That New Car Feeling
Well, a portion of the inheritance from my parents arrived. I gave myself a small amount and the wife. Money that wasn’t spoken for in other ways.
The last few times I’ve needed a rental car, I’ve gotten a current version of my Toyota Tacoma. Every time I came away wishing I had a new truck.
Then a few days after getting back in my truck, I would realize that I didn’t want a new Truck. What I wanted was the new radio/head end.
So that’s what I got. A serious upgrade, It is an Alpine unit with Android Auto. I will be able to get in the truck and when I turn on the unit, it will hook up and give me navigation, calls, and music. Life is nice.
And for much less than a month’s payments on a new truck.
Boy they last a long time
In 1967, my parents bought a VW Microbus. It had hauling capacity that a standard station wagon did not. It was the equivalent of today’s mom van.
At the time, most cars were getting an astonishing 5 to 7 MPG. The VW got 20MPG. Given the amount of travel we did, this likely made a difference.
They gave me that car when I turned 16. I drove it until 1987 when I traded it in.
At the time I traded it in, it was on its third engine, its second gas tank, it didn’t have a working speedometer. The floor was nearly rusted through. Hell, it was rusted through. The aux. heater hadn’t worked in years. The main heater wouldn’t even defrost the windshields.
The bumper was a replacement that my brother wielded up out of diamond tread.
In short, it was at the end of its life. A year after I traded it in, I saw somebody driving it around town.
My truck is 15 years old. At 15 it is in better condition than that VW was at 10. It is still on its first engine. There is no rust on it. I expect it to keep going for at least another 5 years.
Lawfare
We keep moving closer and closer to the administration telling the courts to pound sand until the Supreme Court Rules.
It is sickening how inferior courts can find their way to always rule against trump.
A stat I heard was that between 1900 and 1999, there were 22 nationwide injunctions issued. There were 87 issued against Trump in his first term.
I believe I heard that there have been 30 so far in his second term.
People Fall For This?
I had numerous ads pop up because I purchased some computer stuff direct from China. Would you believe that you can buy a 2023 GMC Sierra for only $1,500? Sounds too good to be true.
Looking at the listing, they only accept payment via Western Union or wire transfers. Yeah, too good to be true.
And This
A friend ordered a DVD he had been searching for over the last 5 years. It arrived. New In Box.
Except it was just the box and book. No DVD. Amazon seller who was long gone by the time my friend received his package.
Amazon is covering the costs, but still…
Tariffs
I spent the last two weeks adding tariff processing to a B2B e-commerce website. The Canadian was just frustrated at the extra work for him and having to finally track tariffs. He had just been eating the cost of tariffs for years, a part of doing business.
In the meantime, I’ve been told that Trump’s tariffs are going to cost me thousands of dollars per year.
I’ve watched videos of leaders in other countries say, “We aren’t going to take this from the USA!”
One article pointed out that Vietnam has tariffs on the $10B they import from the US. Trump has put tariffs on the $150B we import from Vietnam. Isn’t it stupid that he did this to them?
Question of the Week
If the United States putting tariffs on imports is so bad, why is it good when other countries put tariffs on our goods.
What do you think of this entire tariff thing?
Comments
2 responses to “Friday Feedback”
I think the tariff problem is one of short term versus long term. In the short term, the tariffs Trump has put in place are going to suck. My favorite whiskey is Canadian, and I won’t be buying it with the kind of tariff that got put into it. It sucks, but there are plenty of other whiskeys and locally made wines, so I’ll just switch to that. No tariffs involved in local stuff, after all.
And that’s the long term. For the first little while, manufacturers who’ve relied on cheap materials from China and Taiwan are going to be hit with these huge tariffs. Costs are going to go up, and so prices are going to go up for us, the consumer. Those manufacturers have to decide whether they can find American goods for cheaper than Chineseum, or whether they want to just up their prices forever. Most are going to try and find cheaper American alternatives, and that’s good for our whole economy.
That in between point, though, where no one in America is making the widget that’s needed and so it MUST be bought from another country, is the breaking point for anyone who can’t delay gratification. I can look at Product X and say, “I’ll wait until 2027 to get that, because by then the American manufacturing plants will be working and the price will come down.” I will patch together the X I’m currently using, and make do. The ones who can’t delay gratification will panic, freak out, and demand their new toy RIGHT NOW.
Budgeting is always unpopular. It’s doubly so for those who can’t delay gratification. And most of the current generation can’t delay gratification. They’re used to movies and shows on demand, print on demand, coffee on demand, work on demand, holidays on demand. They ask and they get, because frankly, it’s been easier than saying no and dealing with the temper tantrums. Trump’s being the big daddy, and he’s put his foot down and said NO. Tantrum time. *shrug*
Which Alpine did you get?
I am looking into a new car head unit, and Alpine has always been a solid unit. Curious which model you picked up. My selection is a bit limited because I am adamant it has to play CDs. (Yeah… I am old…)
As to tariffs, there is a LOT of panicking right now, but this will settle down. Quickly in my opinion.
Other countries have been placing tariffs on our goods for decades, but the US for some reason thought it was more important to save the average consumer a few pennies, than to remain competitive in the world market. Why do you think we started moving to a “service economy” a few decades ago? Because the unbalanced nature of tariffs between the US and other countries made it easier and cheaper to make things on other countries and import them. (Yes, there are a LOT of other factors, but seriously…)
Give it a few weeks. First of all, the markets will recover because right now, stocks are on sale. In a few days, people will start buying, and buying big. Next, the countries that start seeing their products start piling up might start playing ball a bit with the USA. And, finally, tariffs are a great international negotiating tool. Let the guy who wrote the book on the art of the deal work it for a bit.
And, the lawfare. Yeah… the number of injunctions placed against Trump in his first term were ridiculous, and it looks like his second term will make the first look like child’s play. And, the fun bit is most of them fall apart on appeal. Trump is, for the most part, on the right side of the law.