this post was submitted on 18 Feb 2025
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How exactly does this hurt the planet? If the United States imports fewer laptops, then that means there are less laptops coming over on ships from China which saves fuel. If tariffs cause a rise in US production, then the production of the product is closer to the end consumer, again saving fuel.
The same amount of laptops will come over, we’ll just be paying more for them. The production of laptops from scratch in the U.S. will very likely never happen. The best case scenario where we do become an electronics manufacturing powerhouse would take literally decades.
If they cost more, it would also disincentivize spending on the laptop unless it's necessary. So theoretically fewer laptops should come over. If you don't buy a laptop because your laptop isn't really in need of replacement, then you just saved 100%. Or you could also buy a used laptop that's newer than the one you have from somebody else in good condition and save some percentage of what you would have paid for the new one anyway.
Just as an example, I'm rocking a laptop from 2014 with an Intel 3rd generation Core i7. Obviously the newest Intel is the 13th generation, but you can find Intel 7th and 8th generation laptops which are much newer than mine for decent prices.
Correct, except that more people buying used laptops will incentivize people to upgrade more often as they can depend on a strong secondhand market to recoup some of the cost of the new one by selling the old one.
That's a fair point. The way I see it, it's similar to buying a car. If you buy a new car, as soon as you drive it off the lot, it loses $3,000 in value and depreciates quite a bit within the first year. If you buy a one-year-old used car, it's still in pretty good condition and has had the "new" tax deducted already.