They all thought the foreign company paid the tariff.
This is probably what Trump thinks, too. I can easily believe he is that stupid.
I’m also wondering just what the fuck Trump and co. are going to do with all the money obtained from these tariffs. Just, like, spend it all on hookers and blow or what? Remember how you all believed this was the party of “low taxes?” Yeah, guess what a tariff is, fuckers.
Don’t forget who paid for the wall … I mean Mexico totally was writing the checks…fucking idiots.
This is probably what Trump thinks, too.
100%. If he isn’t reading it from a script that someone else wrote, he knows nothing about the topics he’s talking about.
He even boasts about “knowing more than anyone about XYZ”, yet, it can’t expand on the subject, can’t answer questions about it, is vague, and reminds me of how really bad LLMs answer questions.
I found some additional articles on what he said about this, and he did indeed flat out say he expects the “other countries” to pay the tariffs. For instance, this.
A sweeping tariff policy will kill two birds with one stone, Trump says: It could find a new source of revenue for the U.S. government, which could offset losses from lowering or eliminating certain forms of income tax, while extracting money from rival governments.
That’s not how tariffs have worked at any point in history.
Yup. He does a great job “selling” ideas that simply aren’t grounded in reality.
Like that wall that Mexico was going to pay for. What an idiot. Did his base think the United States would just send Mexico a bill for work completed and expect them to pay it? You couldn’t make this buffoonery up!
You couldn’t make this buffoonery up!
Well somebody did
And then people buy these unrealistic ideas and when they get harmed by reality, they somehow blame ‘leftists’, ‘progressives’, ‘demon rats’, ‘Obama’ or any other bogeyman for it.
I had a boss like this. Had all these million dollar ideas but no capacity to consider that someone else had the same idea and it either made no damn sense or it had already been done and people went to jail for it. Motherfuckers dream up grifts halfway and think everyone else is an idiot or sucker for not acting on the “golden opportunity”.
When it’s returned to the feds it’s just destroyed. Federal return is just the return of debt, it’s not more money.
Just, like, spend it all on hookers and blow or what?
Would this honestly surprise you?
Considering the stories that came out about how they used the White House pharmacy as a drug dealer, no, it would not surprise me in the least.
They used what as what?
Huh, I half expected “White House pharmacy was running drops in Washington DC and it’s neighbouring area”.
Yeah he’s literally said that he thinks the foreign country pays it
It’s sad to see that the people that do the most honest work are always being played by people doing the most dishonest one.
Story of my life right there.
We could be getting played by some random person on tiktok showing an unsubstantiated claim from another random person.
I’m not saying it’s definitely fake but don’t just blindly believe this when spreading stories without evidence is the EXACT sort of shit dishonest people do. They’re eating the dogs, etc.
I get where you’re coming from, and I sympathize with what is sometimes referred to as “low information voters” (though I don’t know how I personally feel about that term), but it’s important to point out that they are not NO information voters. They have heard at least some of what Trump has to say, and are willing to overlook blatant racism/fascism/misogyny/homophobia for what they think will be lower costs (or another either equally empty promise or overtly harmful promise). I am not by any means well off, but if someone said they could decrease my costs if I assented to rounding up X group, I would not take that deal. They have. They might not know the extent to which he will do others harm, but they are willing to take the deal because they do not think it will harm them directly. Hence the leopard/face jokes. They might be doing “honest work”, but that does not make them good people (though “some, I assume, are good people”).
I have family that voted for Trump who would be classed as “low info” and they only know he’s “gonna put god back in schools”. They don’t go out of their way to physically injure people different from them, but it’s clear that not only do they not care about those people, they want to force them to conform or leave. Imho, that’s not indicative of a good person. In fact, it’s often indicative of a bad person. Say what you want about “different values” or how dems are more open minded or whatever the studies show, at a certain point, conservatism makes you a bad person.
