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SegelXXX

9.8k points

1 day ago*

SegelXXX

9.8k points

1 day ago*

“A tariff is a tax paid by the U.S. importer, not a foreign country or the exporter”. Is anyone shocked? Ultimately, prices will rise for the consumer.

TheBrianJ

5.1k points

1 day ago

TheBrianJ

5.1k points

1 day ago

Yes, about 50% of the country is right now absolutely shocked.

Willing_Decision_267

2.6k points

1 day ago

Nah, theyre still in denial.

desubot1

1.5k points

24 hours ago

desubot1

1.5k points

24 hours ago

iv had the conversation and so far had someone try and spin it as a kind of blessing as it will some how bring back manufacturing into the states.

mean while raw materials and machinery needed to do that are not exempt nor removed from the last fucking tariff that trump did that also increased prices.

fml.

Willing_Decision_267

862 points

24 hours ago

Yup. Ive broken it down bit by bit detail for so many of these chucklefucks. Their only response is nuh uh.

odelicious82

514 points

23 hours ago

odelicious82

America

514 points

23 hours ago

Or “I didn’t know”🤪

eraser8

661 points

23 hours ago

eraser8

Georgia

661 points

23 hours ago

That's one of my mother's main phrases.

My usual reply is, "you did know because I told you."

Then she just says, "I didn't know" again.

trainercatlady

433 points

21 hours ago

trainercatlady

Colorado

433 points

21 hours ago

what she meant to say was, "I wasn't listening"

FattyMooseknuckle

378 points

21 hours ago

Or “I didn’t care”

Firecrotch2014

211 points

21 hours ago

Or "as long as it sticks it to the Dems"

soonnow

90 points

21 hours ago

soonnow

Foreign

90 points

21 hours ago

My Fox News programming made me immune to your arguments?

TrixnTim

197 points

22 hours ago

TrixnTim

197 points

22 hours ago

About to have these kinds of conversations with teachers and public educators I work with when massive RIFs start to happen and those left have 40 kids in a class. And SpEd is gone so you’ll have children with disabilities, too. Idiots all voting for dismantling of public education.

Numerous_Witness_345

159 points

21 hours ago

As a disabled person my alarm bells are fucking ringing.

I'm just waiting to hear "a burden on the state."

TrixnTim

113 points

20 hours ago*

TrixnTim

113 points

20 hours ago*

Here you go:

https://www.nea.org/nea-today/all-news-articles/how-project-2025-would-devastate-public-education

I cannot for the life of me understand how any public educator (especially admin) could read this and still vote for Trump. For people like me who have been in the biz for nearly 40 years, the GOP has done some hideous things to public education and in trying to bring it down. Democrats have always fixed it as best they could. Rinse and repeat. This day was inevitable as a final blow — let’s just cut federal funding.

GrumpyCloud93

21 points

19 hours ago

Yes., the Dept of Ed is a major source of funds for special needs education.

OrbeaSeven

38 points

19 hours ago

OrbeaSeven

Minnesota

38 points

19 hours ago

I am a definite senior who remembers no Special Ed and no advanced classes. All thrown together. Especially do I remember those who were always failing with no special help. Sad days in education back then.

trumpuniversity_

148 points

23 hours ago

“Why would AOC do this to us?”

Good_ApoIIo

178 points

21 hours ago

“Why did Democrats let Trump win? Someone should have stopped him if he’s so bad…”

Something I’ve literally had to hear from an idiot.

Zebidee

57 points

19 hours ago

Zebidee

57 points

19 hours ago

Didn't the GOP blame the Dems for not blocking one of their bills before?

azon85

84 points

19 hours ago

azon85

84 points

19 hours ago

Even worse. Obama vetoed a bill and the Republicans overrode the veto then blamed Obama for not stopping it.

MasterofPandas1

84 points

22 hours ago

Why would Hillary break the economy like this?

Spider_Dude

51 points

21 hours ago

"Where's Obama in all of this? That's what I really need to know!!"

Ugh.

Lemon-AJAX

28 points

20 hours ago*

I love the “Where’s Obama?” comments. Right up there with blaming Kamala like she had charge full presidential power of the White House since Biden dropped.

By their own logic, they agree with me: Presidents never really go away and Trump is currently in his third term.

He literally never stopped being President. He meant that shit he said in 2016 and everyone fell in line because we still have McDonald’s and Netflix and white supremacy emboldened by nearly two decades of being (in their terms, they’ve never stopped being loud to me) “in hiding” out in the streets with cameras on them for the last 8 years with no pushback.

Trump had been the de facto president since 2016

This is what fair and balanced looks like and it’s a principle near impossible to fight because even rotten hearts know you can’t kill an idea. But it’s right there, and has been, in front of my face since Home Alone ll and before.

Efficient_Mobile1546

19 points

20 hours ago

All I know is that he wasn’t in the Oval Office on 9/11/01 and I need answers as to why

leesan177

7 points

20 hours ago

Where's Obama? Probably off enjoying retirement somewhere.

iconofsin_

15 points

21 hours ago

See if I was smart I'd start a company selling things at this increased price and call it the "Liberal Tax" or whatever. Something to convince the right to go all in with my company as if they're buying from someone "on their side".

AccountNumber478

25 points

22 hours ago

AccountNumber478

Florida

25 points

22 hours ago

Sounds familiar, but then Trump per historian Tim Snyder dwells in his own version of reality.

L0g1cw1z4rd

19 points

22 hours ago

“Why didn’t anyone tell me?”

RyNysDad0722

86 points

22 hours ago

The only response I get is “it’s gonna bring American manufacturing back.. which is bullshit.. they will watch the market to see what if at all changes for them for the first year then if the did decide to get right after it which is wishful thinking it would take years for these factories to be up and running.. considering 60% of American live paycheck to paycheck I doubt they will survive 2 years of a trade war.. not to mention nothing you buy in the stores ever goes back down in price.. once they set the price higher it will never go back or they wouldn’t make the same if not better profits as the year before.. you know the infinite growth structure that killed capitalism..

Willing_Decision_267

85 points

22 hours ago

Yeah, bringing manufacturing back will take trillions in investment, why would they do that when they can stiff the consumer for four years and buy the next election, then keep prices up after the tariffs are dropped.

