[Leica] As if Leica lenses were not expensive enough.......

[Howard L Ritter Jr]

There is no rationale for this, just impulsive presidential pique and petulancy, as is wont to happen when the policymaker is reactive rather than proactive, gut-driven rather than rational, fixated on form, appearances, and pomp. I’d also bet that there is no “team”.

The above is intended as a more or less objective response to a question. Please, no counter-responses. I’m not trying to trigger a flame war or introduce politics into the LUG.

—howard

> On Oct 9, 2019, at 1:57 PM, Frank Filippone via LUG <lug at leica-users.org> wrote:
> 
> Tariffs are typically used and defended as a way to protect US made goods (jobs), by making foreign goods more expensive.The last production Optical house I know of in the US is Century Precision Optics.  Owned by Schneider ( German ) they typically make optics for the movie industry and sometimes military.  Their entire production is small by Leica standards.
> As usual with tariff wars and specifically this one, the point of this tariff is lost on me..... What are we protecting?  There is no real consumer or pro optics maker in the US left.
> It does help / protect Japanese and CHINESE optical houses........ who are the leading  optical houses by $$$ or quantity in the World/US.
> The other purpose of Tariffs is to financially hurt another country.  In this case, Germany. Our biggest European trade partner ( $54B Germany / $283B EU).  If Leica ( 2018 sales of 417M Euros or about $500M)  completely disappeared tomorrow, as well as any and all other German Optical companies like Schneider  and Rodenstock (same size as Leica), would the economy of Germany ( currently at a bit under $4Trillion) even notice?
> 
> What do we want from Germany anyway???  or, Why is this strategy against Germany a good idea?  What is the point?  Apparently this is to get US Automotive advantages.  Reduce the number of imported German cars. Make more US cars.
> Why not up a tariff on the cars themselves?  Fight fire with fire.
> 
> Now you know why I was an Engineer and not a diplomat or government bureaucrat.Linear thinking, that's me.
> Brilliant strategy, that's the team making up these tariffs.
> 
> I realize that you may not agree with me, that this tariff serves a purpose, or with MY political point of view.... 
> 
> November 5, 2019 is coming.  VOTE! 
> 
> Frank FilipponeRed735i at verizon.net
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Ken Carney via LUG <lug at leica-users.org>
> To: Leica Users Group <lug at leica-users.org>
> Cc: Ken Carney <kcarney1 at cox.net>
> Sent: Wed, Oct 9, 2019 7:06 am
> Subject: Re: [Leica] As if Leica lenses were not expensive enough.......
> 
> On the bright side, German machetes and tweezers were exempted. Some 
> pretty high-level thinking here.
> 
> Ken
> 
> On 10/8/2019 12:24 PM, Frank Filippone via LUG wrote:
>>   Trump's new 25% US tax on European products includes cameras and lenses and could significantly increase the price of Leica gear in the US. Here are the details:
>> Read more: https://leicarumors.com/2019/10/07/trumps-new-25-us-tax-on-european-products-includes-cameras-and-lenses-coming-from-germany-will-leica-gear-get-more-expensive-in-the-us.aspx/#ixzz61mgtdDW3
>>   
>> Frank FilipponeRed735i at verizon.net
>> 
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