Oh jeez, even if it isn't true, "It's okay, I'll be able to afford the price increase no matter what. Best of luck to you though." is the best possible response to anyone convinced that tariffs are a good idea.
Just agree with them and say "I don't mind paying 2, 3, even 4 times as much for groceries and other household items if it teaches China a lesson. Elon said we were going to need to make sacrifices to do this."
Yes but Trump, Musk, Thiel, and other billionaires will get a little bit richer and all they had to do was tell a bunch of stupid fucking yokels that it's okay to be bigoted trash.
If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you.
Yes but Trump, Musk, Thiel, and other billionaires will get a little bit richer
You all still don't get it.
It's not that people were convinced they'd get richer. It's that they've gotten significantly poorer over the last four years while Dems were in charge.
The economy moves slowly. The impacts on your pocketbook over the last 4 years were a direct result of the tariffs trump imposed during his previous stint in the White House, his absolutely abysmal reaction to Covid, and several other things he and his cronies did during that time.
Biden fixed much of that, and as a result, inflation in the US slowed so it was less than in other countries that were impacted by many of the same market forces. It was already too much to completely reverse, but it was far better than it would have been otherwise.
But instead of understanding what actually happened, loads of people seem to think the president can just flip a lever and the whole economy will turn on a dime – despite decades and decades that show that the economy is always better under democrats. Because democrats fix things, so the next republican administration looks good for a few years, then republicans break things, so the next democrat administration looks bad for the first few years. The economy is as nimble as the Titanic.
So now, the US has voted the same guy back in who wrecked the economy that we’re still feeling the effects of, so he can reverse Biden’s improvements and instead make it far, far worse.
People’s inability to learn the absolute basics of how the economy works is about to fuck us all.
How are "Dems in charge" when Republicans have had a majority in both Congress and the Supreme Court for years now? For half the time there was also a Republican President.
It is crazy to me that when the GOP essentially ran the government and still did absolutely nothing for this country and didn't follow through on anything they blamed the "deep state" and people still bought into it.
I sincerely doubt most of these stories are actually happening. It's true. But I doubt the actual interaction occurred. Seeing this same story different ways all over the internet. I live in a region surrounded by right wingers and aside from those flags and occasional hats, I hardly ever hear anyone outright talk about their politics.
I actually believe it because it's exactly what happened in brexit. Conservatives voted to leave and then they found out what that meant.
Conservatives were so focused on winning that they didn't bother to actually look into Trump's "policies" and are now Pikachu faced when understanding it.
These are the same assholes that are going to completely forget two years from now that Trump raised prices and will still vote Republican in the midterms.
As an European: The Brexiteers who "suddenly" were excluded from free travel and prolonged stays within EU due to their own voting gave a stream of similar stories. It was and is hilarious to watch.
I do believe that such dialogues are really happening and will continue to happen in the US around the clock from now on.
For this to be true, a MAGA diehard would have to have listened to an explanation of what a tariff is from a left leaning person they are trying to taunt, understood the explanation, and believed the explanation that left leaning person gave them that disagrees with what Trump has said.
I have no doubt many MAGA types could understand the explanation, but when in gloat mode, I seriously doubt much listening would happen. Even if they did listen, the chances of them believing that explanation over Trump's seem low to me.
Just statistically they have to happen. There are millions of democrats with maga neighbors that cant shut up about shit but dont actually know what they are talking about. Whether these stories happen to the people that post about them is a different question.
Yeah, it's the "the train stood up and clapped" bullshit that people post on their socials.
If these people knew anything about history they'd know about President Hoover raising tariffs, which prompted every country we traded with to do the same, making everything more expensive and worsening the Great Depression. The thing is, for all the podcasts and 24-Hour news voters in this country consume, they don't know jack shit other than to pull the lever for whichever candidate their preferred news network tells them to.
They'll just say the loans should be privatized. Because it turned out great last time we gave private companies free reign to swindle vulnerable populations into signing massive loans for societal necessities.
Just was at the grocery store. Was joking around with cashier, he and the bag boy talked about the ad playing over the loudspeakers about avocados from Mexico. They seemed nice. He finishes ringing me up and I groan. He says he's really looking forward to prices coming down in the next four years. I started laughing at him, saying that's not how tariffs work and that we're all fucked.
