I can’t find where I read this now, but my recollection is that in the previous round of tariffs, China not only implemented tit for tat counter-tariffs which I imagine Trump had been expecting, but took some additional measures like export controls on rare earths. Like it or not, they basically own the global market and Trump had no answer to that other than to threaten even more tariffs. And here we are.
About a year ago, there was a boycott on the Loblaws supermarket chain in protest of their boasting record profits at a time when grocery inflation was out of control. It lasted about a month before kind of fizzling out.
But I think by comparison, this buy Canadian movement has legs. It’s a major nationwide shift in people’s spending habits. And the key word here may be habits. Let’s say for argument’s sake that after 4 years of Trump, a new administration comes in and repeals all the tariffs. By that time, people will have settled into alternate brands across a wide range of consumer goods, and it may be difficult to convince them to switch back again. There’s a certain inertia in human behaviour. So the effects of this could potentially go on quite a bit longer than the tariff war.
In Sweden, about 40,000 users have joined a Facebook group calling for a boycott of US companies – ironically including Facebook itself – which features alternatives to US consumer products.
The Made In Canada Facebook group now has 1.2 million users, which is pretty insane considering the population of the whole country is 41 million.
Is it not a net benefit to China in that the US drawing inwards expands their global influence? And they must be laughing at what carnage Trump is inflicting on the North American auto sector at a time when China is surging ahead with EVs.
I think if there’s a silver lining to the 100% tariffs on Chinese EVs in North America, it is that it will hasten adoption of ebikes, which imo solve more problems than EVs in any case.
His point that ebikes replace cars—not conventional bikes—tracks for me. Mine has basically replaced our second car and I use it, as he indicated most people do, for commutes and short errands.
His point that an ebike has an energy footprint comparable to a 4000 mpg ICEV is an incredible metric. I wonder where he pulled that from? I know that my ebike battery has 1/150th the capacity of what goes into a Tesla. Granted, I wouldn’t expect a comparable range so there’s a bit of apples to oranges there. But if you then work in that EVs are already much more energy efficient than ICEVs, I guess you could arrive at a number like 4000.
Whatever the case, my experience with ebikes is that they are pretty close to free transportation in terms of operating costs. There may be a few unexpected expenses beyond the initial sticker cost of the bike in terms of accessories (particularly high quality locks) and some winter gear if you’re in a colder climate, but those are one-time purchases for the most part.
Oh ok. Thanks for the clarification. I couldn’t remember the exact details.
Wow, I did not know about the OLED with the bigger screen and presumably better battery life. I really want one now!
I think I read somewhere that Factorio is more efficient running under Linux/Mac because it takes advantage of some quirk in the Unix forking mechanism that Windows can’t use? I don’t know if this means it would burn through battery even faster if the SD ran Windows, but it wouldn’t surprise me…
Mine says 99% health. I don’t know how reliable a metric that is?
Lately, I’ve been playing on battery exclusively and basically going with the 1 gaming session = 1 battery charge regimen to self-regulate. I may need to re-evaluate this as the battery ages, but it’s good discipline for me at the moment…
I saw a meme going around about our guy in Canada who met a similar fate. It compared him to a toilet, noting that while both are full of shit, the toilet at least has a seat.