That goofy dork looking guy Nick from Tree Stuff can shove it.

I disagree. The biggest hurdle we face is salaries have not kept up with the cost of living in most places. Why should anyone get motivated if they face minimal investment from employers?
I agree whole heartedly on this. Throughout my working life, I've always bitched about salaries not keeping up with the cost of living.

But, I did not let that become a slacker of myself. I do not lean on others, or hold my hand out as many in youth do in recent times. I have always held my own, and with pride.

Pride is lacking.
 
I agree whole heartedly on this. Throughout my working life, I've always bitched about salaries not keeping up with the cost of living.

But, I did not let that become a slacker of myself. I do not lean on others, or hold my hand out as many in youth do in recent times. I have always held my own, and with pride.

Pride is lacking.
I think the problem is over generalizing. I am pretty youthful, and y'all have seen proof that I work for what I want. I may only be seeing the best of the kids today, and you the worst, but I think that has a lot to do with where you focus your attention.

Where attention goes, energy flows. Seek and ye shall find. There's a lot of good kids out there whose parents raised them well, and a lot of fuckoffs raised by assholes. there's shitty people of all ages, and I have met more than a few boomers and gen x that were at least as entitled as you describe the kids these days.
 
But, I did not let that become a slacker of myself. I do not lean on others, or hold my hand out as many in youth do in recent times. I have always held my own, and with pride.

Pride is lacking.
You and me both.

But everyone is different and you can’t really measure yourself against others. this stuff wears people down generationally and slowly breaks down peoples pride or motivation. This is such a complex issue overall, and no one tries to address the actual problem as a whole; just a single symptom.
 
Do you believe that? Prices will go up across the board domestic or not. Remember the $100 sheet of plywood during the pandemic? The prices did come back down.. but not pre pandemic levels
You're kidding right? 3/4 inch ply was around $50 at home depot not too long ago. Also a 2x4 was 3.50 when it was $10 during the covid scare.

Prices will go up yes but not to the level people think. When anything is imported it gets marked up and trucked to a location etc. This is why a 10% or 25% tarriff does not mean a 25% price increase on the product.

We will see prices spike and then fall as things are worked out. Businesses are not closing and stopping production. The mills are still producing lumber products. Actually lumber is exempt from tarriffs so there is that.

Tarriffs are a part of the puzzle. Lowering energy costs along with deregulation and additional tax deductions for the working class are the next steps. We have yet to see what the new tax code will look like.

In terms of deregulation on March 12 the epa decided to look into reconsidering the implication of model year 2027 trucks new emissions standards. You people should all be celebrating this. Bidens plan was going to cripple many small trucking companies over the next serveral years by making the costs of new diesels even more expensive.

Heck our bucket trucks would have seen a massive increase in prices. Manufacturers weren't even going to be allowed to sell you a diesel truck if they hadn't met their quota for electric trucks.
Charging systems for these trucks were going to be about 100k each. the teucks haul half as much. That means a more expensive electric truck and then having to buy another one on top of that to match the diesel and a $100k charger. Then there was the problem of power. Suppliers simply are not able to deliver that much power to a trucking center. It isn't available and the grid doesn't support it.

Why should you care? Because everything comes on a truck. You people should stop worrying about a few dollars on a product which will be temporary and start considering all the great things this administration is doing to set us up for the future.

Prices on products can go even lower if we can achieve lower cost energy. the first thing Biden did was shut down production of the pipeline and gas skyrocketed over night. Then the dept of the interior chose not to renew drilling leases. The list goes on. The rich got filthy rich under biden. We were ripped off left and right. Zoom out and look at the bigger picture. They want you to hate Trump. I thought blue collar hard working people on this sub were smarter than this. Especially business owners who see directly how much they have been paying in taxes to fund policies of paying for everyone else but yourself.

I guess in the real world I just don't associate with imbicels. All my friends who own businesses love what Trump is doing and don't mind some temporary inconveniences.
 
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I will add
You're kidding right? 3/4 inch ply was around $50 at home depot not too long ago. Also a 2x4 was 3.50 when it was $10 during the covid scare.

Prices will go up yes but not to the level people think. When anything is imported it gets marked up and trucked to a location etc. This is why a 10% or 25% tarriff does not mean a 25% price increase on the product.

We will see prices spike and then fall as things are worked out. Businesses are not closing and stopping production. The mills are still producing lumber products. Actually lumber is exempt from tarriffs so there is that.