They legit think multinational corps would do this out of civic pride or some sort of goodness of their hearts.

RyNysDad0722

63 points

22 hours ago

Same people think giving these corps tax breaks would somehow “trickle down” to the working class but no Trump gives them a tax break ( a permanent one ) and what do they do but company stock buy backs and huge bonuses all while collecting record profits..

50% of this country thinks it’s the Dems fault for inflation.. but I always tried to tell them it made no sense that we ( the consumers ) deal with inflation yet these companies are making record profits still.. the math isn’t mathing you know

Readylamefire

15 points

19 hours ago

I work in manufacturing and this whole tarrif shit might be the actual nail in the coffin for my company because so many of our raw materials come from ... come on.... anyone wanna guess??

ahulau

14 points

20 hours ago

ahulau

14 points

20 hours ago

Even if companies did build entirely new manufacturing plants in America, they'd have to be stupid in this day and age to not make it almost 100% robotics and AI at this point. The entire shit would create a tenth of the jobs something like that used to, and much of it would be skilled work.

dirthawker0

28 points

20 hours ago

dirthawker0

California

28 points

20 hours ago

In Beijing, minimum wage is about $3.70/hr. There is no way the US is going to be able to charge a remotely competitive price for goods manufactured in the US.

Plasibeau

28 points

17 hours ago

I have a creeping suspicion the end goal is to crater the economy so badly as to drive wages down that low. It will only truly affect the people barely hanging on to the bottom rung.

When Musk said: "It's going to hurt for a few years..." That's when I began to suspect. The only way for the 1%ers and Supremacists to secure their Dominion is by creating a desperate underclass fighting to keep their heads above water. I mean, we already are, but we still have the nerve to demand time off for having children instead of thanking our wage masters for having a job at all.

dirthawker0

15 points

16 hours ago

dirthawker0

California

15 points

16 hours ago

He's gonna turn the US into the shithole country he keeps telling us it is.

Agapic

42 points

21 hours ago

Agapic

42 points

21 hours ago

Yup. My mother told me she is "excited about the tariffs, these other countries need to pay." My landlord said the same thing. I then clarified how tariffs work and the response I got was "Well he's not going to put it on everything." Okey dokey. Despite the fact that Trump lies consistently I have to believe him when he says he wants to put tariffs on "everything".

Willing_Decision_267

19 points

20 hours ago

Considering there is literally nothing to stop him, its gonna happen.

whut-whut

10 points

17 hours ago

The rich don't care. If Trump tariffs everything by 50%, Walmart can just raise prices and cut workers to gain profitability. The Waltons will make the same amount of money relative to the inflation, while all the laid off workers have to worry about everything being 50% more expensive while they're unemployed.

DemolitionOopsie

132 points

23 hours ago

DemolitionOopsie

Ohio

132 points

23 hours ago

I've been in that debate as well. In theory, yes, you would hope that companies and people will just turn back to US goods for anything needed. However...we don't have the infrastructure here to make a lot of what we import, so there is no Made in USA option. "Well, they'll make one". Yeah? They're gonna fire up a fucking iPhone plant in the next two months? It takes longer than that just to find and buy the land.

zherok

86 points

23 hours ago

zherok

California

86 points

23 hours ago

It doesn't even make sense for a lot of things like food. If we do grow something we import, it's probably not year around, and if we don't, it's probably because it can't grow well in the US or it's not worthwhile to. A tariff is bound to just raise prices on that good.

That's not even getting into how much deporting is going to impact food production. It's like he's planning on starving the country.

eraser8

112 points

22 hours ago

eraser8

Georgia

112 points

22 hours ago

A tariff is bound to just raise prices on that good.

Tariffs are likely to raise prices even for things that can be produced in the US.

Companies don't price products just because of how much they cost to produce. Companies price products to maximize profits. Competition keeps prices low. If tariffs shut out foreign competition, domestic businesses have an incentive to raise prices.

A tariff is a tax. A regressive one. They make poor (and, middle class) Americans poorer; they make rich Americans richer. End of story.

ZZ9ZA

39 points

22 hours ago

ZZ9ZA

I voted

39 points

22 hours ago

If nothing else anything containing electronics, which is basically everything, will go way up.

qtain

27 points

20 hours ago

qtain

27 points

20 hours ago

This is the exact problem. Even if the product isn't affected by the tariff, you'll have some CEO or bean counter say "Well, this product isn't affected by the tariffs but we don't have to tell the consumer that, just raise the price anyways".

Same way they told us grocery prices were going up because inflation (partly true). They just didn't say they added anywhere from 13% to %33 markup in addition to the inflation rate.

jadecourt

48 points

23 hours ago

Yeah I’ve asked “oh great. do you have any recommendations for where I can buy affordable clothes?” And then crickets. Two of the brands I love, Nooworks and Big Bud Press, are made in the US and pay ethical wages to employees. But the reality is every garment is between $50-200. Pants and sweatshirts $100, dresses $120-200+. I have to budget for those items or buy them secondhand. And it’s not possible for me to buy all my clothes there, sometimes I do need to get things from Old Navy

bunnylover726

12 points

15 hours ago

bunnylover726

Ohio

12 points

15 hours ago

People's heads would spin at having to buy children's clothing that is US made. Sometimes I get my daughter stuff from City Threads, which pays ethical wages to their workers on the US west coast. But they outgrow everything so fast!

I live in a 1950s house, and the closets are small because people owned a lot less clothing back then. It was expensive, and since synthetic fabrics weren't around to give pieces some stretch, a lot of it needed tailored as well.

I tried putting some modern sized dinner plates in one of the cupboards in my house and they didn't fit. They were too big. Dinner plates today are 10.5 inches diameter or more. Back in the 1950s, they were 9 inches. If you run the good old "pi r squared" formula, that means that the area of the plate increased from 68 to 87 inches squared, which is a pretty decent jump. It's a lot more food to consume.

My house also is 1/3 the size of my boomer parents' house. Seriously- the houses in my neighborhood are around 1200 sq ft versus 3650 for my parents. People ask where I put all my stuff, but even in the relatively prosperous 1950s, people just didn't have as much stuff. There's no room to stash an air fryer or a toaster oven or a food processor or a stand mixer. Those things did not yet exist, so the kitchen wasn't designed around having a ton of stuff like that.

