“A house is a pile of stuff with a cover on it” – George Carlin
We might characterise human history as the production and acquisition of stuff. Cave men didn’t have much stuff. About 11,000 years ago, they left their caves and domesticated animals and began to cultivate crops. In order to cultivate, they needed tools. And so it went – fast-forward to today and we have smart phones and ChatGPT.
Back in 1969, I sallied forth to see the world, carrying a 7kg backpack and a shoulder bag. I lived out of that pack and bag on the road for 10 months – no problem. That was then. These days I have a fridge, cooker, microwave, computer, smartphone, internet, etc, etc, etc. Like many people, I possess a whole lot of stuff. Those who don’t have a lot of stuff are doing their best to get more stuff. Some resort to hooks and crooks to get stuff.
The reigning champion of consumption
The United States is, by far, the biggest stuff-consuming nation. In 2023, Americans spent over $18.8tn (with a T) on stuff, representing 68% of GDP. China came in a distant second with $9.8tn – just 51% of its GDP. (The UK ranked eighth at a measly $2tn).
There’s a widely circulated anecdote, attributed to the Los Angeles Times, that the average American home contains 300,000 items. In 2024, Americans dropped an estimated $973bn on holiday shopping between late November and the end of the year. More worrying, according to the non-profit organisation ReFED, 38% of all food in America goes unsold or uneaten. This equates to 60 million pounds – 54.4 million tonnes – of wasted food. That 54.4 million tonnes of wasted food could feed every man, woman and child in Tanzania for five and a half years.
Don’t repair – replace
These days, 64% of Americans replace their cars every five years or less, though increasingly they are buying used cars rather than new. According to Consumer Reports, 55% of Americans replace their mobile phones every two to three years – and a fanatic 4% replace their phones every six months.
Westerners don’t fix their stuff. They dump it, then get new stuff that they will toss and get even more stuff. Figures recorded by the Environmental Protection Agency show that Americans generated 265.3 million tonnes of municipal waste (4.9 pounds per person, per day) in 2018, of which 68% was neither recycled nor composted. And that’s on top of (literally) the stuff already thrown away. Globally, that amounts to 2.12 billion tonnes of municipal waste, every year. This discarded stuff will continue to pile up until much of planet Earth will be a garbage dump.
Global goods, global consequences
Much of the stuff Americans think they need – new cars, TVs, computers, mobile phones – comes from other countries. The Bureau of Economic Analysis reported a US trade deficit in 2024 of $918.4bn.
Trump saw this trade imbalance and concluded America is getting “ripped off.” Although a graduate of the Wharton School of Business and a self-proclaimed “stable genius”, he apparently doesn’t know about English economist David Ricardo’s theory of comparative advantage, published back in 1817. I sell you my widgets, you sell me your gizmos. Win-win.
Tariff troubles ahead
Trump called for a “Liberation Day” on 2 April (one day after April Fools’ Day – coincidence?). His original plan: 10% baseline tariffs; 25% on Canada and Mexico; 20% for the rapacious EU. China, the main ripper-offer, got slapped with 54% rising to 145% when they complained. Even the penguins on Heard and McDonald Islands got zapped with 10% tariffs. Russia or North Korea? No tariffs.
Lesotho – a poor, mountainous, landlocked country entirely surrounded by South Africa – has a per capita GDP of $1,107 (the US: $86,600). Lesotho imports almost all its basic needs from South Africa and pays for them by exporting diamonds and clothing, mostly to the US. So, it has a 100% trade imbalance resulting in a 50% tariff.
But who’s actually paying?
Trump seems to think China will pay that 145% tariff. Not so. If these costs are passed on to consumers, Americans now buying an iPhone 16 Pro Max for $999 could soon be paying $1,999. And according to financial analyst Dan Ives, if these phones were made in the US the cost of an iPhone would soar to $3,500. The same will apply to cars, chocolate, coffee, jewellery, olive oil, sugar, rice … And while manufacturers are currently trying to see how to mitigate these costs – let’s see how successful this is.
Hours before the Liberation Day tariffs were supposed to go into effect, the straight shooter in the White House, who always means what he says, announced a 90-day pause. Why? Because people were getting “a little bit yippy”.
The price of “protection”
Darn right, and especially nervous were Nobel Laureate economists. They know that the stuff Americans need, or think they need, will cost more once those Liberation Day tariffs start “protecting” them from being ripped off.
The Tax Foundation estimates that Trump’s tariffs will set back US households an average $1,243 in 2025. The Budget Lab at Yale thinks it could cost an extra $3,800 a year. For Trump’s buddies in the billionaires’ club, that’s pocket change. For working-class folks living paycheque-to-paycheque, an additional $100-300 a month in expenses is an overwhelming burden.
My guess – and it’s only a guess – is that some Trump voters will start to ask themselves: “Exactly who’s ripping off who?” Americans love their stuff a whole lot more than they love Trump. If they could choose now, many, if not most, would vote for stuff.
