Oh I suppose it's not, just saying that there's a panic about specific things going up in price, when we might discover that they weren't as important as we thought afterall.
Discussion
Yes, governments are screwing around with mutually beneficial trade between 2 parties. Trade is alwaysutually beneficial or it isn't done.
It's not just plastic toys. It's ASIC Bitcoin miners, it is chips, servers, ships, cars, lithium, batteries, paper, ink, electricity, energy, raspberry pi and esp32 devices that are changing the world, meshtastic mesh networking devices, ham radio equipment, and on and on....
Yes, I'd put assumption that free p2p trade economy is optimal up there as my main belief on economics. Arguably, and maybe I'm just being defensive, the previous state of affairs was perverted by a different set of central forces, so it's not necessarily closer to optimal than updated state of affairs. Still thinking about it...
If there's less of it, people will just make more efficient use of what they have. Computers from 30+ years ago could do much of what they do now. Software is bloated because hardware is cheap. If desktops and servers were more expensive, the software that is low memory and CPU usage would dominate the market.
And I'm pretty sure people buying ESP32s can afford an extra $30. Plus, like you said, if they don't like it, they can switch to a chip made domestically.
If we can't get cheap lithium batteries, we can make sodium-based batteries. Innovate, or support people that do.
A lost of this is in jest, but there's also a fair amount of truth there.
Says who? Who made you God?
I would never buy an esp32for $30 more.
Instead I just wouldn't continue developing my espn32 based hf radio for HAMSTR.
Sure, you could quit. Just like you said, you don't have to engage in international trade. And if you stop innovating, it leaves a gap that other people will fill (if there is demand).
Just like espressif might open a little assembly line in the US to bypass the tarrifs, and if they don't, someone else will spring up and make a comparable chip (that is, if these tariffs remain in place for years, which there's no evidence that they will, especially considering most of them are already on pause)
It's neither me nor God telling people what to do, it's just the nature of things.
Except manufacturing is elsewhere for these things because that's how the US dollar was designed and capital flows.