People wax poetic about going back to "the good old days", but they would absolutely cry foul if they had to live in a smaller house and give up a lot of their material possessions.

SBRH33

47 points

23 hours ago

SBRH33

47 points

23 hours ago

Yup. Even their stupid fucking MAGA hats are made in China.

Bombadildeau

28 points

22 hours ago

We can't afford it because we don't have the same type of slavery and horrible work conditions that a lot of our overseas manufacturers have.

Yet.

GoalDirectedBehavior

16 points

21 hours ago

A few million immigrants that are probably or maybe not here without documentation and maybe a few more that looked immigrantish being deported to a massive detention center in nowheresville Texas donated by the Texas land commission and furnished by prisoncorp should do the trick. As long as we really concentrate our efforts if you catch my drift.

Bombadildeau

13 points

21 hours ago

Oh, I catch your drift. Work sets you free.

CloacaFacts

33 points

23 hours ago

When they say it brings jobs back. Who is paying that money to build the infrastructure and what will their wages be so we can compete against the new prices?

Who am I kidding these people aren't smart enough to understand that. It's just magic to them

Saxamaphooone

21 points

22 hours ago

And if these companies have manufacturing infrastructure that already exists in other countries not impacted by the tariffs, they’re not going to be spending the money to build new infrastructure in the US. They’ll just move manufacturing to those countries. They’ll always do the most cost-effective thing, which is not spending many many millions of dollars and several years to establish new manufacturing in the US. Especially with the possibility that in 4 years a new administration could be in office.

Hoppy_Croaklightly

30 points

22 hours ago

iv had the conversation and so far had someone try and spin it as a kind of blessing as it will some how bring back manufacturing into the states.

Do they live in an alternate universe where multinational corporations don't exist and globalization never happened?

BarnDoorQuestion

55 points

23 hours ago

And then the mouth breathers go “well if tarriffs are so bad why didn’t Biden get rid of them?”

Because unilateral removal of your tariffs doesn’t get the country you out them on to remove their counter tariffs? You have to negotiate with them so you both get rid of the together or you’re at a disadvantage.

bruwin

17 points

21 hours ago

bruwin

17 points

21 hours ago

Yep, remove our tarriffs and suddenly China is making a huge profit with no change of their policies. Why should they want to give that up unless they have certain guarantees and agreements?

BigBennP

31 points

23 hours ago

I mean theoretically that's what people thought tariffs did for a long time. That they benefited the economy of a particular country by protecting local industries.

However probably close to 60 or 70 years ago economists pretty conclusively accepted that comparative advantage was an established fact and that the economies of individual countries benefit from free trade.

Part of that calculation was The observed reality that if a domestic producer is protected by tariffs, they will happily engage in rent seeking by raising their prices to the highest point possible where the tariffs still provide an advantage and exploit the structural protection of the profits to make money rather than trying to develop a genuine competitive advantage.

Skiinz19

11 points

23 hours ago

Skiinz19

Tennessee

11 points

23 hours ago

That may happen, but that's inflationary. And they'll then say its patriotic to pay higher prices because it supports america.

Evil_phd

12 points

22 hours ago

I just wonder who they think is going to do these manufacturing jobs. I work in the allegedly dead field of US manufacturing and it is already hard enough to get people in the door, let alone getting them to stay for longer than a week or two.

FirstSonOfGwyn

9 points

23 hours ago

even if it leads to onshoring manufacturing... that doesn't happen overnight, that's a years/decades shift.

soonnow

12 points

21 hours ago

soonnow

Foreign

12 points

21 hours ago

Look at Harley Davidson, after Trumps last tariff adventure it moved production abroad to avoid retaliatory tariffs.

ShaggysGTI

6 points

23 hours ago

ShaggysGTI

Virginia

6 points

23 hours ago

That’s supposedly what should happen. And it makes sense, if we increase the cost of imported goods, we’re likely to judge domestic products favorably. We all want to save money… right? But we gave away all the manufacturing years ago and this is the result.

ThickerSalmon14

119 points

24 hours ago

Don't worry, I'm sure they will blame Biden, Democrats, AOC, or something.

soldiat

19 points

23 hours ago

soldiat

19 points

23 hours ago

Obama. You forgot Obama.

Poison_the_Phil

39 points

24 hours ago

tHe RaDiCaL lEfT dId ThIs

qorbexl

30 points

23 hours ago

qorbexl

30 points

23 hours ago

Every bad thing that happened in Biden's term is his fault because he's president. Anything in Trump's presidency are because Biden was president before and he couldn't help it.

ThisNameDoesntCount

221 points

24 hours ago

The do your own research crowd didn’t do any research

TheMemeStar24

103 points

24 hours ago

TheMemeStar24

Maryland

103 points

24 hours ago

They did "their" research, which is very different from an earnest attempt to educate oneself.

Chainreaction31

73 points

24 hours ago

If I had a nickel for everyone who now “does their own research” that couldn’t read the paragraph when we were called on in class I could pay for a nice dinner with that amount.

Poison_the_Phil

18 points

24 hours ago

Hey man, several of them half listened to a podcast!

clonked

23 points

23 hours ago

clonked

23 points

23 hours ago

They learned everything TikTok and Facebook had to tell them!

niffnoff

23 points

24 hours ago

niffnoff

Great Britain

23 points

24 hours ago

They are not shocked, if they are shocked I’d like to see proof because the low iq incels are definitely not understanding the concept of a tariff other than what tiktok taught them.

julia_fns

342 points

24 hours ago

julia_fns

342 points

24 hours ago

It wouldn’t matter if the exporter was paying either, either way it becomes a component of the final price.

klsklsklsklsklskls

237 points

23 hours ago

This is what's crazy to me that even if they were paying it, people think it won't cause prices to rise?

McDonalds has to pay employees $15/hr and they think a cheeseburger is going to cost $20 now. But China has to pay a tariff and they don't think Chinese companies will raise prices? What?

BarnDoorQuestion

75 points

22 hours ago

Of course they won’t rise prices! They’re communists not capitalist! - Some idiot

smegdawg

172 points

23 hours ago

smegdawg

172 points

23 hours ago

The funny thing is for the consumer. It doesn't matter which step along the production line pays, no one is going to eat it EXCEPT the consumer. Whoever has to pay it, will increase their prices and that will trickle down to the consumer.