Sure, we can debate about where that line is, but the further back you want to “conserve” the worse you are in my experience. Wanna go back to the 90s? Probably economically motivated, but willing to throw the lgbt+ community under the bus. 70s? Them and women are not important to you. 50s? Just blatantly racist at this point. Anything before that and they might as well want to bring back ownership of people. At the end of the day what are they trying to conserve? Their own power. They just differ in who they’re willing to trample to take it back.
I think what a lot of Americans don’t want to admit, as imperialists, is that our relatively good quality of life was because we grave robbed and enslaved people for it.
When people say that there’s economic booms after wars - that’s not like, from no where. That’s from all the dead bodies and looted countries. We sifted through pockets and took their change. And that’s not better for growth or the economy than just keeping everyone alive btw - it is far superior to just keep everyone alive, educated, and fed and they will produce goods for the economy without sacrificing local people (eg Irish potato famine). Like healthy societies don’t engage in war.
Maybe it’s because I took economics as far back as high school, but even just from reading high school history books I knew what a Tariff was. How the FUCK did they not know that?
I am also willing to bet that they will eventually blame the democrats for breaking the system, as they always do.
There’s a fair portion of people 21+ that have difficulty playing blackjack because they can’t add to 21. Last night I was asked by a grown man what 9+1+3 is.
You’d be surprised how incompetent some people are.
Holy shit. I never put this together.
Last time I was at a casino I kept asking myself: who honestly thinks any of this is a good idea, or thinks that any of these are “games” in the conventional sense? Now I know.
Edit: I have also been confronted with people that simply cannot do addition, period. It’s wild.
The quickest and easiest way to win at a casino is not to buy in, don’t play. You’ve got the right idea!
Funny you should mention a casino. Remember when Donald Trump bankrupted multiple casinos? That is actually quite impressive given how often casinos attract people even during recessions as they get stressed and desperate.
I worked in customer service for 7 years. I am aware… so very aware…
To give you an idea, when I worked for Verizon mobile, it was a few times a week that I came across a client who did not know how to hang up their cellphone calls. No joke. It took such a while to get them off the hook it wasn’t funny. And if you ask me why I wouldn’t hang up on them, it was because Verizon had a strict no hang-up policy. You were not allowed to hang up on a client no matter what. It was grounds for immediate termination.
Maybe it was a HR call to test your patience with customers
Even if you’re competent at arithmetic in school, those skills can definitely atrophy. I say this as someone who’s unreasonably slow at basic arithmetic despite being an ex-mathlete; I got complacent because I’ve been learning and using graduate level maths, so I thought that would keep me from getting rusty. Nope — it turns out that basic arithmetic that you’d use in daily life is a different “muscle” to the kind of maths you use in academic research (which is obvious in hindsight)
I can’t imagine how much I’d be struggling if I didn’t have a good foundation to be starting from
You aren’t alone. Historically before calculators were common, engineers and mathematicians would actually have books with basic arithmetic answers already done, or they would hire people (usually women) called ‘computers’ (no joke, that’s what the term was used for before computers as we know it were invented) to do the basic calculations for mathematicians so they can focus on the more complicated stuff.
So even a highly talented mathematician from the 1910s and 1920s would still struggle as you do.
This is only tangentially related, but I’m reminded of a thing from Plato where he was complaining that communicating through writing was a bad way of doing philosophy. His concerns weren’t just around communicating ideas between people; he was even opposed to writing as an introspective tool to help a person think through their ideas, or make notes to come back to.
"And so it is that you by reason of your tender regard for the writing that is your offspring have declared the very opposite of its true effect. If men learn this, it will implant forgetfulness in their souls. They will cease to exercise memory because they rely on that which is written, calling things to remembrance no longer from within themselves, but by means of external marks.”
- Plato, “Phaedrus” ^([citation needed])
It’s interesting because I don’t think he’s necessarily wrong about the skill atrophy angle of it. It’s just a question of to what extent we need those memory skills in the modern era.
One thing that fascinates me is that Trump’s definition of tariffs seems more like the definition of kickbacks.
