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The tariffs are being paid by Americans. Why is that a surprise?
(discuss.online)
Video and source: https://xcancel.com/dieworkwear/status/1951851958559703117#m
Most of the population in the US is about to recieve an object lesson in the global nature of modern manufacturing.
This goes well beyond where the raw materials for the final product are sourced from.
Machine components such as bearings. PPE and the polymer feedstock for ear plugs. Wire. The insulation for the wire. Semiconductors. Cutting tools. Etc.
There probably are domestic sources for a lot of these things, but that comes at a premium.
During COVID, I was biting my nails. I still wonder how close we came to global manufacturing collapse due to JIT failure.
If manufacturing collapses in the US, it will take decades to dig out of that hole. It could be something small like the lack of a plasticizer addtive. For the want of a nail and all that.
What's really scary, is that whether or not the tariffs go through, suppliers have already drastically reduced imports. They did it months ago when this bullshit started. It's just now starting to have an impact and will do so for months even if TACO bactracks today.
Commander Orangey McFucknutts may potentially crash manufacturing and the economy with it. It could be a Humpty Dumpty. I don't think most people understand how bad that would be. Starvation, widespread foreclosures and reposessions. Great Depression level stuff, but most of us aren't farmers anymore.
I wonder if this is why Epstein has suddenly, finally, become such a big deal. (Think about it, now it's news even though the facts being reported have been public knowledge for a decade.) It's the billionaire class warning him to knock this shit off.
Buckle up, it might get a little rough.
"It’s the billionaire class warning him to knock this shit off." I'm pretty sure the oligarchs threw their weight behind the fascist in the end was in hope of getting a 2007 style crash where they could buy up what little they do not already own for pennies on the dollar.
The fascist destroying worker rights (hell, anyone but CIS Het white men's rights) and setting up an army with no oversight was just gravy for them all.
Right, they want a deep recession/small depression. They can fuck us even harder.
However, I don't think bringing down the entire house of cards would be beneficial to the billionaires that prefer living in the US. Sure, they can just move to their fifth vacation home in France or whatever. If their way of life is US-centric, they're going to discourage a complete crash.
It seems that a lot of billionaires enjoy underage sex slaves, and those are easier to come by in a crashed economy where people are desperate. Also easier to get organ transplants, allowing these ghouls to live well past their allotted lifespans.
Depends on what you mean by a complete crash. Equites crash, property values cave, massive unemployment, these are good for the oligarchs.
Now if the paper markets freeze or securities jump to double digits, they are looking at the USD losing (some of at least) its status as the reserve currency. That would hurt their fortunes on paper, but they would outright own enough physical wealth it wouldn't matter that much. And as you pointed out, they can just move somewhere else or live in fortified palaces and travel in armored cars or aircraft? This is getting a bit Gibson-eqsue now, a bit hyperbolic on my part perhaps.
I suppose that's what the crypto is for.
Yeah, the crypto will (in theory) allow them to not even give a fuck about the US as far as the stability of the dollar is concerned.
By complete crash, I guess I mostly mean the economy is a smoking crater. Manufacturing grinds to a halt due to tariffs. Liquidity dries up. It takes decades to rebuild from that, it arguably took WWII to undo the Great Depression. An important difference is that most people were still farming when that happened. If we had a depression on that scale today, my gut says it would be much worse. Arguably, it would be apocalyptic as the US standard of living rapidly dropped to a third world standard.
So, yeah, billionaires would totally be fine. However, they wouldn't be able to visit their hometown, go shopping, spouses and kids would bitch. Even a billionaire likes ice cream.
The Epstein thing is totally a hunch on my part, but it's a strong hunch. Chump is fucking up things he doesn't have the capacity to understand. It's fine if he rapes kids or puts them in concentration camps, but a billionaire's concubine starts bitching about a boutique store or whatever, it becomes a billionaire problem.
Which is pretty fucking sick. Hoping the parasites are inconvenienced enough to maybe prevent famine.
Pop quiz. In the last three elections: Which US presidential candidates received more donations from billionaires, and corporations? Who does Jeff Bezos endorse?
Bonus question: Which famously anti-union corporation is REALLY into promoting LGBTQ issues and is that connected to anti-union activity in any way?
BONUS bonus question: I can't be bothered to frame this as a question, Amazon and the whole ass US Democratic party pushed gay stuff to get you off their backs about economy stuff that matters.
We can walk and chew bubble gum at the same time. LGBT rights and the rights of other minority groups are not some distraction. You can't ask someone to give a shit about economic inequality when they're fighting for their rights against discrimination in housing, healthcare, and employment. Those things affect minority groups a lot more directly than broader wealth inequality. You can create a socialist paradise that is still a Hell on Earth for queer people.
I'm actually more concerned with this middle-case. Consider fire-retardant additives for injection-molded plastics becoming unavailable or too expensive to get. That's one of those things that requires someone to either ignore the law, or maybe politicians move the goalposts in order to save face; you wouldn't notice in the end product right away. Meanwhile, standards on consumer goods drop by just that much, and things are a little less safe. Only that times how ever many other little corner-cases like this fall by the wayside, for products in every industry (e.g. food).
Whether or not he crashes the economy, I think it's almost a forgone conclusion that what you're describing happens.
They're already loosening standards/funding at the FDA, CDC, and FAA. I wouldn't be suprised if these wingnuts deregulated CFCs and asbestos. Whatever manufacturers ask for, they can probably get; especially if they can call it climate change hoax or nanny state BS.
It will result in so much death and suffering. Some of it will take decades to manifest like relaxing allowable carcinogens.
Yup.
Systems are fragile.
Ours is like a house of cards and we just let a felon rapist pedophile come in and knock it all over.
We'll be seeing the effects, large and small, for a long, long time.
I'm sure it'd be sold as "toughening people up like in the good old days before woke pussies".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ZTGwcHQfLY
In short ... America (and largely europe) no longer makes dies for things. We've even exported the knowledge of the die making process.
"Made in America" "Made in the UK" "Made in France" all mean largely the same thing. Imported materials, imported dies, imported components assembled in ""
I feel like George Carlin's piece on marketing buzzwords applies here.
To paraphrase: "Full of chocolatey goodness" means "no fucking chocolate."
Only in this case: "Made in America" means "not fucking made here."
Sucks that the rest of us with neurons that interact with each other have to learn what we already know along with all the knuckle draggers that dropped out of high school.
Maybe he hopes the recession will hit when the next president takes office, so he will be able to say „look, they broke the country!“
He lacks the foresight for that. My crystal ball says we may see a recession by the end of the month if we're not already in one now.