Speaker 1: What Up, everybody?
Speaker 2: Welcome to another episode of Let's Ask Paul, the podcast
where you get to ask me Paul Abernathy anything you
want on the National Electrical Code of course, all things
electrical as well. If you've never listened to the podcast before.
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to do something like that. All right, Well, let's get
started in today's topic again. So we had a question
that was submitted and it wasn't necessarily about the National
Electrical Code. It is going to impact us electrically. If
you're a contractor and you're buying products, you're importing products,
you're using boxes or or something that may be made
in another country China, Singapore, or we're Taiwan or Japan
or wherever, and you're.
Speaker 1: Bringing it into the country.
Speaker 2: You'll notice that we have new tariffs that went into
or an elevated tariff that went into effect here on
the ninth of April, and it's people are freaking out.
I mean, everybody's freaking out. You know, the stock market's
freaking out, going up and down, up and down. Even
Dave Portnoy, who's saying that he lost money in the
stock market because of these tariffs, and he's crying the blues.
And that tells you that Dave is a day trader.
He's not a long term investor. Okay, there's a big difference,
and we'll talk about that today.
Speaker 1: But I wanted to talk a little bit.
Speaker 2: The question was and the question was submitted to me,
and I'll read the question because it's important to get
context of a question. Says Hey, Paul, I love your
podcast and I was listening to your Coffee Hour this morning,
and I have an important question I want to ask you,
and it again, is your opinion. I understand you hate
to give opinions on certain topics, but would you please
give your opinion on the tariffs and why so many
people are flipping out. It's not an issue of Republican
versus democrat. It is simply an issue of people are
freaking out because the US is finally standing up and
requiring equal representation, whether it's import or export. I'd love
to hear your thoughts on this. Keep up the good
work and I'll catch you on tomorrow's coffee Hour. Okay,
that is a great It does allow me to opine
on it, and again I'm going to agree. I can
see I've already gotten into debates over on YouTube and
other channels and people having a hissy fit over these
tariffs only because they're wanting to buy something right now,
and the price went up on a Chinese import and
they're freaking out, and I'm like.
Speaker 1: Just chill out.
Speaker 2: Did you really need it that bad right at this moment?
Then let me explain a little bit.
Speaker 1: So, first of all, what are tariffs.
Speaker 2: In the easiest explanation of a tariff for everybody out
there who's not aware of terrorists, it's a tax.
Speaker 1: Basically, it's a tax.
Speaker 2: If you want to sell your product in my country
or my you know, yeah, we'll just say my country,
then you're going to pay a tax, right And basically
we take that tax. If I sell my product in
your country, I'm going to pay a tax, now, Drew,
One thing was great when we got rid of NAFTA
years ago and we changed that in order to get
a much better and this was under Trump's first term,
a much better agreement between let's say Canada and Mexico
and the North American Free Trade Deal. When we got
a better deal, it was better for America. And you
know what, it kind of slid on the radar. Nobody
made a big wave about it. But it was great
because the NAFTA was very lopsided, okay, trade deal, very
lopsided trade deal. And so let's look at it now.
So why are tariffs important. For one, when we there's
certain countries in Europe, for example, that do not take
American goods. They will limit they say their roads are
too thin or too narrow. They don't want our cars
over there. If we make an American card, they don't
want it, and so they refuse it, or they set
the tariff so high on certain things in certain categories
that it just makes it not realistic for us to
sell goods to that country. Now, Americans the consumption of
cheap products okay, not made in America, which doesn't necessarily
meither're made any less cheap. It's just that we're not
making our stuff in a sweatshop. Okay, we're not making
our stuff where Ho Chi Minh can make it for
you know, five dollars, whereas we it's going to cost
us ten times more. Right, And so at the end
of the day, when you talk about the tariffs, it
was so disproportionate in what we would charge for tariffs
versus what they would charge based on the market share.
I mean, the US market is massive when it comes
to product, right, but compare that to China.
Speaker 1: China has a.
Speaker 2: Lot of people, a lot of people condensed in an area.
So they don't have the insatiable need to have US
products and they really don't have the need for their
certain products for them, so they make them cheap, they
export them to other country.
Speaker 1: It helps their economy, right, so we buy them.