As he was (is?) a landlord, he may also think of it as seeking rent, like how malls get rent from the stores inside.
As a foreign asset, I think Trump is just actively performing a proxy war to drain the US of money, power, and resources for Russia. If you think he’s going to be doing anything else - lol.
It can be both. Lying is more convincing when it’s felt as truth by the liar.
Or a tax?
Extracting rent can be seen as private taxation. He’s not a “career politician”, so I’m trying to understand how he’d see it from the private realm.
An entry fee, a toll, a tax, a rent - whatever. In the end, the cost will be added to the products going in. It’s not a usual tariff, but the outcome is the same. Maybe he thinks that this trickery helps avoid problems with “free trade” conventions.
Maybe thr PA education system didn’t include things like the great depression
Removed by mod
Not only do US companies pay the tariff but they pass it on to their customers and other countries put counter tarrifs on US products.
Sometimes in order to learn something is bad you need to experience it.
Like, say, from January 20, 2017 to January 20, 2021?
I posted a meme last week before the election about a lot of my fellow Americans being depressingly ignorant and a bunch of people got pissed off about it.
I’m just saying…
Yeah, a lot has been said about why the ‘Democrats’ failed; sure they were/are imperfect.
Where are the articles bemoaning our stupid and/or mean citizens who have no curiosity and think being obstinate will work like a time machine? I’m frustrated to hell with apathy of my countrymen.
“Democrats” is too vague to be meaningful in this discussion. I do put a lot of blame on the DNC organization for deenergizing their base, but also the working class for not understanding basic economics and being taken by a carpet bagger.
And the huge shift right by male GenZ people. Reading posts by them specifically today: they felt marginalized by democrats and ignored. They felt like Maga cared about them, and they could belong in the Republican party. And some of them simply wanted revenge and to feel powerful.
Now this isn’t everyone, but I gotta say:
WTF are you doing thinking about feelings? And fitting in? Look at the damn effects your choice is going to make based on “feelings”. That group is going to lose consumer protection, worker protection and safety, medical coverage, relief on college tuition, housing subsidies, debt relief, small business loans. What they gain is higher prices, worse infrastructure, and possibly the nastiest thing of al:l the direct path of their income going to the wealthiest people and perpetuating generational wealth for the very few.
Because they wanted to “feel” like they were seen and heard as men. You got played!
Their ignorance is equally as valuable as your knowledge. To them, anyway.
Both sides-ism in a nutshell. Nailed it.
And it’s sooo typical of their hyper-inflated personal and national egos:
They didn’t wonder for one minute why on earth foreign companies would pay up. For the honor or doing business with the greatest country on earth tm? Because they’d have no choice of other buyers, since no other countries has car / computer / whatever manufacturers who’d buy their products instead?They. Are. So. Fucking. Insular.
“Greatest country on earth” sorry bud, just lost that title.
It’s simpler than that. They have literally no idea what tax incidence even is, and think the government just decides who the burden falls on.
“Build a wall and Mexico will pay for it” you’re right
Their
They
They
They being Americans?
There was another post about how Americans unfairly generalize Russians (or others) for the things their country does, and how hypocritical it is, implying we would get defensive. Well here I am, an American, reacting to my people being generalized:
Nods
Agrees
We are like that, and did this to ourselves.
It’s not just Americans, remember the Brexiteers realizing that due to Brexit, they need a visa for their Spanish holiday, and they have to stand in the “rest of the world” line?
We will see a bunch of “this is not the Brexit I’ve voted for” to come.
We will see a bunch of “this is not the Brexit I’ve voted for” to come.
No, they’ll just continue to blame dems, immigrants, and anyone else under then sun except for their godemporer for the mess they voted themselves into.
I’m reminded of the old white lady who straight up said to a camera last time, “he’s hurting the wrong people!”
You had me in the first half, not gonna lie.
So I feel like I’m probably missing something or am not understanding how Tariffs work.
