Will the tariffs affect all these home brew projects with Chinese parts?

[LASooner]

It occurred to me a lot of these home brew projects are made possible because of cheap manufacturing from China, has there been any sign that component prices are going up?

 

 

[+Ksarul]

I won't know until I make my next order from that part of the world (or find out that the tariffs have been slapped on some of the items I have in transit right now).

[RXB]

Sorry but no one ever wins in a Trade war.

 

Which is why the 1920's crash is a good example of a really really bad idea.

 

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/opinion/2018/03/09/reader-mail/trump-tariffs-risk-repeat-1920s-trade-war/#.Wz_rYNJKiUk

 

I do hope we reverse this soon or it is going to long term end very very badly for everyone.

[Omega-TI]

I'm not gonna touch this topic with a 10 foot pole. Things have a way of...

 

[+OLD CS1]

@Ω

It is worthwhile to note the possibilities to be prepared. Economics discussion has a tendency to turn political due to the entanglement. While we try to avoid getting personally political, it is almost impossible with such topics.

[MrMaddog]

It is worthwhile to note the possibilities to be prepared. Economics discussion has a tendency to turn political due to the entanglement. While we try to avoid getting personally political, it is almost impossible with such topics.

 

Without getting into a pointless political debate, history has shown that tariffs and trade wars have a history of affecting the computer industry.

 

Reagan pressured Japan into increasing the cost of computer chips tp "protect" American chip manfacturers back in 1987. But there were only two chip makers (Micron & T.I.) meaning not only were there were no new chip factories but even domestic chips went up in price. That's why computers and memory upgrades that rely on Japanese RAM chips were so expensive at the time. And yes so were Nintendo game carts as well.

 

Once the Clinton Administrarion ended the tariffs, computer prices started to go down just in time for the Internet boom...

[+FarmerPotato]

 

Without getting into a pointless political debate, history has shown that tariffs and trade wars have a history of affecting the computer industry.

 

Reagan pressured Japan into increasing the cost of computer chips tp "protect" American chip manfacturers back in 1987. But there were only two chip makers (Micron & T.I.) meaning not only were there were no new chip factories but even domestic chips went up in price. That's why computers and memory upgrades that rely on Japanese RAM chips were so expensive at the time. And yes so were Nintendo game carts as well.

 

Once the Clinton Administrarion ended the tariffs, computer prices started to go down just in time for the Internet boom...

 

My first paying job was reclaiming 4116 RAM chips at a recycling shop during the 1988 price spike. Old boards would come in, go through a hot plate, hundreds of random chips would be dumped on my desk. I picked out all the 4116s or better, straightened the pins, put them in tubes, and they sold immediately to assembly shops to go back into memory boards. All the other chips (74LS etc) went on the retail shelf untested. I picked out some nice looking 6802, 8008 etc. Straightening 4116 pins kept me in enough work hours (at minimum wage) to buy a Geneve 9640.

 

I maintained inventory and price lists in Wordstar for CP/M, on a machine that was spared from recycling. (We also saved a Sol-1 which I kick myself for not taking home.)