The post just before it was definitely also flagged and hidden
On topic:
Do you think a startup like theory board will raise prices or get lost in the fold? I imagine for preorder one couldn’t go back and ask people to pay the difference.
My bad. Just can not understand these special snowflakes flagging statements they can’t win thwir arguement against.
Hey, it really got flagged. not sorry.
It’s a double edged sword. The topic title is rather click-baitey, so the flags help it stay focused rather than it becoming a rant Filled thread. “inappropriate post”isn’t the only Reason that comes up when flagging something.
Argument vs discussion perspective here I guess.
I fear the answer to this question given that a friend is about to finish his first Kickstarter project.
A tariff on Chinese components being imported to the US,
added to higher labour costs due to everything being ‘great again’ and the prices of everything going up in the US economy and all imports being higher priced due to the trade tensions,
added to a retaliatory EU/UK tariff when exporting the finished goods into the EU/UK …
No wonder the new moog has been reported to be between $8,000 and $10,000 … fine if you’re a billionaire I expect. €15,000 after VAT and tariffs? Yikes!
Be interesting to watch how this affects the second hand market.
This brings up the question… Why does every goddamn PCB and component need to come from China? Monopolies like that are also one part of this whole mess… The low price is only one excuse. I think the west hasn’t been keeping up optimizing their PCB and component manufacturing technologies and resources in order to stay competitive. This could change, and it might be very beneficial for it to happen in the long run.
If you think about it, relying on resources from the other side of the globe for your products, it doesn’t sound very logical. It sounds short-sighted and very non eco-friendly. Could there be a better way?
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yeah, we will see… it is a negative reinforcement technique though which pretty often just back fires by moving even more jobs and production away from the place. Instead they should try to give better tax breaks and reward companies for doing as much as they can do in america.
hopefully they all move to Europe. woop 
That are the mechanisms of capitalism and free markets. Can we only guess, what an iPhone would cost, if not produced in Asia but in the US or the EU?
There is a reason, why boutique manufactures are not as cheap as Behringer, who produces in Asia. Higher degree of automation and much lower wages … that’s it - as simple as this.
If we all pledge to pay the higher prices, if gear is manufactured in high-wage regions … well …
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I dont think most components come from china. If you take the iPhone for example, it is designed in the US using components from Japan, Germany and South Korea then assembled in China.
One of Trump’s point on trade is that the Chinese government effectively mandates transfer of IP from US companies to Chinese companies as part of getting access to China’s manufacturing capabilities.
China is very good at manufacturing, even high-end technology like CPUs etc, but has not yet caught up to the west in terms of R&D of new products.
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If they don’t, they won’t earn anything I’d think.
Here’s a great opportunity to invent a photocopier sized machine that you dump your domestic waste into; cans, bottles, paper etc there are a few minutes whirring, clicking and clunking and out the other side pops a newly minted circuit board with fresh components integrated.
You pay a license fee to moog, DSI, Elektron, Korg or whoever for one use of their instructions file & schematic which you load into the machine.
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Bring on the post-scarcity economy!
(Related: I am reading Cory Doctorow’s Walkaway at the moment, and it’s very inspiring!)
Speaking about iPhone … I don’t know, whether the following text is correct in every detail, but it seems to be a quite complete and complex list:
Modern electronic parts, chips, microprocessors, PCBs, and sub-assemblies can be manufactured by automated processes, if the design is finalized and mass production is required. For the cost it might be not important, where the factory is located, if there are no unfair subventions. But in many cases, even if we talk high-tech gear, the cost are driven by human labour. That’s one reason, why often electronics and soft goods are manufactured in low-wages regions.
“Transfer” is a very polite term for what has been in the past. It’s indeed more then an annoyance only. But that issue is a problem for all innovative industries. China, so a representative in an interview, “honors” the inventor by “copying”. Well, that’s a very special way to put it. But this issue can’t be solved by a tariff war. For this, we need other solutions.
“please write your congressman and tell him that you need access to slave labor and artificially suppressed currency values, otherwise shit gets expensive…”
Also, there’s an argument to be made for the impact this will have to official inflation targets. Food for thought perhaps, in this centrally managed world of ours.
Tangentially related: at least one auto analyst isn’t terribly worried about the impact on German auto imports to the US.
https://www.welt.de/newsticker/bloomberg/article178452378/Deutsche-Autobauer-duerften-sich-nach-Zoll-Schock-schnell-erholen.html
Interesting take on moog’s statement from another synth manufacturer:
http://www.muffwiggler.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=203427&sid=ce969e1ea862401aba994c67db200a7c
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Thank you for posting this link. Should have known Schreiber would be one of the first outnof the gate to comment/respond. 
Very interesting.
Meanwhile a certain cloner of expired pantented gear and boss pedals is gleefully rubbing his hands, waiting like a Cheetah in the savannah surveying a heard of gazelle…
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An interesting read.
My old mans business is electrical supplies and he was banging on about the impact of the Chinese economy in electrical components. Can’t remember specifics but there had been some material increases in the likes of copper (for example). Point being, prices have risen considerably more than the 25% tariff for many key materials in recent years.
I don’t doubt that the current trade war will change the scene but I do think some will overplay things. It’s that the case of Moog? Really can’t say. Guess we’ll see if Grandmother prices increase in the UK over the next month or so!