How Long?

[Rideback]

Pal, that is the post Jim made, there is no article.

[mister_coffee]

Also left unsaid is how long it will replace our soybean production (mostly for export) with things we import (like avocados and strawberries).

I predict that someone could make a fortune inventing synthetic guacamole made from soybeans.

[PAL]

Fox News is complicit in keeping people who watch it in denial. Hard lessons will be learned...or not. Is there a link for this article?

[Rideback]

"How long does it take to build a car factory?
There's a Ford factory, called the BlueOval SK Battery Park, that's been under construction about 50 miles south of Louisville off I-65 for about the last 5 years. It's a $5.8 billion investment. It's not done yet.
That's one factory (well, it's two actually but just go with me) for batteries. Electric vehicles.
So, how long will it take to move the REST of the auto industry back to the US?
How long?
How long to build the factories from the ground up? Land. Permits. Infrastructure. The BlueOval plant I mentioned above will use Gigawatts of power. They had to build transmission lines and increase electrical generation. They had to build new roads including a massive multimillion dollar exit/entrance exchange onto I-65. They had to build train tracks, do you know what that takes? They still have to build the supply lines, including importing raw materials from outside the US, that's ships, port improvements and transportation overland. They have to hire and train 5000 workers.
How long does that take?
A day?
A week?
Years?
That plant and others like it are part of a decades long strategy and investment by Ford.
How long will it take OTHER manufacturers starting from square one? How long will it take to move production when the manufacturer hadn't planned for it or budgeted for it and the economy is in the crapper and they're laying off people and the price of cars is way up, inflation is up, the stock market is tanking, you think the banks are going to hand out the BILLIONS they'll need to borrow? Do you really?
And the parts will still be made overseas, or most of them anyway. Unless you're planning on moving all the subsidiary industry too, everything from electronics to glass to textiles to rubber to paint, et al, yeah? How long will THAT take? Show me the plan. What's that? You haven't even thought about it, let alone drawn up a plan, generated a budget, put together a project team? Huh.
How long will it take?
It's not just cars, of course. It's everything else too. How long will it take to move appliance and electronics manufacturing back to the US? Assuming you actually could.
How long to increase domestic food production? Expand the farms that are currently being sold off field by field for new cookie cutter housing developments? Hire farm workers and you can't use migrant labor, right? And you can't grow certain things here, like coffee and chocolate and bananas, or not all year around like corn, strawberries, tomatoes, etc, those food items used to be seasonal but now Americans can buy them all year around and are used to doing so. That's over. No amount of domestic farming can grow tomatoes at commercial volume in the middle of a Michigan winter. So, you'll eat canned or do without. Speaking of which, think about all those toppings you enjoy on a pizza, where do they come from and can you grow them all here in the US all year around? Now, multiple that problem by everything else. Go ahead.
And so on.
So, how long?
You notice Trump doesn't tell you THAT, right?
You DID notice that Trump didn't tell you how long. And that's by design.
Trump didn't tell you how long will it take.
Because THAT'S how long these tariffs would have to last.
And that's the part he very much doesn't want you to think about.
THAT's how long this trade war would need to go on to make any long term improvement and to actually achieve the goals Trump says are his objective.
THAT'S how long this "little bit of pain" Trump says we must suffer will have to go on. Not a week or month or even a year, but DECADES. Assuming the global economy, or the American one, doesn't implode first, and cause you vastly MORE pain.
You willing to make that sacrifice?
You willing to make that sacrifice so billionaires can have a tax break and grow even more wealthy? It's not like they're going to suffer any pain as the price of groceries go up. It might cost them a couple thousand more to fill up the tanks on their yachts and stock their cupboards with imported Russian caviar, but they'll never be counting pennies to feed their kids. You willing to suffer YEARS of pain for Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk are you?
You willing to suffer pain for Trump?
How long do you think you can hold out?"
Stonekettle Station.