The cost of Chinese parts going up..

[91stranger]

I don't get into politics much unless guns get involved but I gotta say America is a "throw away" nation anymore. When something breaks, throw it away and buy it for dirt cheap from china. That's a big problem with things being so cheap that when it does break people don't get mad that it broke and just toss it. Where as if you spent the extra money it won't break and won't end up in a landfill. Landfills can only get so big. You can only recycle so much. You can't keep pushing 10 pounds of shit into a 5 pound bag. I would rather spend $15 on something made in America and will most likely last a lifetime than $5 for a Chinese disposable. I think we are doing the right thing by trying to keep American companies open rather than paying for child labor from china. I think it's funny that China has to pay us for rice. They are more worried about their multi-million military than they are their own economy. If we shut China down completely they would be in deep shit. Yes we owe them money but that doesn't mean they are getting it. That would eventually lead to a war and they don't have the economy to support a war. You have to have people to have a war, people need food, and china doesn't even have the land to make their own food. I say good riddance to china junk. Chinese metal ain't worth a f**k either. Ever notice how easily new metal breaks where as your grandpa's pry bar will never break? china stuff is cheap for a reason. We all heard the saying "you get what you pay for" and there is real meaning to it more and more everyday.

 

[Bird76Mojo]

The people that caused the problem have been dead a long time.

Now everybody just saves it for the next guy to deal with.

This couldn't be further from the truth.

The $22 TRILLION DOLLAR national debt amounts to way more than the combined cost of World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and NASA's entire space program since it started.

Ronald Reagan increased the national debt $1.8 trillion
Bill Clinton added $1.5 trillion
George W. Bush added $4.9 trillion
Obama added $9 trillion
Trump added $2 trillion so far

Only the math isn't really that simple. Each president inherits the previous administrations budget plan. It affects his entire term and what he adds to the national debt, whether his term is 4 years or 8 years..

And now, the military industrial complex is eyeing Iran as our next military target to (artificially) keep our economy afloat. Our government and the military industrial complex has succeeded in making war one of the largest driving forces that keeps our country solvent. There's a reason that Dwight D Eisenhower warned the US public about the MIC and limiting it's power, and no one listened.. America has been at war 93% of the time since it's founding in 1776. That's 222 years of war out of 239 years. The US has only been at peace for a total of 21 years in it's entire history. The Great Depression added most of those peacetime years.





As with all things in economic studies, the numbers do vary some, but this graphic shows us quite a bit.

China is, and will continue to be, a global superpower that continues to grow in both wealth and influence. China already owns enough farmland in the US that if combined, equals an area larger than the state of Tennessee. And that's only the portion that we know about. International buyers have bought up over 25 million acres of US farmland. China now controls more than 400 US farms, 33 US food processing plants, and one out of every four hogs in the United States. This is largely due to the 2013 deal when a Chinese company dubbed Shuanghui (now called WH Group Limited) nabbed the largest US pork producer, Smithfield Company. The estimated $4.72 billion sale secured Chinese buyers with more than 100,000 acres of US farmland, among other things.

I saw an estimate around 5-10 years ago that if you combine farmland, pumped-dry oil land sold to Saudis by the Bush family, etc, that there was a minimum of 7% of all US land that was foreign owned. So when someone says "they own us" that person isn't really wrong..

Some states, like Iowa, have outlawed selling farmland to foreign buyers to protect their resources. The director of the National Young Farmers Coalition, warns that states without such laws may soon face a dilemma. The median age of the American farmer is 55, and it is anticipated that in the next five years, about 92,000,000 acres will go up for sale. Shute is concerned that the rising prices will push out farmers, paving the way for investors: “With two-thirds of our nation’s farmland set to change hands in the next few decades, we cannot afford to see the price of farmland driven up beyond what a working farmer can compete with.

 

[Bird76Mojo]

You can't say "no" to China in any way whatsoever. Their economy drives ours, and the entire global market system. If ours crashes, theirs crashes, and vice versa. So you can't "shut China down" and put them "in deep shit" without screwing yourself over in the process. The dollar would collapse and it would trigger the start of another Great Depression that would far exceed the original Great depression in scope.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

You can find all kinds of charts that show all kinds of things.

i don't see farmland prices getting too far out of hand with $3 corn and $8 beans.

I have a Chinese water pump sitting on my counter at work waiting for a shipping label in the mail. POS wasn't put together right, farmer lost three days of planting and we got to eat a service call... but at least it was cheap right?

 

[Bird76Mojo]

Your graphic just further proves my point. The military industrial complex will never cease to increase our national debt, and it keeps our economy afloat.

Prime farmland around here can go as high as 12.5K per acre. I'd say that's a little out of control for your average farmer... The small guy has been priced out of the market already. Foreign investors can easily afford it at this point, with their economy/dollar being stronger than ours, and it being their only option to buy land that can produce the food they so desperately need..

Oh, and get ready for those soybean prices to tank on us. There will be an extreme excess this year throughout the midwest. Guys that were lucky enough to grow corn this year and get a decent bushel count per acre should be raking it in..

