cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/28611045
gamers nexus just dropped a 3 hour video where they talk to various companies involved in the consumer PC space, some of whom really open up about their costs and economics and how operating in america just isnt feasible under the current tariffs
I’m still only a little over halfway through the documentary, but here are the main new things I’ve learned so far:
Even if all the uncertainty and instability stops right now (which it won’t, short of Trump being removed from office entirely), we are going to be absolutely fucked in 3-6 months not only with higher prices, but probably also outright shortages just because every business will have a big gap in their procurement pipeline due to the couple of weeks of uncertainty that already happened. And it’s not just going to be computer components; it’s going to be consumer goods of every kind.
Everything about this seems almost designed to murder small businesses.
Those with enough capital backing, resources and funds can take the hit, maybe cut some expenses, shedding crocodile tears about how terrible the economic impact of this trade war has affected them while dispassionately watching scores of no-longer-employees pack their things and try to figure out how to tell their kids that the promised trip next month they’d been looking forward to all year is cancelled.
Edit: This might have been ambiguous. I was trying to highlight how big corporations can survive by doing what big business does to protect the bottom line. Small businesses, obviously, can’t do that.
Kind of splitting hairs, but a company that can let go of “scores” of employees and still exist is not a small business.
That was my point, actually, expanding on the previous point of the policy being designed to kill small businesses. The big corps can do that, pretending to be ever so regretful about the firings, while small ones face insolvency.