Tarriffs are a part of the puzzle. Lowering energy costs along with deregulation and additional tax deductions for the working class are the next steps. We have yet to see what the new tax code will look like.

In terms of deregulation on March 12 the epa decided to look into reconsidering the implication of model year 2027 trucks new emissions standards. You people should all be celebrating this. Bidens plan was going to cripple many small trucking companies over the next serveral years by making the costs of new diesels even more expensive.

Heck our bucket trucks would have seen a massive increase in prices. Manufacturers weren't even going to be allowed to sell you a diesel truck if they hadn't met their quota for electric trucks.
Charging systems for these trucks were going to be about 100k each. the teucks haul half as much. That means a more expensive electric truck and then having to buy another one on top of that to match the diesel and a $100k charger. Then there was the problem of power. Suppliers simply are not able to deliver that much power to a trucking center. It isn't available and the grid doesn't support it.

Why should you care? Because everything comes on a truck. You people should stop worrying about a few dollars on a product which will be temporary and start considering all the great things this administration is doing to set us up for the future.

Prices on products can go even lower if we can achieve lower cost energy. the first thing Biden did was shut down production of the pipeline and gas skyrocketed over night. Then the dept of the interior chose not to renew drilling leases. The list goes on. The rich got filthy rich under biden. We were ripped off left and right. Zoom out and look at the bigger picture. They want you to hate Trump. I thought blue collar hard working people on this sub were smarter than this. Especially business owners who see directly how much they have been paying in taxes to fund policies of paying for everyone else but yourself.

I guess in the real world I just don't associate with imbicels. All my friends who own businesses love what Trump is doing and don't mind some temporary inconveniences.
I will add that Trump has lowered tarriff rates to 10% for friendly nations that negotiate. You need to watch this play out. He is a deal maker. After giving away all our money for so long there is going to be some speed bumps. The politicians have been funding b.s. across the globe and getting kickbacks for far too long. Even the social security administration had 3.2 million dead people over the age of 120 years old receiving benefits. The market will eventually bounce back as well. In fact today it did have a good rally.
 
You're kidding right? 3/4 inch ply was around $50 at home depot not too long ago. Also a 2x4 was 3.50 when it was $10 during the covid scare.
you’re proving my point. Yes pre pandemic price of 3/4” plywood was around $35 it spiked to $97. It’s come down for sure but no where near what it was. Your $50 3/4” plywood is 42% more than it was 4.5 years ago. And it’s certainly not going to come back down, and will likely increase with tariffs.
In 2023 we imported $461 million dollars in plywood from Canada. That was under Trumps post agreement after NAFTA.
So spitballing (no idea where plywood falls into Canadian tariffs) let’s just tack on and extra 25% to that $50 sheet and we are back up to $62.50.. fucken just about double the cost of 2020 prices or nearly 100% price increase in the past 4.5 years.
 
....
So spitballing (no idea where plywood falls into Canadian tariffs) let’s just tack on and extra 25% to that $50 sheet and we are back up to $62.50.. fucken just about double the cost of 2020 prices or nearly 100% price increase in the past 4.5 years.
That math works if the wholesale price of the plywood is $50.

The tariff will be on the wholesale price, not retail price. After it crosses the border, it has to be trucked, a few times (distribution center, then to retail outlet, so at least twice...but probably another before regional distribution center). Then retail markup.

More realistic is that $50 plywood crosses the border at $25. Tariff will make it $31.25...so of the retailer simply passes along the cost, it should be $56.25.

I'm not arguing for or against tariffs ...just saying that math isn't reflective of retail pricing.

Having said that...I don't doubt for a moment that retailers will use that excuse to make the full 25% markup to $62.50 as you calculated it.
 
IF tariffs are imposed there is likely to be long term damage to our export markets across the board, as other countries turn to more open markets elsewhere, not to mention that Treasury bonds as an investment can be used as retaliation by countries which hold our debt.
 
Tariffs can have near permanent negative effects .


This trade spat from the 60s has ruined the US small truck market for the past 60 years. Trade protectionism doesn't just make things more expensive, it also means we are forced to buy inferior American made products because entire catagories of goods are not available to Americans.
 
... it also means we are forced to buy inferior American made products because entire catagories of goods are not available to Americans.

Yeah, why fix something when you can just buy it from another country. Using that analogy we should seriously consider importing arborists because the American worker just can't produce high quality when compared to the rest of the world.
 