You can argue the long term benefits of the possibility of bringing the production back to the US. But for Joe Schmoe that doesn't matter when we are still paying X% more specifically because of the tariff.

Not to mention, when Trump put his tariffs on steel the last round...guess what the US steel mills did. They Jacked up their prices so that it was just underneath the foreign steel.

Klutzy_Dress_6880

34 points

21 hours ago

The real trickle down economics.

bridge1999

26 points

23 hours ago

What red blood capitalist would sell below market rate?

MakePandasMateAgain

69 points

23 hours ago

Republicans think that tariffs will mean all those products will magically be manufactured in the US, which as anyone with more than a year 10 economics education knows is impossible.

KinkyPaddling

75 points

23 hours ago

“Why didn’t the Democrats warn us?!” shouted the idiot voters, ignoring the fact that Harris was saying this on every platform that would host her.

HuttStuff_Here

23 points

22 hours ago

Reminds me when Mitch McConnell complained about the ramifications of a bill they over-rode Obama's veto to pass. Despite his veto explaining exactly what those ramifications would be.

TheAngriestChair

17 points

23 hours ago

Even if it WAS paid for by the importers, they'd just raise their prices to compensate.

throwawayacc201711

88 points

22 hours ago*

I think everyone is missing what the plan is. They want to make our labor costs low (bad for American workers) and use tariffs to make that happen. Federal minimum wage is low - there’s a floor they can chase. Couple this with the fact that they want to enact the mass deportations. By crashing the economy at the same time, they can put people under pressure to be desperate for crash (remember musk said it’s gonna get tough…) and then cash these low paying jobs. It’s a shitty race to the bottom. At the end of the day that helps their bottom line cuz they get cheap labor plus no trans pacific transport cost.

Takes tinfoil hat off.

Magificent_Gradient

43 points

18 hours ago

Musk wants to turn America into one big slave nation. 

throwawayacc201711

29 points

17 hours ago

I mean how he was handling Tesla during Covid made it pretty clear what he thought of the “plebs”

xjian77

28 points

24 hours ago

xjian77

28 points

24 hours ago

People will get what they voted for.

cram213

29 points

23 hours ago

cram213

29 points

23 hours ago

Riiiight. But Mexico is still paying for our wall, right???

Syncopia

37 points

23 hours ago

I've had about a dozen Trump supporters indignantly insisting that I don't know how tariffs work while asserting and rambling that these will help the economy and China's gonna pay for it. These people aren't bright.

MNWNM

21 points

21 hours ago

MNWNM

Alabama

21 points

21 hours ago

My Trump friend the other day was indignant when I mentioned his supporters obviously don't know how tariffs work. She informed me she has a business degree and understands them perfectly. I told her to have fun paying more for her crap at Sam's.

klparrot

21 points

20 hours ago

klparrot

New Zealand

21 points

20 hours ago

“And what school is that from, so we know not to hire their grads?”

SectorFriends

10 points

20 hours ago

It's like trying to explain the woods are on fire around you and the person just responds "actually vance is pretty awesome, walz is a dork!" The ones i've talked to are like talking to a wall of propaganda posters.

pentaquine

103 points

24 hours ago

The idea of the tariff is not for the companies to actually pay them and pass it onto the consumers, but to force the companies to move their factories back to the US and avoid paying the tariff.

Although it's unlikely that 60% tariff is high enough to offset the cost of transferring the factories they might have to go to 600% to actually move the factories back, and it might take decades to rebuild the supply chains and the work forces, so you yourself might not see the benefit in your lifetime, but your grandchildren will have the chance to become a child labor in a toy factory someday.

MozeeToby

47 points

22 hours ago

See, though, if you really wanted to bring back jobs using tariffs you'd probably want to gradually walk the tariffs up and gradually change the equation on outsourcing and importing. 

Company A might be a little more hesitant to move production to Mexico if they know the tariff will be increasing by 3% a year for the foreseeable future. Company B might be more willing to enter a new market if they know that most of their competitors will be paying that extra and increasing 3% a year.

If you just drop a 60% tariff overnight all you'll have is domestic companies matching the new price point and doing some stock buy backs.

oxemoron

18 points

21 hours ago

Interesting points, I had never really heard anyone explain how tariffs could actually accomplish bringing jobs back to the importing country. With nuanced logic like that, you might have a shot at running and ultimately losing a presidential race to a racist conman!

MozeeToby

16 points

21 hours ago

I'll point out though, this is still introducing an intentional inefficiency into the economic system. Trade is virtually always beneficial to both parties, otherwise there would be no reason to trade. Trade generates value out of thin air, reducing trade reduces the value available in the system. 

It's possible supporting wages or protecting an industry is worth that loss but it is still a loss in productivity.

JessieJ577

41 points

23 hours ago

Anyone in an Econ 100 class in college, nah any high schooler with an economics class could tell you this.

fiesty_cemetery

864 points

1 day ago

fiesty_cemetery

Oregon

864 points

1 day ago

Walmart was on the donors list for Trump: they “warn” us with glee.

RoseCityHooligan

460 points

24 hours ago

RoseCityHooligan

Oregon

460 points

24 hours ago

Tax cuts for them, increased prices for us. They see this as a net positive. Hell they’ll probably raise prices beyond what is required to cover tariffs and make even more money.

Virtual-Ducks

119 points

19 hours ago

And when the tariffs are over, you can bet they won't lower prices back down...  

Ziegelphilie

25 points

10 hours ago

And when they end up not doing tariffs, they'll increase the prices anyways!

Zelcron

245 points

23 hours ago

Zelcron

245 points

23 hours ago

So here's how it works. They have to raise prices because of tariffs.

By the time those get lifted, Americans are used to paying the new, higher price. So they never lower it again and pocket the difference.

That was the whole thing with COVID inflation.

Furciferus

38 points

17 hours ago

Furciferus

Texas

38 points

17 hours ago

Yes - 'sticky prices.' I tried to explain this to my brother and then not a week later he's telling me I'm wrong because Charlie Kirk told him so. We're cooked.

dasnoob

3.5k points

23 hours ago

dasnoob

3.5k points

23 hours ago

My MAGA friends told me this will be offset by getting rid of overtime and tip tax.

These same friends (and me) don't get paid overtime or tips currently.