Yeah we're stocking up on everything we can now, so we can tighten our belts and hopefully save some money over the next few years, but also not directly give the oligarchs any more of our money. I've been researching local and woman owned businesses that I'd like to support for the necessities, and thankfully our grocery store is a local chain. I have a friend who is offering to make basic clothing, including underwear, in exchange for childcare, eggs, and produce. People around here are going to get creative and it's actually giving me some hope that things won't be as bad as we think.
I have a neighbor who voted for Trump. He relies on aspects of medicaid, to get insulin, that the GOP have directly targeted for removal from what it will cover. I told him this, he didn't believe me. So I showed him it in writing from a GOP source. He said that Trump will find some way for people like him to get their insulin. They just want this particular way gone because it's a bad method. I even pointed out that there was zero discussion of changing these policies, to make them more sensible, or anything like that, just an outline that they plan on stopping that coverage. He just doubled down that he won't be abandoned, they aren't just getting rid of the coverage, they are getting rid of THAT SPECIFIC WAY OF DOING IT because it is inefficient, or whatever.
If you explained that tariffs would hurt their income, and employment, in a way they understood, they would just assume there was something being cooked up to make sure that didn't happen. Now that all the manufacturing companies, here, are demonstrating that there will be big losses of profit margin, and cutting compensation to workers, they are mad. However, I personally doubt they will stay mad, or mad enough, or that they won't just end up blaming Joe Biden for it.
Before now, these programs didn't get cut because of the checks and balances of our government. They probably think this presidency will be like the 45th. Those protections are gone and a lot of people are going to suffer and die because of it.
It doesn't matter how much conservatives suffer from conservative policy. They will ALWAYS find someone to blame but themselves. Hell, there are parts of our country that feel like 3rd world countries when you drive through them that have been voting Republican exclusively for generations and they still don't understand why their lives suck so much.
I don't understand humans, they keep putting their hands on the stove and making fun of people who don't do that, all while wondering why their hands hurt.
Wouldn't have helped. Learning isn't what Americans do. Americans like finding things to be mad about and then making decisions based on their emotional responses.
Can't fix stupid without massively improving the public education system, and stupid Americans just elected the guys that ran on deconstructing the public education system.
Your first paragraph isn’t even an exaggeration. The worst part for me about being around conservative relatives and acquaintances is the negativity. They are addicted to anger and outrage and jealousy. They are always complaining about something or talking about things that other people have or how much money they make.
The issue is you can't teach someone who not only doesn't want to learn, they react in opposition to the idea of understanding anything outside of emotional reactions.
That's where cult deprogramming comes into play. There are people who specialize in getting people out of that kind of mindset your argument describes. The rest of us need to do our part and educate, even if it doesn't always have the impact we hope in the moment.
This election proved that there are a lot of dumb-asses that need to go back to school to take U.S. Government, Civics, and Economics because they didn't learn it the first time, or they never had to take them to graduate high school. Seriously, why in the f#ck would you entrust the economy to a dumbf#ck who bankrupted TWO casinos!! The freaking business model, of a casino, is people walk in, then over the course of two to four hours hand you all their money and then leave. You REALLY have to be a dumbf#ck to fail at that.
A few weeks before the election Donald Trump and Elon Musk had a little circle jerk podcast interview with each other. They spent time talking about how anti-union they are and how much they hate worker’s rights. Then working class Americans went out in droves and voted for those two rich assholes who openly talked about wishing workers had less rights.
We made a guy who was the first president in U.S. history to stand on a picket line with striking workers step down because he was old. Then we hired another equally old rich guy who openly talks about wishing workers had less rights.
That's how stupid Americans are. And this election showed us that the majority of Americans are that stupid. When a majority of a society is that stupid, there are no happy endings. We're set for a period of long decline.
Yes, I remember the reports on that podcast. (There was no way that I could listen to it.) Apparently, common sense has left the building. When I took ancient history, another student asked how or why did the Roman Empire fall. (Honestly, the answer has multiple factors.) However, we have witnessed the reason why the U.S. will fail. The republicans' planned results of demolishing the education system has seen fruition and the plot of "Idiocracy" has come to pass.