Yeah, why fix something when you can just buy it from another country
You mean like supporting research and development to better our industries and make new competitive or improved products? Or promoting existing manufacturing/forestry/farmers that have been undercut by foreign products where they have no worker or environmental protections, hence the low costs? Let's just cut worker safety and pollution regs and problem solved!
 
One of my clients is an engineer, and when he came up with some widget- I forget exactly what it was- he started getting bids from various factories to put it into production. He had test pieces made as well. He said the bids from US companies ranged between $0.50 and $1.05, and the bids from Chinese companies ranged from $0.05 to $0.45. He said that the nice pieces from China had waaaay finer tolerances than the best from the best US manufacturer and were still half the price. The big take away he got was that if you order their best quality, the Chinese can smoke the competition, but that their cheap shit is sooooooo cheap most capitalists order the shitty version, or the second worst, just because they can make soooo much more profit and undercut their competitors..
 
In a global economy, the Tariffs being proposed, will only increase our costs, and strengthen commerce by and between other nations. I remember when Japanese products were inferior, but the world economy has changed.
 
Yeah, why fix something when you can just buy it from another country. Using that analogy we should seriously consider importing arborists because the American worker just can't produce high quality when compared to the rest of the world.

I’m all for importation of talent from elsewhere. The guest worker program is one thing that needs to be easier for all industries to use and there needs to be more spots open. If every illegal worker in this country disappeared our country would grind to a halt and inflation would really go through the roof. Then we would truly need a massive guest worker program.

One nursery owner that I know said that he would employ at least 2 times as many people as he does if he had access to more workers. He just cannot get workers that want to do the work.
 
Watched a tariff video on how not 2 last night, and I was thinking about it on the way to work this morning.
We have had the luxury of small business being able to be their own importer, cutting out traditional distributors by being able to buy minimum quantities straight from the manufacturers over seas. So the widget comes straight from the manufacturer to the retailer and then to the consumer.. these business will be hit the hardest.
Tree stuff/Sherril/vertical supply group are all under the same umbrella and have a monopoly on exclusive distribution, with many other retailers having to go through them. This is beyond notch branding..
point is the tariffs are going to be much more direct or 1:1 pass through to the consumer. This of course is going to vary across markets and industries.
Think of How Not 2’s z2 drill ascender, straight from the manufacturer in china to retail in the USA… In his video he mentions needing a 40% profit margin. So we can assume his cost per unit is ~$900 per unit, retailing at $1600..
add in the china tariff of 145% and then attempt to maintain 40% profit..
 
I think the problem is over generalizing. I am pretty youthful, and y'all have seen proof that I work for what I want. I may only be seeing the best of the kids today, and you the worst, but I think that has a lot to do with where you focus your attention.

Where attention goes, energy flows. Seek and ye shall find. There's a lot of good kids out there whose parents raised them well, and a lot of fuckoffs raised by assholes. there's shitty people of all ages, and I have met more than a few boomers and gen x that were at least as entitled as you describe the kids these days.
You and me both.

But everyone is different and you can’t really measure yourself against others. this stuff wears people down generationally and slowly breaks down peoples pride or motivation. This is such a complex issue overall, and no one tries to address the actual problem as a whole; just a single symptom.
Where it gets me is when I'm in the tree and I'm watching the ground crew between picks. Not including the crane op or the foreman, there will be 3 guys busting ass while 2 are looking for excuses to sit idly. For example, a new hire of 3 days in, has to check his phone every 10 mins, chat with the home owner, make sure the rake can prop him up, chat with our crane op when setting up or folding up the crane...... it doesn't end.
On top of all that, dude lights up a joint during the middle of a crane pick. It was the last pick of the day and my cut was at he base. I helped lay it in the yard when I caught wind of the smell and saw the joint in his mouth. This matter won't be tolerated and it won't go well for him. I don't give a flying fawk what someone does on their own time but, not while your supposed to be working ......and especially in the middle of the clients yard.

I see the slackers in every trade, and yes it's in general. Still, for the ones who spoil the apple, it blows steam out of my ears. Instead of a well oiled machine making the day easier for all, there seems to almost always be a couple of rusty gears. Damn burns me up. Busted my ass for 40yrs now in the trades.
 
The tarrifs I'm okay with. In the same token, the plug needs to be pulled on income tax for Americans.
A double burden will not go well.
 
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