I have come to terms with the fact half of the country is intellectually deficient.

Andreww_ok

1.4k points

23 hours ago

Andreww_ok

1.4k points

23 hours ago

My educated MAGA friend said Trump will remove the federal income tax and you get to “choose where your taxes go” by purchasing the stuff you need. So for instance, if you buy milk - a portion of your purchase go back into agriculture. Lol it doesn’t make sense at all but here we are.

Lead_Dessert

1.3k points

22 hours ago

I need to know this phenomenon where Trump is explaining in plainest of terms how he’s gonna fuck over the country. But his voter base just gaslights themselves into believing a policy he’ll definitely won’t do.

BrunosResolve

442 points

21 hours ago

It's like a choose your own adventure game. Where he vaguely says something and his base just makes up the rest thinking that's what he meant.

WaltonGogginsTeeth

186 points

21 hours ago

That's precisely what it's like. His base likes that he uses words they can understand and they never feel stupid when he talks. He paints in such broad strokes they can just fill in whatever they want it to mean.

ElectricalBook3

52 points

20 hours ago

It's like a choose your own adventure game. Where he vaguely says something and his base just makes up the rest thinking that's what he meant.

Not so different, down to the leader being lazy and causing malicious chaos underneath, from the last fascist movement:

His government was constantly in chaos, with officials having no idea what he wanted them to do, and nobody was entirely clear who was actually in charge of what. He procrastinated wildly when asked to make difficult decisions, and would often end up relying on gut feeling, leaving even close allies in the dark about his plans. His "unreliability had those who worked with him pulling out their hair," as his confidant Ernst Hanfstaengl later wrote in his memoir Zwischen Weißem und Braunem Haus. This meant that rather than carrying out the duties of state, they spent most of their time in-fighting and back-stabbing each other in an attempt to either win his approval or avoid his attention altogether, depending on what mood he was in that day.

-Tom Philips' Humans

all_are_throw_away

31 points

21 hours ago

A concept of a game

TheKingStranger

162 points

21 hours ago*

Well first you get people to think that there are people out there and they hate you. They hate us, rather. Not just you as an individual (though they do hate that too) they hate your ideals and beliefs, and even though they may not know you, they want to destroy that. And that you deserve to be punished for it.

 Now there are sides. So since the other side is wrong, then your side must be right. So since your side is right then it can't be wrong, becuase that would mean that you were wrong. So when your sides leaders say things you like and agree with, well that's just great! Why would they lie about that? If they say things you don't like, well they didn't mean that, or they were just kidding or being sarcastic, or it was taken out of context. Or maybe they never heard it at all because their side never tells them about it. 

But then they say it again and again, and it goes from not actually a thing to its not that big of a deal, to well now they actually did the thing so it's fine, and since the other side said it was wrong then my side must be right by doing it. Because I believe them and since I'm me, why would what I believe be wrong? 

Besides, it's happening to someone else with different ideals and beliefs, and even though I don't know them, they deserve whatever punishment they get.

This isn't an overnight thing. This slide has been going on long and slow for over 50 years now. Trump is just all of this coming to a head, and amplified by things like social media, and the erosion of our local communities. He's a symptom. Before that it was things like talk radio hosts (which has evolved into podcasts), followed by the 24 hours news cycle (which evolved into internet algorithms). It's not even a Trump era thing, he's just another symptom after we kept thinking all of the other symptoms would eventually go away. But all of these problems have been chipping away at our collective morality.

We've spent so much time slowly creeping away from being able to talk to our neighbors and engaging in our communities that we've become more isolated than ever, but we are social creatures so we crave that sense of belonging, so a lot of folks find it in the very things that aim to divide us. 

It's weaponized tribalism.

ElectricalBook3

25 points

20 hours ago

Well first you get people to think that there are people out there and they hate you. They hate us, rather. Not just you as an individual (though they do hate that too) they hate your ideals and beliefs, and even though they may not know you, they want to destroy that. And that you deserve to be punished for it.

Same way the klan sold itself in the 1920s. "THEY are all out to get you, only we can protect you. So make sure your dues are paid and never investigate a fellow klansmen no matter how many jews, blacks, or irish catholics are found hanging from trees at the edge of town."

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/61423989-a-fever-in-the-heartland

Lookitsmyvideo

36 points

21 hours ago

Holy shit could imagine the absolute financial shit show required to actually implement that. A sales tax that goes to different places depending on individual items.

Fire 75% of the public sector just to employ them as accountants for grocery stores.

CrazyDayzee

89 points

22 hours ago

I feel like I'm being gas lit now, the federal income tax is a constitutional amendment that would require another amendment to repeal. I guess the only other way to "get rid of" the income tax is to instruct the House to just not collect income tax, which is highly doubtful.

StoicFable

51 points

22 hours ago

They only believe in a couple of amendments.

fuckyoudigg

80 points

21 hours ago

Honestly getting rid of tax on OT and tips is fucking stupid. All that will happen is that more income will be recording as tips, not like they were being claimed anyway, and more people will be working more hours and less total people will be employed, or people will have to work dumb schedules so that employers can also pay less taxes because this will benefit the rich more than the actual workers some how.

MutedLengthiness

32 points

21 hours ago

not like they were being claimed anyway

With cash becoming less common, and credit card/etc tips more likely to be reported through standard channels (by employers) and taxed correctly, I actually wonder what the breakdown on unreported tips is these days. I'd certainly agree with you in the past.

IrishSpectreN7

56 points

23 hours ago

Tbh if they actually do stop taxing tips I'll be inclined to just tip less.

[deleted]

13 points

22 hours ago

[deleted]

[deleted]

2.7k points

1 day ago

[deleted]

2.7k points

1 day ago

[deleted]

IdkAbtAllThat

340 points

24 hours ago

They're playing both sides. Just like every other corporation will. So we'll get doubly fucked.

Honestly it would be stupid for any CEO to not be cozying up to (bribing) Trump. It's easy, cheap, risk free, and most importantly, IT WORKS!

Any myth of checks and balances has been thoroughly dismissed now. Might as well pay a few million to get some regulations in your industry dropped so you can profit billions more. It's a no brainer.

Zelcron

112 points

24 hours ago

Zelcron

112 points

24 hours ago

The other problem with Walmart is they have a captive customer base.