Speaker 2: I just recently purchased a Chinese mini excavator, okay, and
people are like, Paul, how did you do that? You know,
I'm like, well, I got it before the tariff went up.
We'll see if the eBay seller honors that, because he's
gonna lose money because it's it is increased dramatically that
the percentages of increase are crazy compared to what that
that they just got involved in. So we're talking tariffs
now that immediately went to like for China, one hundred
and four percent. There's no way that that can be sustained.
And people are freaking out over it. And I'm telling
you right now, folks, it had to be done.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I mean, you don't like it that it was Trump.
And you may not like Trump, whether you like him personally,
you don't like his politics. You just don't like if
you don't like what he stands, well that's fine. I
don't care. It doesn't bother me. Whether somebody likes Trump
or Biden or Obama or whoever, it doesn't bother me.
Speaker 1: I don't care. Y'all know who I like.
Speaker 2: But it doesn't matter. The fact of the matter is,
it doesn't matter who it is. Is we needed this
right now. And what this does is this tries to
do what we call an economic reset. First of all,
it's going you already see now that there's trillions of
dollars companies who want to build.
Speaker 1: In the US.
Speaker 2: That's good for the US. And you should be wanting
things that are good for the US if you live here.
If you don't live here, get the hell out. But
if you're here, you should want things that are good
for our economy, bringing back jobs, growth, having manufacturers actually
make stuff here. Now it's going to cost more to
make it here because we don't pay sweatshops. Okay, we
have labor laws, we have things that you have to
do here. We have certain things that we have to
hold true to under our American values that they don't
necessarily hold true to in these other countries.
Speaker 1: And we know this.
Speaker 2: But the first time that somebody cries about that, we go, well,
I mean you want to get I mean you want
to go to work for McDonald's. And now the minimum
wage they want to make it what seventeen eighteen nineteen
dollars really to flip a hamburger, So that affects everything else.
But you're okay with that. But you're you, you don't
under You're like, but wait a minute, I still want
to get my cheap stuff from China.
Speaker 1: When they're over there.
Speaker 2: You've got a sweat shop making a Nike for a
buck and a quarter selling to them, selling them over
here on eBay for three hundred and fifty bucks a
pair of Jordan's or something. I'm just saying, you can't
have it both ways. Okay, now I get it. We
love cheap products, we love to pay less. Hey, and
I'm no different.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 2: People ask me, said, Paul, if you're so passionate you
care about this tariff thing, then why did you buy
a Chinese and why couldn't you buy American boy, Bobcat
buy something in America. Well, the chances are that that
product that's made in America is probably using an engine
like a.
Speaker 1: Cabodo that's from Japan.
Speaker 2: They use parts from other countries and everything, so very little.
Speaker 1: Is probably one hundred percent.
Speaker 2: And I'm not saying this across the board, but very
little today is probably one hundred percent. Nuts to Bolts
is American. They're going to be using products in it,
components in it. Uh So it's very little. Kay.
Speaker 1: So when I buy something that is.
Speaker 2: Imported and I pay that importer, right, they're making money.
They're here, they're in the US, they imported it, They're
going to be making money. You know, if i want
to buy something straight from China, then I've got to
pay the taxes. I got to pay the duties, I
got to pay for it, to get logistics from here
to there, from the port, all this kind of stuff.
I got to pay all that, right, So yeah, I'm
buying it cheaper, but I still have to pay all
that stuff. So a lot of times when we buy
products like my excavator, I assume that that that the
tariffs were already built into but now that was before
it's done. Gone from from ten percent or twenty percent
tariff to thirty to forty four percent to now one
hundred and four or whatever percent is get it, I
get it, but this is necessary whether you like it
or not. So does that mean you're gonna hold off
on buying some import because you're gonna pay more than
you would have a day ago. Absolutely, you need to
suck it up. Okay, it is what it is. We're
trust me. They are not going to leave it like that.
China can act like they're tough all they want. They've
been ripping us off for years, intellectual properties, stealing our products,
designing products that mirror products that are US based. They
use very cheap labor, They charge taxes on our products
that we export to them, and we charge taxes on
stuff that we import from them. But other than that,
there's other trade agreements that are wrapped up into that
that are very one sided. And then you have some countries.
