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…
Their ignorance is equally as valuable as your knowledge. To them, anyway.
Both sides-ism in a nutshell. Nailed it.
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.
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!
“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.
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This is definitely fake, but it’s tremendously funny so I choose to believe it’s real
This is definitely fake, but […] I choose to believe it’s real
2024 election in a nutshell
I mean the whole point is paying a tariff so American companies make the goods instead for less.
But if paying Chinese poverty wages and tariffs is still less than paying Americans to do it, then guess what they’re going to do?
I mean the whole point is paying a tariff so American companies make the goods instead for less.
So American companies make the goods at the current prices which are now relatively lower than the imports, but still the same or more than they are priced now.
Tariffs always increase prices overall.
Correct, tariffs increase prices.
Ideally to more than what they would be if they were made by American workers in American factories. Otherwise there’s no point and you’re just increasing prices out of spite.
But we’re relying on a lot of landlords to go “fair enough, we’ll lower our rents so you can buy those American goods at their new higher prices” rather than going “no, go fuck yourselves”. And I feel that’s unrealistic.
But whatever, turkeys voting for Christmas is not a new thing and I’m sure they’ll find a way to blame it on immigrants or gays or something.
Rationally implemented tariffs to keep people employed by countering foreign imports is the goal, since it is hard to complete on price with slave labor that is common in things like clothing manufacturing. It doesn’t have anything to do with landlords.
Obviously Trump is not proposing rationally implemented tariffs.
Raise the tariffs?
Sure, but the whole concept relies on Americans being too wealthy and need to pay more for their stuff. They’re lazy and need more work to do.
And with all the poverty about, people working multiple jobs, the gig economy turning minimum wage evasion into “well you chose to do it”, I’m surprised that over half the country agreed with the billionaire about that.
The people I talked to thought tariffs would nt change prices. Also thought they were for a free market.
Global trade drove the cost of supplies and goods down to the lowest available prices, so while setting tariffs may encourage local production because it makes overseas less attractive, the price of goods still goes up on both scenarios.
If moved locally, there will be more local labor required for production but it’s not clear if that is a net benefit.
Hypothetically under globalism more developed countries shed their “dirty manufacturing labor jobs” and move more people upmarket. Of course this is matter of nonstop debate among economists because as we all know the whole population of a country can’t move upmarket together and a lot of people were/are screwed because of lack of education and opportunity to develop themselves.
In an ideal implemention of this, more people would be moving to the arts, self expression, and technology, while fewer are involved in survival activities like shelter and food.
I think the unsolved problem now is that average people believe way too much of that wealth went to the top while the middle class is working harder than ever and getting less.
It’s also dumb to just assume that foreign companies can just flip a switch and start building/assembling whatever they sell in America. You need facilities, you need to hire employees, you need to train employees. You can’t just pick up your factory, drop it in Kansas, and just slot people into the building to work it right away.
Also, unless your plan is to exclusively export to the US, then it’s less cost effective to open up new facilities in the US. You just raise prices and and have the consumers take the hit for the tariff. There’s also the problem of logistics for raw materials for whatever products your manufacturing. Those also tend to cost more to acquire stateside.
The worst part is that policy is only a single bullet in the policy foot gun Trump has loaded. It gets even more expensive when the low cost labor is suddenly deported and/or put in camps. Which I realize isn’t even the worst thing about the immigration policy, but just pointing out that it too has consequences to these same people.
What do you mean my car is now valued for so much less? Well see all the parts are all manufactured overseas, so we have to pay tariffs to acquire the parts and they cost much more. Higher repair costs, lower value. Also, your car insurance just went up.
Repairs on any products you currently own, more expensive.
Don’t worry, in 10 years these prices will stabilize and we’ll still have 8 dollar an hour minimum wage, but a new car only cost 80,000 starting. Well that’s MSRP, Desantis banned direct sales of ICE cars without going through a dealership, so they need their cut.
We were going to subsidize vegetable based meat substitutes to drive the cost of food down, but instead we decided we should ban lab grown meats from existence, and not subsidize the vegatable based meat because if I I don’t know if I’ll like it, NO ONE else is allowed to try it!
Welcome to America, home of our grave
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
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.
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.
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 Trump not know what a tariff is? Or does he know, and he is deliberately misleading his followers?
He likely understands what a tariff is well enough. His problem is that he either doesn’t understand the implications or chooses not to communicate that part to voters.
Trump understands tariffs, as far as they sound fancy and like a threat to foreigners, his followers understands it even less. Using fancy words make you sound authoritative. Trump’s followers like authoritarian leaders.
He understands tariffs in his terms - that “tariffs” is a useful word to trick people into doing what he wants. How tariffs work in the real world is irrelevant to him, the word gets him what he wants, and that’s all he needs from tariffs.
except he “renegotiated” nafta and is now threatening mexico with tariffs. He’s a childlike negotiator playing geopolitics backed by like 5 giant media conglomorates and silicon valley guys who reinvent busses and trains every 5 years.
The reality is the crypto people are going to stash their crypto as the economy tanks intent on living like millionaires. Then the big money will cash out and crash that market leaving all the small holders in the dust.
Trump couldn’t even spell tariff let alone define it.
In general, I say why assume malevolence when ignorance explains it as well… Trump is an exception to that rule.
Drawbacks of living in a country where half the people are dumbshits. It’s the new normal and we better get used to it. When you are out in public doing anything, look around. Roughly half the people you see are fucking idiots.
Half seems optimistic, especially because of how many people didn’t bother to vote
Yeah half is definitely an underestimate, which is really what’s getting me down. A stark realization after so much optimism that we were finally coming out of our national funk.
The association of anally sourced statistics estimates the portion to be closer to 75%.
The New York Times - which has about as much credibility as the AASS - says it’s 92.5%
I see you’re also an AASS man!
Thoughts and prayers for them lol.
Sometimes in order to learn something is bad you need to experience it.
Like, say, from January 20, 2017 to January 20, 2021?
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.