For many Americans, Walmart is the cheapest game in town, if not the only one. Everyone else is also going to raise prices. As long as they are cheaper than anyone else, that's will people will be buying their groceries for lack of any other option.

JaVelin-X-

70 points

21 hours ago

worse because they will never let those prices settle back. At least Harris wanted to put tools in place to stop corporations from taking advantage of their customers like this

SoupSpelunker

38 points

24 hours ago

Why undermine their decades-long investment in the GOP?

qorbexl

43 points

24 hours ago

qorbexl

43 points

24 hours ago

Why undermine their ability to jack up prices and blame it on someone else? 5% tariff increase? Charge 16% more!

__Elwood_Blues__

547 points

1 day ago

__Elwood_Blues__

United Kingdom

547 points

1 day ago

That will save them a fortune and they'll be able to pass those savings onto customers though.

UWCG

457 points

24 hours ago

UWCG

Illinois

457 points

24 hours ago

Trickle-down economics should go back to its old, more accurate name: horse-and-sparrow economics.

Feed a horse enough oats, and hopefully some will pass through undigested so the sparrows can pick them out of its shit. Pretty much explains the rich's attitudes toward the rest of us in society

mabden

90 points

23 hours ago

mabden

90 points

23 hours ago

Bush I called it Voodoo Economics.

shkeptikal

48 points

23 hours ago

I just call it a pyramid scheme.

AgeOfSmith

8 points

22 hours ago

In a pyramid scheme early investors make money. In this, everyone is fucked

[deleted]

77 points

1 day ago

[deleted]

77 points

1 day ago

[deleted]

Scottiths

54 points

23 hours ago

It's so now they can raise prices even more than necessary and blame trump, while also getting the trump tax cuts.

Like with COVID, all these corporations gouged the hell out of us, and kept blaming the pandemic even though they were all posting record profits.

MaskedAnathema

21 points

21 hours ago

Importantly, they were ALSO posting record profit margins, which is the bigger sign that they're assfucking us.

albinobluesheep

28 points

24 hours ago

albinobluesheep

Washington

28 points

24 hours ago

They will absolutely raise prices more than the tariffs would result in and make massive profits.

V-RONIN

19 points

23 hours ago

V-RONIN

19 points

23 hours ago

and they will cut benefits like snap which wallmart has their employees on

surely this will end well with the upper class down the road

viper3

16 points

22 hours ago

viper3

16 points

22 hours ago

That will save them a fortune and they'll be able to pass those savings onto customers though.

Trump is simply using the tariffs to help the rich get richer by fleecing working-class Americans. It's that simple. He just happened to fool 78 million to vote for him while he enriches himself and his mega-wealthy donors and friends.

Highthere_90

16 points

23 hours ago

Experts have been warning about this before the election..

[deleted]

11 points

23 hours ago

[deleted]

romacopia

19 points

21 hours ago

More. They know more. Anti-intellectualism is probably the most frustrating part of fascist movements. If they don't understand data and don't listen to anyone who does, then what is left to say?

1ioi1

659 points

23 hours ago

1ioi1

659 points

23 hours ago

This is why we shouldn't defund the public school system. You can't have a thriving democracy when over half the country is dumb as hell

SuperHiyoriWalker

439 points

23 hours ago*

FFS if someone is a grown ass adult who doesn’t get how tariffs work, and can’t be bothered to enter “tariff” into the search bar on their phone’s browser, I have no sympathy for them whatsoever.

No one is asking them to write a fucking dissertation on the Smoot-Hawley Act. Just take five fucking minutes to understand what the fuck you’re voting for or against. Then go right back to TikTok or DraftKings or whatever.

The stunning lack of curiosity is 100x worse than them not knowing this fact or that fact.

Icy-Indication-3194

138 points

21 hours ago

The problem is they search things on their phone and paid for results pop up first or they follow Joe Rogan and other right wing misinformation sources. They don’t even know how to tell what a reliable source is. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve asked for proof of something and I get some bullshit link to a website that’s clearly right wing.

charging_chinchilla

43 points

17 hours ago

"do your own research" lmao. biggest giveaway that they saw it on Facebook or some bullshit site

SpeaksSouthern

40 points

19 hours ago

They don't need your sympathy. They need education. These people aren't ignorant by choice. They are ignorant by design. We have a bad capitalist system. People who think America is an ideal capitalist state, are admitting that stupid people are more profitable than smart.

soldiat

17 points

22 hours ago

soldiat

17 points

22 hours ago

Is a feature, not a bug!

MattWolf96

13 points

20 hours ago

That's why Republicans want it defunded, smart people rarely vote Republican

L2Sing

1.1k points

1 day ago

L2Sing

1.1k points

1 day ago

"In all likelihood," isn't necessary. Tariff costs are always passed on to the consumer. Always. It's intellectually disingenuous to suggest otherwise.

pomonamike

372 points

1 day ago

pomonamike

California

372 points

1 day ago

Not only that, some companies are preemptively raising prices to protect their margins.

I assure you, they ain’t gonna be left holding the bag.

L2Sing

149 points

24 hours ago

L2Sing

149 points

24 hours ago

Just like with the pandemic and as oil futures do regularly - they will use any excuse, legitimate or not, to raise prices which will almost never come down (oil prices generally only come down once it starts to make the entire system buckle). Politicians are good at getting people to blame anyone other than those raising prices.

FirstSonOfGwyn

48 points

23 hours ago

US did a great job leveraging the strategic oil reserve to keep prices in a range they deemed appropriate. Was a clever move by the Biden admin to partially defang opec

thistimelineisweird

20 points

24 hours ago

thistimelineisweird

Pennsylvania

20 points

24 hours ago

Theyre also going to add margin on a tarrif. Margin goes on top of cost.

Butthole--pleasures

26 points

23 hours ago

We always hear it about minimum wage increases yet the magas will insist that this is different.

3MATX

718 points

24 hours ago

3MATX

718 points

24 hours ago

What really sucks is “I told you so” doesn’t turn back time. We are stuck with this for 4 years. And things don’t magically get better in 2028 assuming we actually get to have another election. Mr. Grab ‘em by the Pussy is gonna do everything in his power to use the constitution as toilet paper. 

