Posted on 03/03/2018 11:11:12 AM PST by SeekAndFind
It's amazing. Even a topic as dry as tariffs gets the press's bias wheels turning. Here's one example, from Reuters:
Toyota Motor Corp said on Friday U.S. tariffs on imported steel and aluminum would substantially raise costs and therefore prices of cars and trucks sold in America.
"The (U.S.) Administration's decision to impose substantial steel and aluminum tariffs will adversely impact automakers, the automotive supplier community and consumers," the automaker told Reuters.
Toyota added that more than 90 percent of the steel and aluminum purchased for cars built in the United States is sourced from the country.
Substantially? In making this claim, somehow, the reporter did not ask Toyota what the substantial cost increase would be. I would think that would be a valuable piece of information, since the average price of a car or truck today is around $36,000. So I thought I would do some research to find what "substantial" means.
The current price of steel is around $800 per ton, and the price of aluminum is 97 cents per pound. The average car uses around one ton of steel and close to 400 pounds of aluminum. The average truck uses around one and one half tons of steel and just under 400 pounds of aluminum.
So if the price of the steel in a car went up the whole 25%, which it won't, and the price of aluminum went up the entire 10%, the cost would go up by about $240, or less than five tenths of a percent. The cost of a truck would go up around $340. According to Edmunds, the average car loan today is six and a half years. or 78 months, so the average payment would be up around $3 per month.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
OHMYGOSH....facts that support tariffs! And this doesn’t include the effect that more good-paying US jobs will have on local economies.
Doesn’t anyone in Washington buy groceries? Inflation has been here a long time.
Why does an American have to rely on slave labor in foreign countries in order to buy a car?
The press didn’t have a problem with team Obama doubling the debt but this drives them crazy?
Too many unknown factors and unkown company policy decisions to know how this all plays out. If I had to bet the increase in prices will only be modest across the board.
There's the problem right there.
The cost of a new car has escalated dramatically because most people don't buy cars at all ... they buy a car loan. See the correlation between mortgages and home prices for an exact parallel.
No. But it’s not going to work either.
“Car loan”....
Correct. If you wanna turn some criticism towards somebody, the “banksters” are the ones.
It would raise the cost of a six pack of beer by 1 cent!
exactly - the problem with trade is dishonest money. Create honest money and the trade issues will go away.
Our trade troubles began when Nixon pulled us off the gold standard in 1971.
End the Fed.
Wow. All the prople whose opinions I think are junk are against steel tariffs. Must be a good idea.
Hey, cars are expensive bc of Fed Mandates like fancy back up cameras on entry level models. Let us look there for price reductions if these people are suddenly interested in making cars affordable again.
So if the price of the steel in a car went up the whole 25%, which it won't, and the price of aluminum went up the entire 10%, the cost would go up by about $240, or less than five tenths of a percent. The cost of a truck would go up around $340. According to Edmunds, the average car loan today is six and a half years. or 78 months, so the average payment would be up around $3 per month.
Thanks SeekAndFind.
There is a much bigger concern than inflation. For our national security we need to make our own steel, not depend on a strategic enemy.
Nooooooooooooooo I cant pay a penny more for a six pack. Oh wait..... the aluminum manufacturing dude from next door bought a case of beer and brought it over so we can watch the game and get s-faced yelling at our screen made in Wisconsin. MAGA.
Not any more than the Obama Tariffs did 2 years ago.
We have become a nation ruled by mamby pamby cowards.
Why not simply a 100% tariff on anything from China. They need us more that we need them. Why pay for their military and growth?
Well, if people want to pay more for everything they consume, a tariff war is a good way to get that accomplished.
The increase in the price of steel and aluminum isn’t the big problem. Instead it’s the inevitable retaliation that’s bound to occur.
If you want to turn the red states blue, starting a tariff war that ends with other countries putting tariffs on American farm products is an excellent way to do so.
Trump would be better advised to single out specific anti-trade policies of our trading partners and then negotiating better terms. Tariffs are a terrible idea that will inevitably hurt American consumers as well as any producers affected by retaliatory tariffs from abroad.
And as long as non-threatening countries have plenty of steel and aluminum to sell us, the national security argument is weakened also.
If China is the sole supplier of a commodity, or threatens to become the sole supplier, then just put a quota on how much of that product can be imported from anywhere and let domestic producers fill the gap, even if they have to build capacity to do so.
Sure, raise the price of consumer goods to Americans. Great idea, if you want to see a Democrat rout in the upcoming elections.
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