This is not just about China, by the way, And
that's the other big thing people are saying UK for example, Europe,
they won't accept certain things. France won't accept certain things
from the US, right, or they hit tariffs that are
so high, but yet when we slap a reciprocal tariff
on them, which a reciprocal tariff means that we're gonna
tariff you the same as you're tariffing us. That's it,
and everybody goes ape shit. They literally do they go
ape shit over it, and they don't understand the concept
of tariffs. Now, let's talk about this for a second,
and I'm gonna use Dave Portinoy for an example. Dave
went on there and says that he lost because of
the stock market, which is folatile anyway. I don't care
much for the stock market anyway, although I understand for
a one k long term.
Speaker 1: Growth, be in it to win it for the long
long term.
Speaker 2: There are a lot of people that are day traders
and they make They've been making quite a good amount
of money as a day trader.
Speaker 1: Dave Portnoy is a.
Speaker 2: Day trader, Okay, that's what he likes to do. So
he says he lost seven million. You haven't lost shit
until you sell it. He's not getting rid of that
stock because it's on the downturn. He's gonna keep it now.
He says he's twenty million down. You know what for
somebody that has a net worth of three hundred million
dollars or more. Let me explain something and Dave Ramsey.
Dave Ramsey, who I don't agree with all the time,
probably can say it better though than me.
Speaker 1: This is a.
Speaker 2: Great time for people that have money because now they
can double down, they get to buy it cheap.
Speaker 1: They know what's coming back, they know that the economy's
not going to stay down. Just look at the historical
nature of the stock market.
Speaker 2: Okay, I am scared to get into it because again,
I don't like to gamble that type.
Speaker 1: I don't even gamble at casinos.
Speaker 2: I just I went to an Indian casinos a couple
times with my wife, But I don't, dude, I don't
gamble with what I got to eat with and some
people love it. I can never get addicted to gamble.
I just can't do it. Now. I have a four
to oh one k, but that's long term. I'm letting
it ride.
Speaker 1: So the people that.
Speaker 2: Are freaking out about the stock market and saying.
Speaker 1: Oh don't you like watching your net worth? Go away?
Shut the hell up your network. You're not selling it.
Just leave it there.
Speaker 2: And in fact, for me, I have a four to
one K through unco Wired Corporation. The money I contribute
is not changing. They're going to be able to get
more stock if the value drops, They're gonna get more
shares to me, so that when it goes up, I'm
gonna win on the back end. Long term people don't
understand it, and so at the end of the day,
you have to be if you're in the stock market.
Speaker 1: Again, I'm not talking to day.
Speaker 2: Traders who want to play around and go low buy
buy low, sell high. That's what you want to do,
Then you can cry and moan over that volatility all
you want. Most people that are in it for the
long haul are in stocks for twenty thirty years.
Speaker 1: I am not a stock investor.
Speaker 2: I'm a big believer putting my money in a simple
savings account that gives me four to five percent interest
and let her ride, okay, because I'm gonna pay taxes
on that interest anyway, So I just put it in
there and let it ride, okay.
Speaker 1: I keep it under the FDIC.
Speaker 2: I get multiple accounts so that money is kept under
the FDIC, which is for an individual's two hundred and
fifty thousand. For a couple or jointly, it's five hundred thousand.
You can have as many banks as you want, but
you can only have limited ones in one bank. Okay,
give different categories. So for example, my wife could have
a limit of two fifty. I could have a limit
of two fifty and jointly, we could have a limit
of five hundred So that basically is a million dollars
that's protected by FDIC. Okay, the moment you go over that,
then you run the risk. Doesn't mean you won't get
your money, but that's only after liquidation. So and again,
by the way, I'm not attacked advisor, So don't take
any of my tax If I had to listen to
my advice years ago, i'd be a be a multi
billionaire right now. If I had a bought bitcoin when
everybody said by bitcoin, I said, nope, I don't trust it.
I still don't trust it today, but there's people that
have made a fortune on it. So there is many
things like I should have bought uh, Newsmax just weeks ago.
I knew Newsmax over the next four years is going
to be riding a conservative high that it's going to be,
and you look at the numbers.
