So yeah, we’re raising massive tariff’s on Chinese manufactured goods, and yeah, a lot of them have to do with toys and park merch (and popcorn buckets) and it means such things will cost more to get to these shores. But DOES that obligate a huge price rise where your rubber hits their road? Alarmists tell you yes. I’m here to say it ain’t necessarily so.
Let’s consider the “action figure” as an example of this kind of item. IF you make it in Chinese sweatshop labor conditions, the people doing the grunt molding, assembly, and packaging work are getting the equivalent of about 50 cents an hour U.S. IF you made it in American factories that’d be minimum wage at least so say $15/hr more or less—clearly a huge difference.
Rows of Rainbow Pride Star Wars toys at Disney's Cast Connection
BUT…does all of that difference HAVE to go onto the eventual retail pricetag? OF course not. IF the average retail of such a figure is about $30-$40 or so for a good one (varying greatly on size, detail, and of course IP license costs) then between the factor, the shipping costs (transported by the containerload, not individually of course and that savings is not a tariff issue at all) the middlemen/distributors and the eventual retailers) have a LOT of room within the current price where they have been used to making a pretty MASSIVE profit margin thanks to that labor cost disparity. Add in the tariffs and you shrink that profit but nothing says you have to make it all back.
Here’s the reality that way too many people who oppose the tariffs don’t get: These multi-million dollar companies have been avoiding US labor laws, minimum wage and taxes for DECADES and benefiting from virtual (and in some cases, actual) slave labor in foreign sweatshops. And anyone who is upset that now their cheap plastic toys are now going to cost more as a result of the US finally addressing these unfair practices, better NEVER express an opinion about labor laws, unions, or “living wages” because they have literally been complacent in, and responsible for, the slavery and nightmare working conditions in those countries, too. Oh, and I also don’t want to hear them complaining about the past sins of slavery in this country, either, because what they are doing RIGHT NOW is worse. Oh, and “tax the rich?” They can shove that up their afterburners, too, because “the rich” are these exact companies they are supporting who offshore their manufacturing to avoid taxes. It’s about time there was a huge correction in the global market. If the toy and game companies want to keep selling in the US, they better start moving their factories back here. Otherwise, they can try to sell their overpriced plastic tchotchkes in the countries they’re being made – you know, where they can’t even afford to feed themselves.
The tariffs are a painful necessity just like cracking a broken bone back into place before splinting it. It has to be done before recovery can begin. I see a lot of people, like Wiley Miller the cartoonist that draws Non Sequitur, whining about them. I can’t say for certain things will get better because there are plenty of petty assholes in every government who might decide to cut off their country’s nose to spite their face. But what I’m seeing so far is very encouraging despite the coming hump as jobs and industry are brought back to the US.
If enough countries turn on China and collapse their efforts to take over global trade, so much the better.