Back in my day, we elected scumbags who at least wanted to preserve stability and international trade relations so that at least a balance could be preserved long enough to nudge policy where people broadly wanted it.
President Reagan decided Friday to impose punitive 100% tariffs on a wide variety of goods produced by Japanese electronic giants in retaliation for Tokyo’s failure to abide by the semiconductor trade agreement between the two nations.
In approving a recommendation Thursday by the Administration’s top economic officials, the White House decided to put the tariffs into effect about April 17, less than two weeks before Japanese Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone is scheduled to begin a visit to the United States aimed at easing trade frictions.
The tariffs will be targeted to bring in as much as $300 million and designed to punish such firms as NEC Corp., Hitachi Ltd., Fujitsu Ltd., Toshiba Corp. and Oki Corp. by either pricing some of their goods out of the American market or by forcing them to accept substantial losses on U.S. sales.
Japan / Korea were early instances of US industrial outsourcing. The consequences of the project was an economic boom during late 70s/early 80s in both countries, such that American politicians feared Japan and Korea would return to the world stage as independent regional powers. Reagan’s tariffs, the subsequent opening of Japanese import markets, and the further industrial outsourcing to China, the Philippines, and the rest of the South Pacific labor markets effectively clipped the wings of the Japanese/Korean wage laborer.
You could argue this was part of the “agreement” between Eastern Zaibatsu executives and Western investment banks. But I’d hardly call it a “measured response”. I certainly wouldn’t call it a policy that served the best interests of either Eastern or Western wage labor.
I feel like part of it was that the console revisions past 2008 aren’t as big of a deal as they were before. You also had publishers start producing games for multiple generations of consoles at the same time.
Back in my day console prices would go down after being on the market for a few years
Back in my day, we elected scumbags who at least wanted to preserve stability and international trade relations so that at least a balance could be preserved long enough to nudge policy where people broadly wanted it.
Yeah but back then we weren’t winning™
Back in your day needless tarriffs weren’t a thing.
Um, Aktuky…
President Reagan decided Friday to impose punitive 100% tariffs on a wide variety of goods produced by Japanese electronic giants in retaliation for Tokyo’s failure to abide by the semiconductor trade agreement between the two nations.
In approving a recommendation Thursday by the Administration’s top economic officials, the White House decided to put the tariffs into effect about April 17, less than two weeks before Japanese Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone is scheduled to begin a visit to the United States aimed at easing trade frictions.
The tariffs will be targeted to bring in as much as $300 million and designed to punish such firms as NEC Corp., Hitachi Ltd., Fujitsu Ltd., Toshiba Corp. and Oki Corp. by either pricing some of their goods out of the American market or by forcing them to accept substantial losses on U.S. sales.
So a specific tariff, on specific goods in a specific country, for a specific reason. Really not comparable.
Was that not a measured response to a failure to abide by an established agreement?
Depends on who is telling the story.
Japan / Korea were early instances of US industrial outsourcing. The consequences of the project was an economic boom during late 70s/early 80s in both countries, such that American politicians feared Japan and Korea would return to the world stage as independent regional powers. Reagan’s tariffs, the subsequent opening of Japanese import markets, and the further industrial outsourcing to China, the Philippines, and the rest of the South Pacific labor markets effectively clipped the wings of the Japanese/Korean wage laborer.
You could argue this was part of the “agreement” between Eastern Zaibatsu executives and Western investment banks. But I’d hardly call it a “measured response”. I certainly wouldn’t call it a policy that served the best interests of either Eastern or Western wage labor.
Five years… in the OG days we’d be prepping for the next generation about now.
Then things got weird around the 2008 financial crash. :(
(US dates)
Atari 2600 - 1977
Atari 5200 - 1982
Atari 7800 - 1986
Atari Jaguar - 1993
NES - 1985
SNES - 1990
N64 - 1996
Gamecube - 2001
Wii - 2006
Wii U - 2012
Switch - 2017
Switch 2 - 2025
Sega Master System - 1986
Genesis - 1989
Sega CD - 1992
32X - 1994
Saturn - 1995
Dreamcast - 1999
NEC Turbo Grafx 16 / CD - 1989
NEC Turbo Duo - 1993
Playstation - 1995
PS2 - 2000
PS3 - 2006
PS4 - 2013
PS4 Pro - 2016
PS5 - 2020
PS5 Pro - 2024
Xbox - 2001
Xbox 360 - 2005
Xbox One - 2013
Xbox One X - 2017
Xbox Series X - 2020
I feel like part of it was that the console revisions past 2008 aren’t as big of a deal as they were before. You also had publishers start producing games for multiple generations of consoles at the same time.
Games took way longer to make in the 7th gen and later, so 5 years for a console generation didn’t cut it anymore.
I’ve owned 15 of the consoles listed. Doesn’t seem like I’ve been through that many of them!
24 for me and I still own most of them.
Sega even had an earlier console in 1983 called the SG-1000. It was only released in Japan though.
Node shrinks are not as impactful as they use to be, in that area at least.