’s what they voted for, but having the world get into the tariff act is a real pain.
I still find it baffling that Trump managed to convince people that, somehow, "China" is paying these tariffs, despite the fact that that makes no fucking sense. These companies in China aren't charities; even if the exporter were the ones directly paying the tariffs, it would simply be baked into the price of the good being sold.
This really isn't hard. It's literally something I learned on the first day of high school economics.
> I still find it baffling that Trump managed to convince people that, somehow, "China" is paying these tariffs, despite the fact that that makes no fucking sense.
Right. In one forum where someone said that, I posted a U.S. Customs and Border Protection tariff bill. There really is a tax bill, and it has to be paid before you get the stuff.
Usually, there are customs brokers, and shippers acting as customs brokers, to buffer the end user from dealing with CBP directly on small shipments. You still pay.
Its scary how many things Trump says, claims that are roughly equivalent to, "1 + 2 = 4", which people just eat up as truth!
It feels like all the deficets in our education system (going back decades) are finally coming to roost... so many people lack critical thinking skills and media savvy/awareness. I think its too late to fix it, now that a sufficient majority of people are susceptible to this deception, and a sufficient chunk of politicians are willing to deceive them... there is too much motivation to keep them dumb. The hatred towards the "Intellectual Elite" is scary, and really is reminicent of Pol Pot.
Education isn't the problem with Trump voters, stupidity is.
Remember that this is his second term. Every American voter had the benefit of four years of "education" regarding Trump's character and competence. A majority of them responded by freely and enthusiastically demanding four more such years.
There's an outright attack on education as well though.
The fact that you can become a teacher in Florida without a degree just by being a veteran [1] comes as a result of an exodus of teachers because there has been an outright attack on education institutions. The reasons "why" have been debated but ultimately it is abundantly clear that the issue isn't just stupidity, but also the very act of education itself.
There has been a concerted effort by conservatives to tell the public that modern universities are giant "woke propaganda" factories. I was an adjunct in 2022 and 2023, and I must have missed the memo where I was told to instruct every student to get a sex change, but this didn't stop my idiotic grandmother from saying that "even computer science students get woke indoctrination".
But of course, this isn't a recent thing. I remember when I was younger, conservatives would spend a lot of time taking scientific studies out of context to talk about how we're wasting grant money [2].
The "treadmills for shrimp" is a good example: anyone who spent ten seconds actually doing research on this would see that the "treadmills" actually aren't stupid and they're measuring metabolism, and I am quite confident that the people who started spreading this propaganda knew this, so it's an active lie. I'm sure they think they're doing it for good reasons, but this isn't about "stupidity" at this point, it is an outright attack on research and science.
The fact that you can become a teacher in Florida without a degree just by being a veteran [1] comes as a result of an exodus of teachers because there has been an outright attack on education institutions. The reasons "why" have been debated but ultimately it is abundantly clear that the issue isn't just stupidity, but also the very act of education itself.
Very true, and just another example of the inspiration the Republicans draw from Russia and other tyrant states.
There's a horrifying story in WSJ today that I hope gets more traction, about how soldiers returning from duty on the Ukraine front are being recruited to teach in public schools. The subjects in question range from flagrantly-bogus Russian history to drone piloting to Kalashnikov and Dragunov rifle skills, and the kids in question are as young as eight. According to a quote from Putin in the article, "Wars aren't won by generals, they're won by schoolteachers." He's got a point there.
Still, even the best-intended education can only plant seeds. If the ground is barren, then the effort will be wasted at best and counterproductive at worst. We are slouching towards Moscow, Tehran, and Kabul.
Just because you don't like the conclusions that come from the stories of average people, doesn't mean that others do not want to hear those same stories.
The tariffs and enforcement policies have been changing rapidly with little notice.
This has been terrible for anyone who has to deal with slow shipments from other countries. When things were changing rapidly you could place an order and by the time it arrive the tariff could be something entirely different.
It was awful. I know a lot of people who carefully calculated expected tariffs on a purchase and then got smacked with a much larger number later when it arrived.
There has also been chaos in trying to remediate tariff mistakes. If you got charged the wrong amount, good luck contacting anyone to get it fixed. They’re so slammed with communications and complaints that it’s just not happening.
One company I contracted with had a few TEUs that they just decided they didn't want to import (some branded boxes, double-walled bottles) after they were in flight. The lead time was a few months on what they wanted and after they'd ordered but before the containers arrived the tariffs went into place.
I haven't talked to them in months, but I wonder what happens there. Do you just let the product sit in a shipyard somewhere? Surely you have to pay for storage like the guy in the OP. But then what? What if you just don't pay it at all? They were definitely the kind of people to just be like "fuck it, your cargo containers now". What I learned from them was that very often if you don't like what someone is charging you, you can just not pay them anything and let them keep whatever of yours they have (which they can't really do anything with).
I keep thinking that some place has to have a lien against the company in some way, but in practice they just take whatever they've got and leave. I'd never have the balls to try, myself.
It’s useful background if you don’t understand how paying tariffs works for small individual shipments. This is something most Americans who buy stuff from abroad haven’t had to deal with until the ending of de minimis.
