Slashdot Mirror
'Why PC Builders Should Stock Up on Components Now' (pcmag.com)
Michael Kan, writing for PCMag: NZXT is a popular PC desktop case vendor, but the California-based company recently had to raise its prices. The reason? The new US tariffs on Chinese imports includes PC cases. In September, the Trump administration imposed the 10 percent duty, which also cover motherboards, graphics cards, and CPU coolers from the country. As a result, NZXT had to introduce a 10 percent price increase on PC cases to deal with the added costs, VP Jim Carlton told PCMag in an interview.
And building a PC could get even more expensive in 2019; US tariffs on Chinese-made goods will rise from 10 percent to 25 percent in January. "If I needed to build a system in the next six months, I'd definitely build it before the end of the year," Carlton told us. For PC builders, the tariffs risk adding a few hundred dollars to the total cost of components for a custom desktop. "If it's a $2,000 purchase on 25 percent tariffs, it's going to be a $2,500 purchase," Carlton said. "So we are very concerned with the direction of where this is going. I don't have a 10 percent [profit] margin I can just throw away and absorb the tariffs," he added. "And certainly no one has a margin for 25 percent."
And building a PC could get even more expensive in 2019; US tariffs on Chinese-made goods will rise from 10 percent to 25 percent in January. "If I needed to build a system in the next six months, I'd definitely build it before the end of the year," Carlton told us. For PC builders, the tariffs risk adding a few hundred dollars to the total cost of components for a custom desktop. "If it's a $2,000 purchase on 25 percent tariffs, it's going to be a $2,500 purchase," Carlton said. "So we are very concerned with the direction of where this is going. I don't have a 10 percent [profit] margin I can just throw away and absorb the tariffs," he added. "And certainly no one has a margin for 25 percent."
People often dislike tariffs because it means more expensive goods. But they don't stop to think about why those good are inexpensive.
It all pretty boils down to the fact that, even when accounting for the cost of living, youcould not take a factory building anything in the third world andbring it to the use because of.
1. Labor laws...minimum wage, working hours, overtime rules.
2. Government regulations...safety, healthcare, discrimination, etc.
3. Environmental laws...emissions, hazardous waste disposal, etc,
Most would agree that all these regulations and laws are for the good and that we don't want a steel plant in the US operating like it does in China.
However, the same people who don't want to have the dirty, dangerous manufacturing here are more than happy to have it somewhere else and then take advantage of the cheap prices. Hence, their opposition to tariffs.
When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
It's too bad that machined sheet metal is too difficult technically speaking for an American company to start producing. Whatever will we do?
Concern over hardware with a long supply chain like cpu's, mobo's, ram etc is one thing.. but something as stupidly simple to produce as a fucking metal box? come on.
Hopefully the outcome of these tariffs is that another country (maybe even the US?) will step up and start producing and supplying components. It is somewhat foolish to allow one single country to have a near total monopoly on something as important as electronics.
(But more than likely some enterprising individual will setup shop in Mexico or Canada; and import the goods from China, then just ship them across the border to avoid the tariff.)
You seemingly don't realize that this is just a tax on American citizens... There is no "American-made" alternative to most of these components, so it will serve only to raise the prices Americans are forced to pay while the countries of production don't notice a difference.
Concern over hardware with a long supply chain like cpu's, mobo's, ram etc is one thing.. but something as stupidly simple to produce as a fucking metal box? come on.
Sure, we know how to make cheap metal boxes in the US. That's never been a problem. The problem is the percentage of labor content that goes into producing cheap metal boxes and the cost of labor. Cheap metal boxes tend to be labor intensive to make unless you make those boxes in HUGE volumes. It's more economical to have them made in a country with cheap labor. China has cheap labor and the US does not. QED they get made in China and not the US.