Speaker 1: You can't you really can't lose. But I'm just I
just don't like stock market. Now.
Speaker 2: When it comes to four one k, I just let
her ride. And when the stock market is down, I'm giddy.
Speaker 1: Really I am, dude. I'm not ready to retire. I'm
like I'm not messing with my four one K.
Speaker 2: Now, if you're right at the CUSPP of retirement or
you're in it and you're using your full one k,
then that sucks.
Speaker 1: But it is what it is. We have to and
that's not Trump. You know.
Speaker 2: Folks will say, well, it's because of these tariffs. No,
this is just the the it was. It was they
kept kicking the can down the road year after year
after year. We were taking advantage of other countries with
not taking our products, or not importing our products or
very little. We as a US consume stuff and we
like it cheap. So we had no problem going to
the dollar trees and the and the Amazons and all
that who live off of these imports. Everything you pretty
much buy on these things are probably made overseas. So
at the end of the day, the tariffs are designed
to say, you know what, it's at tax, it's an attack.
So you're gonna charge me this much for my for
products that we sell to you, and we're gonna charge
you this much for products that you try to import
to sell to US.
Speaker 3: Okay.
Speaker 2: Now, people are quick to say, well Elon mus doesn't
like he wants a zero tariff, zero zero again, he
disagrees with Trump. You're not listening, You're not hearing it.
Elon Musk is against tariffs because Elon Musk believes that
we should have no tariffs, free exchange amongst countries.
Speaker 1: Right, I am going.
Speaker 2: To sell to you and you sell to me. Screw
the tariffs, you know what, and just have free trade.
That's what Elon believes in, Okay, and that's great in
a utopian world. But the reality is none of the
other countries are gonna do that, and so what do
we have to do as a country. We have to
rip off the band aid and say, you know what,
I don't have a choice. We're going to raise the
tariffs to make you come to the table. Do you
and I believe for any amount and you're gonna say, well,
I believe it. Look, do you you believe that for
any amount of time that China? And I'm picking on China,
But China can sustain one hundred and four percent tariff
and still send products to the US.
Speaker 1: No, they can't. Can we sustain not getting products from China?
Speaker 2: Yes?
Speaker 1: I can do without my mini excavator. Shit, I don't
you know? You know what I'm saying?
Speaker 2: We have enough stuff here. Their economy can't. Our economy can.
And so that's the leverage. And if they want to
come to the table, this thing will be over next week.
It could be over to next shit. It could be
over right now. It's what is it, uh, one, two
o'clock in the morning, three o'clock in the morning, four o'clock.
But whatever it is in China, this shit could end
right away. They act like they're not going to end,
but that's just publicly tough talk.
Speaker 1: At the end of the.
Speaker 2: Day, it's when it starts hurting them, they're going to
come to the table. That's why you saw other countries,
Japan and all them quickly wanting to talk to Trump. Look,
it didn't matter whether it was Trump or Biden or Kamala,
it wouldn't matter. This is the right thing to do
right now for history. It's time to get rid of
that DEI shit. It's time to get rid of all
that wokeness. It's time to put America first in all cases.
I see these politicians people that are protesting in saying
talking about illegal immigrants, Dude, if you're here illegally, they say, well,
they didn't commit a crime. I know I'm deviating from
the topic. But they say he didn't commit they don't
commit a crime. The moment that they walked into this
country illegally improperly, they committed a crime. It doesn't matter
whether they're jaywalking or committed murder. They committed a crime
the moment that they came in here illegally.
Speaker 1: That's it. They should go.
Speaker 2: That doesn't mean I don't want people to come into
this melting pot of America.
Speaker 1: I do. I do.
Speaker 2: I love all races, all different creeds and the melting pot.
And some of my best friends are black folks, African
American folks, and Indians.
Speaker 1: And I've got some great Jewish friends. I got some
great Muslim friends. Dude, I don't hate.
Speaker 2: Anybody, Okay, but at the end of the day, if
you are here illegally, you need to come in legally,
get your ass out, come back the right way. That's
all I'm saying. Then we'll welcome you in here with
open arms. So I think people are just not seeing
what Trump is doing.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 2: You don't have to like him, and I'm sure I'll
lose listeners because you don't like him.
Speaker 1: And that's fine.