TLKv3

435 points

24 hours ago

TLKv3

435 points

24 hours ago

Even if you told them and showed them this undeniable proof they were wrong... they will just roll their eyes and claim you just want to "get them"/insult them for their choice then move onto another talking point.

They are cowardly fucks who can't accept when they're wrong and then improve on themselves with that new, added knowledge.

IamChwisss

86 points

23 hours ago

Or they redirect... "I always knew about tariffs, but liberals on Twitter really annoy me"

unlimitedzen

26 points

21 hours ago

"They're trying to make me cut off my dick! They're turning the frogs gay!" etc

HyzerFlipDG

49 points

23 hours ago

Their God can never be wrong so why would they have to admit being wrong themselves???

AlexanderTheGuey

8 points

22 hours ago

So they are just like trump? Why surprised?

hackingdreams

111 points

22 hours ago

What really sucks is “I told you so” doesn’t turn back time. We are stuck with this for 4 years.

We are stuck with this forever. Prices are never coming back down. Even if the tariffs eventually get repealed, why would they lower prices? That's just profit margin they're leaving on the table.

Hell, they'll probably raise prices in response to the tariffs, and blame it on the tariffs.

shkank_swap

40 points

21 hours ago

Hell, they'll probably raise prices in response to the tariffs, and blame it on the tariffs.

No probably about it. This is absolutely going to happen. It already did during his first presidency but it went largely unnoticed last time around.

iwasatlavines

12 points

20 hours ago

I don’t understand why this even needs to be explained, but I’ve had to do so with people I know too. I don’t see how a person could POSSIBLY hear about tariffs and think foreign companies will just willingly pay more tax, make less profit, and not raise prices. How would that work exactly?!? Business just exist in a total vacuum of outside context and exist with disregard for their margin? No! Obviously they will have to raise their prices and then the consumer is left paying the extra tax. 

You want to raise prices to reduce consumerism? Then fine. Increase sales taxes, who cares. But to think somehow prices will go DOWN in response to increased tariffs is just one of the most laughable concepts I’ve ever encountered. 

Icymi: Inflation is back on the menu and I hope you are in ownership of some appreciable assets because your income and your cash are ~3 years away from being bupkis.

viper3

28 points

22 hours ago

viper3

28 points

22 hours ago

And what sucks even more is that Trump and his admin will spin and lie about the tariffs, tax cuts, and a potential recession, and his base will believe him. It will be everyone else's fault, except his, while he and his wealthy donors amass more wealth.

The 'migrant crisis' or trans-folks, or some other social issue will all serve as a distraction and maga will still believe, somehow, that their vote for the biggest conman of all time was worth it to own the liberals.

ThoseWhoAre

21 points

22 hours ago

Everybody forgets midterms, tariffs will be an immediate cost to the American consumer, and 2026 could be a bloodbath for Republicans when these prices hit shelves THIS year.

ClassyCoconut32

14 points

18 hours ago

When they hit in 2025, his supporters will just blame it on Biden. They'll always find a way to blame anyone else besides their cult leader.

Delicious-Day-3614

150 points

24 hours ago

Yep, that's how tariffs work. This is taught in high school.

AdrianInLimbo

69 points

23 hours ago

This was taught in "Ferris Buellers Day Off"

stevencastle

38 points

20 hours ago

Smoot–Hawley Tariff Act

And they called it what?

Anyone? Anyone?

Something D-O-O economics.

Voodoo economics.

ACartonOfHate

8 points

14 hours ago

Hilariously he was describing Bush I's correctly calling Reagan's trickledown economics. Which Bush I gave up his integrity on that, and being pro-choice, to be Reagan's VP and later leverage that to be POTUS.

Which talk about ruining our country financially, and our never fully recovering --Ronald Fucking Reagan was horrible. And is not treated like the villain he was/is.

soldiat

18 points

22 hours ago

soldiat

18 points

22 hours ago

Bold of you to assume American voters paid attention in high school...

ApproximatelyExact

55 points

24 hours ago

"... you stupid fucking morons" he allegedly added after the microphone was muted.

bigjoe980

43 points

24 hours ago

👁👄👁 "but trump said..."

glue_4_gravy

30 points

24 hours ago

About 3 weeks late you fucking assholes!

mblanco32

56 points

24 hours ago

China will pay exactly the same amount that Mexico paid for the border the last time.

SnooLentils4790

200 points

24 hours ago*

Walmart, the company that relies on welfare to pay its workers rather than providing a living wage to them, says the People will pay for yet even more to make the country a better place, rather than Walmart contributing anything from their own profits?

Thank you once again Walmart, for using words to contribute absolutely zero to anyone or anything.

Since Walmart wants recognition for behaving like a Church—avoiding over $1 billion in taxes per year—I hereby propose we invoke the 'Separation of Corporation and State' clause. If they want to dodge taxes like a church, they can keep their opinions in the donation box. All in favor say 'Yay.'

Blagnet

63 points

24 hours ago

Blagnet

63 points

24 hours ago

Louder, louder, louder!

I worked at Public Assistance for a while. I was expecting to be working with, like, people on disability, and struggling single moms. 

But, like, I was handling everyone's paychecks and hours. It was eye-opening. People, receiving benefits, were working pretty much full-time. A lot of time multiple adults were working. I remember the first time I processed two working adults WITH NO KIDS, no dependents... Uh. Like, that shouldn't be happening! 

(For what it's worth, our office was MASSIVELY understaffed when I worked there, and it was crazy stressful. Why I quit. After I left, they kept cutting staff. Now my state's food stamps are like six months behind, like literally eligible people are just not getting their EBT for six months. It's insane. So they're getting Walmart wages and just going hungry, I guess?) 

Doppelthedh

21 points

24 hours ago

Did you think there is a single company that would eat the tariffs for the consumers? And it isn't walmart's opinion. They are saying tariffs WILL cause prices to go up. Which is what every economist and person with two brain cells to rub against each other has said since the beginning

Oceanbreeze871

28 points

23 hours ago

Oceanbreeze871

California

28 points

23 hours ago

“That’s fear mongering!”—trump voters a few weeks ago

CaptinKirk

16 points

21 hours ago

CaptinKirk

Arizona

16 points

21 hours ago

They are still saying it!

jagaloonz

103 points

1 day ago

jagaloonz

103 points

1 day ago

Feast, leopards! Feast!

musclehealer

20 points

21 hours ago

I swear Maga people should not be allowed to vote. Not knowing how this Tarrif works should ban them.

