The damage done to our markets is multifaceted.

First, uneducated (and uninformed) consumers, who don't value quality, nearly always gravitate towards the cheaper alternative. These are the ones where everything boils down to face value dollars and cents - you know the type, "How much was that... what did that cost...oh I can get that much cheaper from China etc.

It's been a "race to the bottom" on so many fronts, and it's only compounded as the gravy train if cheap imports evolved. It started with dollar stores and hoarding. Cheap bullshit for children's parties, gift bags, matching plates and everything for dirt cheap. Then it crept into just about every other retail market - where in many cases people were just hoarding shit they really didn't need, simply because it was "too cheap to pass up... so I bought 8..." It became a drug.

Then just about ANYTHING you could ever want - including OBSCURE specialty tools - could be had for a fraction of what the original would cost you. In some cases it wasn't a big deal, because you'd never buy the real McCoy anyway - since it'd only see occasional use, but in many cases, the original manufacturer was completely bypassed and Americans became cheerleaders for some of these industrial/commercial tools (practically tongue bathing the Chinese agent who helped broker the deal) - and American tool makers repeatedly got kicked in the teeth. It didn't matter that American tools were better and longer lasting, it all boiled down to how cheap everything was ... and with really no tech support on this end, a few learned their lesson the hard way... but things improved.

Now, due to dollar stores, not so cheap anymore average quality Chinese shit, many American tool makers went out if business or are severely hurting. Same with many other sectors of the markets - yeah there's still some cheap crap to be had, but it's not like it was 10 years ago - but the damage to the MENTALITY of your average consumer is done. Most, who don't work with their hands or produce ANYTHING AT ALL tangible, because they push paper or resell Chinese shit - have absolutely NO CLUE what it takes to make ANYTHING.

They have no idea what the material alone costs producers in this country - at jobber price even - and they clutch their pearls when you quote them on custom work. "Oh jeez .. I know you have overhead and everything, but I thought it'd be closer to like fifty bucks" pfft ...dude, I ain't getting out if my pajamas for less than $150. Taxes, regulations, insurance, not to mention supplies and consumables etc - Most people are WAY out of touch. I blame both govt officials that were SUPPOSED to be protecting us from foreign imports ("garage bands/weekend warriors" are getting their side hustles squashed by chinky home goods too!) - AND I blame the middleman WHORES who took designs to be made overseas instead of here, to keep their community working.

Now EVERYTHING is hollowed out - SO MUCH TALENT has been lost from lack of use or because nobody wanted to pay a fair wage when they could have a pajeet do the artwork or drawing for a few dollars and chang will have a couple 5 year olds make it with their feet. The war against the white man is real and it's come from every direction... including within.

While I think these tariffs are a step in the right direction, they're certainly not the entire solution. Don't ask me how we're going to fix people's warped sense of what things are worth or get them to understand that you can't live in America on Chinese slave wages. It just doesn't work that way... AND add to that how they're literally killing us with our own tax dollars and funding the competition! Something has to give - ESPECIALLY on the grassroots level - main Street or whatever. A LOT of good Americans who WANT TO BE PRODUCTIVE have been kicked in the balls repeatedly for a long, long time.

I want to see things change in the work department for US as in YOU, ME our neighbors and especially their kids - who won't ever own a house at the current rate things are going. I feel a return to American quality, heirloom goods might just be our only viable solution going forward. Things that last. Enough of the disposable shit - things that are robust, serviceable and things that proudly display, Made in the USA - like it means something. We have a LOT of talented people here just itching to produce... but it takes support from within.

I dunno... maybe I'm the ahole... I always bought and still do, American vehicles. I did my research, knowing which is the "best bet" for reliability and so far, I've done well. I always think about my fellow Americans - and keeping them working. It's not the 70s/80s anymore. Japanese and Korean shit breaks just as much as anything else now. I just towed my friend's tundra with my Chevy last week after it died...case in point. People need to understand that making things here AND buying things here, only helps them in the long run. Who's going to sponsor little league, the CCP? Pfft ....