 

[stmitch]

You can't say "no" to China in any way whatsoever. Their economy drives ours, and the entire global market system. If ours crashes, theirs crashes, and vice versa. So you can't "shut China down" and put them "in deep shit" without screwing yourself over in the process. The dollar would collapse and it would trigger the start of another Great Depression that would far exceed the original Great depression in scope.

WWII set the stage for the world as we know it today. After the war, the US got together with most of the developed nations and formed an agreement (partly to help Europe/Japan rebuild, and partly to fight the rise of communist nations). This agreement (Bretton Woods) essentially said that the world needed global trade because all of the countries needed something from one another. The US would provide the security to facilitate that global trade with it's large, intact military. Everything worked (fairly) well for decades, but the US no longer needs global trade to survive. It can grow enough food to feed it's people, etc. It used to need oil from the Middle East, but the US is now a net exporter of petroleum products. At this point, global trade for the US is just about getting stuff we want, not stuff we need to stay alive, and that's different from every other developed country on the planet (except perhaps Russia). That's tremendous negotiating leverage in the right hands, and it gives the US the chance to renegotiate trade deals to be more favorable for the US and align more with the current geopolitical situation than the past environments. The reason China is racing/mandating their way into electrification and green energy infrastructure faster than anyone is because they know they need to gain energy independence themselves to re-level the playing field with the US from a geopolitical perspective.

The US economy is still the largest economy on the globe by a wide margin. Pretty much all other economies lean on the US economy to varying degrees. The US GDP is currently more than 7 TRILLION larger than China's, while having a population about 1/3rd the size of China. A huge part of Chinese economic survival revolves around the US buying their products. They are far more dependent on trade than the US is at this point.
Tariffs or not, the Chinese economy has been slowing faster than expected in recent months, and the US-China trade deficit is currently at it's lowest point in 5 years. Many companies are also beginning to see some better IP protection begin to take shape. There are probably far more factors here than just tariffs of course, but I think they do play a role, and on the surface it appears that they may be having some positive effect from a US perspective.

Consider:

 

[Bird76Mojo]

China has one major thing going for them. They don't owe 78% of their total GDP in national debt...

The fact is, you can't do anything that affects China in a negative way without our own dollar tanking. The global markets are tied together much too deeply at this point.

 

[stmitch]

Right, but what I'm saying is that in that event China can't support itself and more or less dies. They can't easily recover from that. They're twice as dependent on exporting goods as the US. Their economy is too dependent on trade (especially with 18% of their exports going to the US, and their need to buy oil from the Middle East) to withstand that loss. The US can support itself, and while it would be hurt dramatically, it could survive without trade at all. But the US would still trade in that scenario with other countries that aren't China. Mexico, Canada, Japan, etc would still be strong trading partners.

The US, even with it's huge national debt, still has a higher credit rating than China. It's seen as a better, more stable place for investment money which is a big reason why Chinese nationals continue to invest in North American real estate. They're not necessarily trying to buy up America for nefarious reasons as much as they're trying to shelter their money from their own government while getting some kind of return (even if it's not very good).

There are tons of things that you can look at and be concerned about. The sky is always falling somewhere. Control what you can control and don't sweat the rest.

 

[Bracket racer]

Mitch, don't bring facts into it, the sky is falling for bird and nothing anyone says will contradict his gloom and doom.
There are always corrections in everything, Trump is correcting a lot not by directly sanctioning. (although he's doing that too) he's setting the us up for future prosperity through oil production etc.

Any nation will rise or fall in spite of what all the "predictors" state, all it takes is a concerted effort to make their country the benefactor in every trade deal, war negotiation, fiscal policy implemented. If the us "got hungry" again and was willing to do whatever it takes to put any issue behind them, it would work. We are all to "fat, dumb, and lazy" to see or care about any perceived threat. Take away fresh water or food or even oil and the nation rises to the occasion. We have been without an occasion since 911, everyone came together and put differences aside for the common good.

 

[Bird76Mojo]

Mitch, don't bring facts into it, the sky is falling for bird and nothing anyone says will contradict his gloom and doom.
There are always corrections in everything, Trump is correcting a lot not by directly sanctioning. (although he's doing that too) he's setting the us up for future prosperity through oil production etc.

Any nation will rise or fall in spite of what all the "predictors" state, all it takes is a concerted effort to make their country the benefactor in every trade deal, war negotiation, fiscal policy implemented. If the us "got hungry" again and was willing to do whatever it takes to put any issue behind them, it would work. We are all to "fat, dumb, and lazy" to see or care about any perceived threat. Take away fresh water or food or even oil and the nation rises to the occasion. We have been without an occasion since 911, everyone came together and put differences aside for the common good.

Until you can bring some actual real world evidence, and examples of past US economic policies and their results to the conversation, everything you've said so far is meaningless and ignorant. Nothing you've said is based on any real facts. Just feel good Trumper bullshit.