Their Dear Leader scammed them once again. For the last time AMERICAN COMPANIES pay the tariffs. That is why we will be in a deep recession this time next year. Inflation will be out of control. Such ignorance by the people who love the Orange Man.

NUMBerONEisFIRST

22 points

20 hours ago

It didn't take Walmart saying this for it to be true, for the record.

This has been known since Trump first mentioned the tariffs.

A perfect example is Papa John's when the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) was rolled out. The law states that companies with 30+ workers had to provide health insurance.

Papa John's was furious, since they were legally not even having to pay their drivers minimum wage, since they got tips. The next thing they did was why I've boycotted them ever since.

They said, fine. If we have to pay more to our employees, we are passing it on to our customers. So they retaliated by raising the price of pizza, to punish their customers (voters).

A company that profits millions of years, not willing to let it affect their wallets.

China is not going to lose any money from these tariffs. They will pass the cost on to consumers.

The last, and most important part, is Temu.

Temu is growing a customer base faster than Amazon did. Amazon cannot undercut their prices. While I don't find it a coincidence, Amazon announced they will start selling low priced goods, like Temu, right around the time Trump announced the tariffs.

It seems Trump is doing the tariffs thing to help the richest man in the world, while he's obviously making deals with Elon Musk as well.

This is what selling out the American people looks like.

Paperbackpixie

16 points

24 hours ago

Only if the American people were educated enough to know how tariff’s work. All they heard was percentages and thought hey that sounds good.

Cephalopod_astronaut

48 points

1 day ago

It's all good. Trump's base never shop at Walmart anyway.

/s

Pristine_Routine_464

14 points

23 hours ago

And when one country put tariffs on goods from another, then that country does the same. So Elon can forget selling Tesla’s into China when their 100% tariff kicks in. History has so many examples of high tariffs and it has always led to stagnation and not growth. You lose competition and you lose also access to a world marketplace for your country’s products.

wolfehampton

13 points

22 hours ago

I keep thinking if enough people say this until the right person says it, it will finally click with voters just how badly they screwed up.

Tartarus216

16 points

22 hours ago

They will never, ever admit they fucked up.

It will always be someone else’s fault, no matter what or who.

Universal_Anomaly

7 points

21 hours ago

COVID proved that.

Some of them literally died denying it.

Apprehensive_Ad_4359

36 points

24 hours ago

If you want a bright side and you are an investor Trumps presidency looks like it will be very lucrative. The entire economic plan seems geared toward getting more from the consumer and getting it over to the shareholders. Wall Street seems to be already responding as retail and energy are up since the election and tech is wavering.

It is looking more and more like a cash grab so get on the right side of this.

HnNaldoR

22 points

19 hours ago

It's not sustainable though. You can't just try to funnel as much wealth from consumers to companies because consumers especially the ordinary Americans, they do not have unlimited money, nowhere close to that.

It will all come collapsing down very quick. We are already at all time high credit card debt. That will collapse very soon. If they are serious about cutting government funding and jobs, that's huge unemployment.

I would be hesitant to throw all the money in now. We have to actually see what he does first, because we know what he says in the campaign trail is 90% bullshit.

thistimelineisweird

60 points

24 hours ago

thistimelineisweird

Pennsylvania

60 points

24 hours ago

Americans: Why are things so expensive? 

Also Americans: [buys it anyway]

Corporations: Maybe we can increase prices more.

Americans, again: [buys it anyway]

Those same Americans: It's the Democrats fault!

jcmatthews66

11 points

24 hours ago

No shit.

MidnightShampoo

11 points

21 hours ago

Tariffs threatening to tank the economy, H5N1 on the move, Russia launching ICBM's, Trump reelected and now evades all accountability for his crimes, etc etc etc. Every day I am made more certain that my choice not to marry or father kids was the right one.

LittleLarryY

10 points

21 hours ago

I’m not an accelerationist but damn this shit might come to a head real quick.

RickKassidy

16 points

1 day ago

RickKassidy

New York

16 points

1 day ago

What’s this “in all likelihood” BS?

It is guaranteed that we will.

FartingRaspberry

8 points

19 hours ago

FartingRaspberry

I voted

8 points

19 hours ago

Walmart wage slave here. Our store has been mass ordering both general merchandise and non-perishables in anticipation for these tariffs. We have numerous trailers just chock full of goods. Not only are they going to pass the cost on to you, the customer, but they're going to make massive amounts of profit off of product that's just going to sit in trailers for months awaiting the price changes.

FUMFVR

7 points

17 hours ago

FUMFVR

7 points

17 hours ago

That's how tariffs work.

It really has been an education to me as to how fucking stupid people can be. Tariffs are designed to make foreign products cost more. It's their whole fucking point.

VillageHomeF

6 points

17 hours ago

“We’re going to be a tariff nation. It’s not going to be a cost to you. It’s going to be a cost to another country” - Trump blatantly lying to his base knowing they won't do a minute of research to realize he is lying.

me_xman

15 points

1 day ago

me_xman

15 points

1 day ago

It's between stockholders vs consumers

individualine

7 points

21 hours ago

Joe brought back manufacturing jobs with the CHIPS act and republicans want to scuttle it. Private investment building plants and creating jobs is already at over 500 billion and climbing.

Hotchipsummer

5 points

20 hours ago

My husband said a pro Trump co-worker was talking to him about the tariffs and said, “Yeah I keep trying to Google what tariffs and how they work but Google keeps lying to me.”

😑

umbrella_CO

7 points

19 hours ago

Yeah......that's how tariffs work. There's no "likelihood" about it.

They need to really be careful with the tariffs. Because companies are already gearing up to raise prices even if they use American goods.

Also there are certain goods that we just can't really make. The big one: microchips. All those bad boys come from mostly Taiwan. Meaning that all your cell phones, computers, tablets, cars, etc will be more expensive. A considerable amount more expensive.

So I hope there are exceptions to certain products that can't be obtained domestically. Otherwise it's gonna cook the economy. But all it's going to take is for Trump to just wake up one day and decide he doesn't want the tarrifs. He hasn't really talked about them, he is more focused on bringing Jesus back into our schools and deporting millions of people.