"The government that you elect is the government you deserve." --- Thomas Jefferson
If everyone knew U.S. Government & Economics, they would also know that there isn't too much they president can do to improve the economy. He can make it worse quickly with bad policies, but not much on improving it. He cannot control the Fed or prices. The last president who tried to control prices was Nixon with a prices freeze, and that started the dominoes which made everything worse all the way through to the end of Carter's term. The presidential policies that can effect the economy for good, most of the time, take a year or more to see results. Basically, that's why the republicans get credit for improving the economy, from the democratic president before him. This is the first time that there's been a 'soft landing' from inflation, if memory serves.
Well the part about the neighbors not how tariffs work is believable. I have lost count of how many people just think china had to send us money directly to us.
Shiv nice thought though if you're going to make up stories I would recommend and you don't have to take this on board it's just a suggestion but believe me punctuation makes your posts vastly more readable I promise I'm not joking thanks for listening as you were
I’ll suffer more, but I can take more of a financial hit. Really I’m getting the political equivalent to a groin shot. It’s not fair, it’s not cool, and it should be off limits. I should get to be comfortable keeping my assets stateside.
Not so sure about the prices of firearms and ammunition remaining stable. Under Mango Mussolini, the fucknut MAGATs went into full panick buying mode and demand flew past supply resulting in price increases across the board.
How many gun manufacturers are actually based in the US? I’m fairly sure it’s like 2. Sig and Smith & Wesson… most firearms are imported. Including Springfield, which used to be a US manufacturer.
Never mind, it’s still a fair number. Lots are imported though and you’re paying a lot more for a lot of US brands.
Even if they're assembled in the US, do those US brands have entirely domestic supply chains? If they need to import raw materials for manufacturing their products, I doubt many CEOs are just going to take the loss on margin in the name of patriotism.
no one suffers more from conservative policy than poor, rural conservatives.
That's a nice fiction, but they're already so cut out of the fruits of the economy that its dubious at best.
The folks who suffer on net will be middle class professionals who see their economic floor drop out from under them. They'll be forced into living like poor, rural conservatives as prices skyrocket and disposable income dries up.
I, for one, will absolutely enjoy watching them suffer
You won't watch them suffer. You'll watch "Lifestyles of the Crypto Billionaire" on one channel and "Bum Fights: Disenfranchised Minority Edition" on the other because that's what the folks enriching themselves in the Trump economy want to show people.
China's economy is already undergoing a transformation and they've started moving their capital overseas. Chinese owned businesses will operate out of lots of other countries.
Also: it takes a long time for supply chains to handle change as we saw with the pandemic. How many years of high prices for Chinese goods before all of the manufacturing has left China? That is assuming that other countries can immediately match Chinese efficiency and don't have higher prices for many more years due to needing to recoup the initial expenditure.
Yeah it sucks that capitalists outsourced (and continue to outsource even in the service sector) all of your jobs, but they're doing it because even the meager amount of your production that was coming back into your pocket rather than lining theirs is too much for them to tolerate you having.
You're attacking the problem from the wrong angle because that's how they want you to attack it. Funny how the wealthiest American oligarchs aren't threatened by any of this economic change that's supposedly here to help the average American.
You're worried about "right to work" while Elon added 70 billion to his net worth and thousands of people (generations of his offspring) will never have to work a day in their extravagant lives.
Nuh uh. I'm worried that China is actually going to pose a threat. I'm worried that the CCP is going to continually abuse their populus. I'm worried that China will continue to play dirty like they always have.
If they take their operations elsewhere, the problem will expand and the problem would unironically suck. I just hope to god that the other countires they're expanding out to don't allow absolute exploit of their people and have proper inspections, health & safety, certs, standatds, etc.
I fully agree with screw China, but learn to read a damn label to avoid their low quality trash. The looming Mango Mussolini trade war will increase prices.
If you vote for a party that's historically better for the economy and doesn't run convicted felons and rapists who illegally attempted to overturn an election, you are 100% smarter than the guy next door and you shouldn't have to pretend that you're not to appease them.
Idiots don't understand how difficult it is to be smart and not come across as arrogant to idiots who don't realize how stupid they are.
You being upset about it is like me being upset with your ignorance. I am smart enough to know it doesn't help, you on the other hand do not. It's one of a thousand ways I'm smarter than you.
Joking aside, the vitriol is quite something, even though I held back from suggesting all they had to do was have the same conversation with the neighbour, before the election.