Speaker 2: If you can't listen to the bitter truth. Then that's
on you. I can't help it, and I'm not here
to convince you otherwise. I don't care what your belief is.
I don't care where you stand in your spectrum life.
I don't really care. I'm answering the question that the
gentleman sent me, so rounding it back to tariffs and
ending this podcast on tariffs. It's necessary, It is necessary
right now to play that hard card and make the
countries come to the table because at the end of
the day, it's going to mean back to prosperity new
building in America. Look at already, it's five trillion dollars
of commitment from companies that want to build here in
the US.
Speaker 1: People say, we don't have the land for it. Bullshit.
Speaker 2: We got plenty of land. We got plenty of land
to make this happen. Okay, don't don't opine about shit
that you don't know anything about on social media. There's
plenty of land, plenty of opportunity. There's plenty of old
buildings that can be revamped to rebuild, torn down, build up.
We can have another rebirth of America being this amazing
place to be. And it all he is amazing. We're
very blessed to be here. Okay, you've seen pictures of
other countries. I could not live in China. I couldn't
do it. I just I couldn't do it. But at
the end of the day, we're very blessed. And so
for everybody that says, oh wooe, he's me it's so
bad here they hate, then get the hell out because
you're living in the best country in the world to
live in. If you don't believe that, then go where
you think it is better. But I don't see you going.
You ain't going nowhere because you just are talk talk talk,
you know, action, just talk, right, I ain't going anywhere.
I love America. I love what's going on. Is it
suck that I might not get my excavator because the buyer,
the seller may back out because he's getting to hit
with one hundred and four percent tariffs even after I've
already paid him. Yeah, am I going to trash you
on eBay and cause his account to get banned if
that happens? Aslutely, I am welcome to America, okay, But
at the end of because I want them to honor it.
I got in before the tariff. I'm just saying, it's
just like me selling my house. If I sell my
house for and I agree to a contract of four
hundred thousand, and all of a sudden the value of
it goes to five hundred and fifty thousand over the
next thirty days to forty five days of closing. Am
I gonna get that extra money? Hell no, I'm gonna
get what we agreed.
Speaker 1: That's it.
Speaker 2: They're gonna get the appreciation. I'm not gonna get the appreciation.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 2: That sucks, but it is what it is, right, same concept,
same concept. All right, hopefully I answered that question for you.
I am all for the tariffs. Does that mean that
the little cheap import stuff that I like to import
and do that stuff for my lasers and all that stuff.
Speaker 1: Does that mean I'm gonna pay more? Yeah? If I
want it, I will, But I don't need it.
Speaker 2: Nobody needs, you get me, nobody needs to.
Speaker 1: Import stuff from China. You don't need you want it,
you don't need it. Okay, So at the end of
the day, just wait, this will be worked out. Trust me.
Speaker 2: I was right about TikTok, wasn't I I told you
all it ain't going nowhere, and everybody got crazy and
I was like, kid.
Speaker 1: Ain't going nowhere.
Speaker 2: It's worth too much money to go anywhere. It ain't
going anywhere. Listen to me, just ride this out. I
don't care if you hate Trump, I don't care if
you hate Biden. I don't care any politics. Tariffs are
right right now in this world where we're at, the
ripping down statues, the DEEI hiring people that aren't qualified
for the job. Just to me to quote, all of
that shit needs to end. It needed to end it.
Finally took somebody with balls.
Speaker 1: To end it.
Speaker 2: And he's not running for another term, so he doesn't care.
You people don't get it. He don't care, but he
does love America. This tariff is for a America, not
stealing money, hiding money, doing that like the Biden regime.
This is about America. And if you don't understand how
tariffs go, then you don't get it. Go read and
see how we were taking advantage of by many other countries.
See or other countries wouldn't even take our products that
we make. Also, see why companies were leaving America to
go to other countries because they can make shit cheaper
and then exploit youth labor. Okay, in unfair work practices.
We don't do that in the US. We want to
bring that back here. You should want that as an
American and if you don't, something's wrong with you. Until
next time, folks, stay safe, God bless and check us
on the next episode of Let's Ask Paul the podcast Peace.
Speaker 3: Boots, nothing mask, no thing, no