Trump’s car tariffs

How can Trump solve problems if he doesn’t understand them?

He recently promised to impose price controls on the car insurance mafia to lower the cost of car insurance – showing that he doesn’t understand that the main reason car insurance is so expensive is because people are (effectively) forced to buy it. Get the road coercive costs – let people say no to the mafia – and the mafia should buy insurance good deal – to convince people to buy it.

Likewise, Trump promises to impose huge tariffs on vehicles not produced in the United States, showing he doesn’t understand Why they are not manufactured in the United States.

It is – again – due to the coercive costs imposed by the government. What is curiously and reflexively framed by some as “our” government – ​​which is a lot like “your” mask, in that they are both neat little psychological tricks designed to trick the victim into thinking something has been done to him by others is imposed, is something he likes -or acquired by choice.

These costs are more subtle than the overt costs imposed by the auto insurance mafia, through what is not “our” government, but rather the government – ​​a distinction that is important, especially when it comes to getting the head straight. No one is forced to buy a new vehicle, at least not in the way that anyone who owns a vehicle and wants to be able to drive it on the road from the government roads (another important point of mental clarification) is actually forced to hand over money for mandatory “coverage” to the insurance mafia. This means that they are effectively forced to pay more for “cover” – because the mafia has them over the proverbial ton. If they do not pay what the mafia demands, the mafia will tell the government and then the government will punish the offender for not paying the mafia.

It basically works exactly like Luca Brasi – the Godfather’s enforcer – who assured the movie producer who didn’t want to give Johnny Fontaine the role that his signature or his brains would be on the contract.

Vehicle manufacturers are being given a similar offer they cannot refuse – by what is not “our” government. They are told that they must comply with a litany of regulations that created production something in this country it is so expensive that it is hardly worth it. These are the more subtle compliance costs in addition on the costs of meeting things like mandatory minimum fuel economy standards – CAFE “standards” – which I put in quotes with air fingers to emphasize the outrageousness of the government telling automakers how many miles per gallon the cars they offer for sale are as if that weren’t something you should pay attention to market demand.

And ‘safety requirements’ that have little or nothing to do with whether a vehicle is more or less likely to do that crash.

Do you think the $13,000 2024 Toyota HiLux pickup you shouldn’t buy is “unsafe”?

Do you think “vaccines” are “safe and effective”?

The costs that have driven car production out of this country are the costs of production in this country – for everything is actually manufactured. The certifications and authorizations and inspections and the like that are applied Unpleasant production; on the physical facilities as the price for their existence or construction and operation.

To understand this, consider the obstacles and costs associated with legally selling food from a truck. Everything has to be inspected and approved and then you have to get the various permission slips, all of which cost a lot of money – especially if you haven’t actually made any. yet.

It is no longer worth it for a ten-year-old child to set up a lemon aid stall in this country because of the costs involved. Imagine what it would cost to get all your ducks in a row to legally run a car factory in this Soviet country.

In other countries, compliance costs are lower – and that’s why is worth producing vehicles outside the United States and importing them into the United States. This is why General Motors, Ford and Ram trucks are produced across the border in Mexico. Labor costs are obviously lower there too – and that’s part of the problem that Trump doesn’t seem to understand. They are high partly because everything costs so much here, so it doesn’t pay to work in car manufacturing unless it pays more. But that’s because the government has made everything so expensive that the working class can barely afford to live – even if they work.

Auto workers in Mexico are not paid as much as their counterparts in the United States, but they live better because it costs less to buy things like vehicles in Mexico, where you can buy a car. abundance of cheap (less than $20,000) brand new vehicles that Americans cannot buy in the United States, not because they are “unsafe” or “polluting,” but just because they are not cooperative.

And that costs.

Speaking of which: It’s interesting – revealing – that both Trump and Biden are in favor of making it more expensive to buy an electric car by slapping huge tariffs on what are otherwise extremely affordable (under $10,000) electric vehicles would be, like that of everyone who lives in it China can buy. Americans are not allowed to buy them. Why? If there is one existential crisis that urgently requires a transition to ‘clean’ electric cars, why are both sides of the same coin in favor of making it more expensive for people of modest means to buy one?

Never mind.

And they ask me why I drink.

. . .

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