 

[Bracket racer]

Lol, I told you I didn't vote for him, but you just made it very clear who you did vote for. "Trumper" lol, you're funny. Spew your doom and gloom ( and apparent anti trump shit) and I'll just carry on in a booming economy with super low unemployment for every single sector. Life's too short to look at every glass half empty, I can post stats that show 91% of people who died in WW2 wore combat boots = combat boots cause death. Stats and all the "pro's" said your hero would win 99%! Yeah, how did that work out for you?

I'm done here, in my spare time I'm going to work on my ranger and come on here for advice/instruction. What I am not going to do is spend hours researching "facts" to win an Internet argument. You say the world is going to hell in a hand basket, ok, fine, cry in your beer. I'm making more money this year then I ever have in my life and have decided to retire June 2020 at 55yo. Both my boys are financially secure with excellent paying jobs.....bbbbbut that could change! Yup, sure could, but they have the tools and confidence and internal fortitude to remain "well off".

Carry on with your pity party, call me names, whatever, I've got work to do. (Even writing this wasted more of my time than I should of allowed, but you deserve it lol)

 

[fastpakr]

FYI - political discussion really belongs in the tailgate. If this keeps trending that direction, one of the mods will move it over there.

 

[Bird76Mojo]

Lol, I told you I didn't vote for him, but you just made it very clear who you did vote for. "Trumper" lol, you're funny. Spew your doom and gloom ( and apparent anti trump shit) and I'll just carry on in a booming economy with super low unemployment for every single sector. Life's too short to look at every glass half empty, I can post stats that show 91% of people who died in WW2 wore combat boots = combat boots cause death. Stats and all the "pro's" said your hero would win 99%! Yeah, how did that work out for you?

I'm done here, in my spare time I'm going to work on my ranger and come on here for advice/instruction. What I am not going to do is spend hours researching "facts" to win an Internet argument. You say the world is going to hell in a hand basket, ok, fine, cry in your beer. I'm making more money this year then I ever have in my life and have decided to retire June 2020 at 55yo. Both my boys are financially secure with excellent paying jobs.....bbbbbut that could change! Yup, sure could, but they have the tools and confidence and internal fortitude to remain "well off".

Carry on with your pity party, call me names, whatever, I've got work to do. (Even writing this wasted more of my time than I should of allowed, but you deserve it lol)

You really are clueless. You don't know who I voted for. You don't know what party I'm affiliated with. Nice try Poindexter. lmao!

I never said "the world is going to hell in a hand basket" so please stop putting words in my mouth and shut yours until you can back up your nonsense with facts.

So, let's get this straight. Because my opinion of a countries' economy is different than yours, and I try to provide facts and research material to back up those opinions, I "deserve" things.. Riiiiight...

Go on, try to brag a little more. Everyone on the internet loves a braggart. It makes you THE COOLEST!





Now.... Back to the parts discussion. I had a cart full of A/C parts on RockAuto and thought I'd start doing price comparisons to see if I could save any decent amount of money. I Googled every part number and in every instance, Amazon listed them far cheaper, plus they all qualified for free shipping. So I ended up putting all of the same parts in the cart at Amazon. While waiting for other parts to come in, in three days the cost on over half of those parts has increased in price so much that RockAuto, even with shipping, is the better option. Some of the parts at Amazon have doubled in price in just three days.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Now.... Back to the parts discussion. I had a cart full of A/C parts on RockAuto and thought I'd start doing price comparisons to see if I could save any decent amount of money. I Googled every part number and in every instance, Amazon listed them far cheaper, plus they all qualified for free shipping. So I ended up putting all of the same parts in the cart at Amazon. While waiting for other parts to come in, in three days the cost on over half of those parts has increased in price so much that RockAuto, even with shipping, is the better option. Some of the parts at Amazon have doubled in price in just three days.

IMO you dodged a bullet, I went Amazon for my steering stuff.

Took a week and half for everything to trickle in (with free freight) and every box was crushed. The adjuster sleeves were just in padded envelopes, one tie rod wasn't even the right brand, the other had come of its box (the big inner one tie rod) and somehow luckily didn't crush the other stuff in the order it was boxed with as it was flopping around in the box.

I was less than impressed, usually Rockauto is here within 5 business days and is always packed well.

 

[Bill]

IMO you dodged a bullet, I went Amazon for my steering stuff.

Took a week and half for everything to trickle in (with free freight) and every box was crushed. The adjuster sleeves were just in padded envelopes, one tie rod wasn't even the right brand, the other had come of its box (the big inner one tie rod) and somehow luckily didn't crush the other stuff in the order it was boxed with as it was flopping around in the box.

I was less than impressed, usually Rockauto is here within 5 business days and is always packed well.

Rock Auto doesn't pack the products. That's done at whatever warehouse the parts are coming from. I think the crushed boxes are the result of UPS and FedEX using "independent delivery contractors." My last Rockauto order was delivered by one of these nutjobs. I heard what sounded like someone from the street yell, "HEADS UP," then a loud bang on the security screen door. When I went to the door I didn't see anything because the box bounced off the door and rolled under the bushes. The box was smashed like an accordion. Anyway, that is how packages are delivered these days.