Tariffs would increase the price of foreign goods and commodities and those increases would be passed on to consumers, but isn’t the goal not to get more tax money for the government but to disincentivize the purchase of those foreign goods at all thus fueling domestic manufacturing and economy?
It seems like tariffs aren’t great short term but if we have the ability to manufacture domestically and are not doing so due to costs, then it may be good in the longer term. Especially because if we rely on those countries now, they have control over those goods and can end them whenever they want. At least this way we can ramp up US manufacturing without a disruption to the existing supply chain, it just costs more.
You’re understanding tariffs correctly, but the conclusion is off. I’ll give an example driving tariffs to the extreme to explain:
Imagine tariffs are so high, the US can’t economically import anymore. This is effectively the same as very tight sanctions, aka like North Korea.
Everything in North Korea is manufactured locally, and it doesn’t scale. Doing things locally works great, but you focus on a couple things and trade for the rest.
Can some tariffs help the economy? Definitely, it’s a bit of a catalyst. Will a lot of tariffs hurt the economy? Also definitely.
Maybe Trump has mathed out the exact level of tariffs to boost the economy. If, however, that is the case, he hasn’t shown his work on it.
Edit: I will caveat it is clear most people in this thread saying “even I know what a tariff is!” Are mostly wrong. So if that’s why you’re feeling crazy, it’s because you’re in a thread full of people who aren’t as smart as they think they are.
Thanks that seems reasonable and makes me feel a little less crazy. i can’t imagine Trump knows how Tariffs work or what they would actually be useful for, much less what the best levels are.
Does anyone know if we are paying tariffs for face eating leopards? I can foresee high demand.
I’m taking options on the rise of leopard stock, imma be rich
This is what happened in the UK with Brexit.
fake story about how workers are dumb. Yeah.
I mean regardless I think pulling back spending is a great idea for 2025. Make those purchases now while they’re still cheap. Buy your toilet paper etc
It’s like Brexit, but in America.
Good. Hope it hurts.
It will.
Unfortunately, it will also hurt those who wanted nothing to do with Trump’s lies.
Everyone, except the rich, will suffer. Thanks for voting! /s
I am a hollow shell of a man, emptied of all but schadenfreude. If we’re all going to suffer, I find peace in the fact that they’ll suffer alongside me.
I have been made into that which I hated most and now I don’t even have the energy to fight it anymore.
but that’s the goal of fascism. they beat you down until you don’t want to fight anymore. the way out of this is to get organized and fight back. look for volunteer opportunities with the ACLU. be involved.
Is the owner of the company purchasing a year’s worth in order to keep the price they charge down, or in order to raise prices in February when their customers expect it because of the new tariffs, and pocket the difference? While having avoided paying bonuses?
Obviously I don’t know the business in question, but it’s quite possible that the company has a bunch of longer running contracts that would become a loss if the inputs become much more expensive.
Of course, businesses will use the opportunity to charge more, but sudden price hikes are a very real problem.
This is almost certainly what’s happening. The proposed tariffs will be very hard on American businesses and devastating for the consumer. It’s quite literally a fairly severe tax on domestic companies and the American people. But, honestly, we could do with a less consumerism in this country. Unfortunately, it’s likely to cause a tough economic downturn that will hurt poor people the most.
that will hurt poor people the most.
As is tradition.
Beatings will continue
Be hilarious if Trump simultaneously collapses the economy and starts a green movement built around an inherent need for a second hand economy.
Stranger things have happened. Like him getting elected, for instance.
And 20 million voters disappearing into thin air…
Well, they didn’t disappear into thin air. 12 million less people voted for Harris, so basically the democrats lost the election more than Trump won it. Trump got basically the same number of votes as he did against Biden.
Yes that’s what I meant though. Their votes disappeared. Our electronic voting machines have known first hand vulnerabilities.
I think they figured it out finally. They’ve been trying to gain access this entire time, and some Republican traitors are being prosecuted for it as we speak. Or were. I guess laws don’t matter anymore since America is finished.