Goods that are capital intensive are made in countries with high labor costs but access to cheap capital. The US has the cheapest cost of capital in the world so goods that have low labor content tend to be made here. Stuff like jumbo jets, earth moving equipment, cars, CPUs, chemicals, etc. The US has a manufacturing sector worth about $3 TRILLION annually which makes one of the 5 largest economies in the world - roughly the same size as the entire GDP of the UK or Germany. We make lots of stuff but we can't compete on cheap metal boxes just like China can't (currently) compete with the US on jumbo jets.
Any time you see an idiot politician (like Trump) promising to "bring back manufacturing jobs" to the US they are promising the impossible. The only way those "cheap metal boxes" will get produced here in the US is if we experience a massive reduction in wages to bring us close to those paid in China. No amount of tariffs will change that economic reality. I'm pretty sure you don't actually want such a fall in wages to happen. The good news is that as China becomes more prosperous their wages will rise and labor intensive production will leave China for other places with still cheaper labor. Already happens in some industries.
Meanwhile Trump's tax cut wasn't as big as folks think.
It was plenty big for certain people with several commas in their annual income. That isn't the real problem though. The real problem is that they cut taxes without cutting either Medicare/Medicaid or the defense budget or social security which together account for around 3/4 of federal spending. So we continue to accrue debt at a rate of nearly a $trillion per year with no end in sight which our children are going to have to pay off sooner or later. In 2017 we basically borrowed the entire defense department budget. ALL of it.
So enjoy the party while it lasts. Sooner or later the bills will come due and your children will "thank" you for it.
Sounds like a business opportunity to make PC cases in the US so Americans aren't 'forced' to buy Chinese shit.
Apparently you missed the past decade where big businesses has been positioning to transition to using south american cheap labor instead of southeast asian cheap labor.
"His name was James Damore."
Sounds like a business opportunity to make PC cases in the US so Americans aren't 'forced' to buy Chinese shit.
Go ahead and try since you think it is so easy. We can talk about how it went after your bankruptcy.
Here's a little clue for you though. The reason we don't make PC cases in the US has NOTHING to do with our technical ability to make such cases and has everything to do with the cost of labor and to a lesser extent cost of materials. We know how to make them but we cannot do it as cheaply as they can in China. No amount of tariffs will change that fact nor will they cause the supply chains for goods made in China to shift to the US in any substantial way.
You seemingly don't realize that increased cost will reduce demand AND create a market advantage to production of these items in the US.
Speaking as someone who actually makes products like this for a living including electronics that go into metal boxes, you could not be more wrong. If it reduces demand, it doesn't matter if the box is made in the US or China. The China+tariffs vs US made at the same price will not benefit US consumers. It means we are costing taxpayers a huge amount of money to support a tiny little industry with a handful of jobs. Explain to me the logic of making literally every PC purchased more expensive in order to gain a few hundred jobs in a niche industry? Tariffs are almost never a good idea and this is no exception.
Raise the price of steel to support the roughly 80k steel workers in the US and you raise the price of every car made which hurts 2 million auto workers + everyone who buys a car. You are robbing the many to benefit a few.
No, it's because China as the supply chains. A US designed GPU has to be combined with a large number of other parts to be useful, and they are all made in vast quantities in China. So either you ship them all to the US individually for assembly, or you make the GPU and assemble the card over there and ship the finished product.
Conditions in Chinese factories are actually pretty good for the most part. Demand from western manufacturers, a desire to be seen as high quality to get business from the west and the necessity of things like a clean environment and consistent quality to produce highly complex goods has improved things greatly. Of course there are still some bad ones, particularly for textiles, but the idea that it's "slave labour" that is driving China's competitiveness is a myth.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
I know the case isn't $2000, but people blinging out on their case are not exactly price sensitive. It's not a dig - I have a nice case because I like the look, noise suppression, vibration reduction, and the serviceability. But let's be honest, it's a frivolous expense - my old stamped sheet metal case with the sharp edges was perfectly serviceable.
W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.