I want to hope that it’s this
I sell steel, and we have been telling everyone to buy as much of their estimated annual usage as possible right now in order for us to hold the pricing, especially if it isn’t mill runs and double especially for exotic alloys.
It’s going to fuck over so hard the small machine shops that are prevalent everywhere that just do whatever jobs get called out and don’t really have the sway or size to be able to negotiate a better deal.
The same machine shops that were flying Trump memorabilia.
Definitely the latter.
If they’re reputable enough and tend to operate in good faith, they could be giving their customers time to prepare for the incoming price hike. They’ll probably lose customers that can’t afford to operate with the new price later on but the transparency would go a long way towards maintaining healthy business relations with the remaining customers.
they’ll pocket the difference, jack up prices, refuse bonuses next year, business slows, lay off half the staff, buy material on credit–maybe siphoning some of that off, bonuses are now a distant memory, jack prices up again. business slows to a crawl, lay off more. business falters. file bankruptcy with millions of outstanding debt to write off.
just like their diaper-wearing idol would.
Well you’re 💯 correct on what Trumps would do!
As an individual small business owner however, they could have gotten caught in the squeeze between contracts and tariffs.
Does it matter? This wouldn’t have happened without Trump being elected and the looking threat of tariffs. Whether the owner is using that as cover for jacking up the prices or not, it’s still a LAMF moment.
Oh I don’t disagree! I’m just wondering if the owner is face-eaten or face-eating. Small business owners are more varied than big business leopards.
if anything like it happens in Turkey, most businesses will buy early, stockpile goods as prices keep increasing (increased effect of tariffs + shortage of goods in market) and release them to the market for a hefty profit
Without having more detail I can’t speak with certainty, but, general principles of inventory management and cash flow discourage having a surplus of stock, as that ties up a significant amount of working capital in the costs of storing and handling it all - you risk not being able to pay your liabilities because you’ve sunk all your funds into inventory that hasn’t yet sold and generated more revenue.
Companies often have longer term contracts with specific prices agreed that can’t always be easily changed. Those contacts could quite easily become unprofitable if there are sudden increases to the direct costs of fulfilling them. So, rather than trying to fuck customers, this company is likely trying to stock-up at current market prices to ride-out the first year of tariffs, but in doing so, needs a large injection of working capital to cover the expenditure (hence cancelling bonuses), and also puts itself in a very vulnerable position where cash flow is concerned by tying up that capital in inventory - any further sudden and unexpected costs could lead to the business folding.
But that’s not even the point of this. It’s not the company is greedy or not, it’s this administration is causing this.
Oh I know. I was just trying to shed a bit of light on whether this company’s decision was an attempt to take advantage and screw people over, or a genuine survival measure.
The root cause is ultimately the tariffs that will be imposed by the US government.
In reality the decision will be more nuanced, and this company will likely raise prices wherever it can whilst also securing long-term stock at current prices to both avoid the tariffs and increase margins to recover the capital quicker.
But yeah. It’s all down to the government’s tariffs.
Yeah, this seems like those redhats need a union.
But that’s socialism!
Them: Make America Great Again!
So, like the 1950s?
Them: Yeah!
When corporate tax rates and union membership were much higher?
Them: Not like that!
Large and small manufacturing companies have contracts for orders for months to years out with set prices, some of which might have wiggle room for costs but not to this extent. Plus manufacturing already tries to balance out costs across projects due to fluctuating prices for materials. If their materials double (or more) in price they will be screwed by the contracts and guaranteed to lose money on all of them.
Buying at the current prices means they will have to pay to have the materials stored in a warehouse, which will cut into their planned profits for those existing contracts. Hell, they might be buying at a higher cost than they normally would when fulfilling the contracts.
The company is getting screwed, not trying to fleece customers or their employees.
I’m pleasantly surprised how level headed the replies to that comment are.
That’s the thing though, most customers don’t expect the price increase because they’re fucking idiots who believes tariffs are good for the economy.
