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| Marc Batko <marc1seed@gmail.com> | 6:01 AM (6 hours ago) |
to me, Bill  |
Mike Fink
·
Lives in Miami, Portland, Pittsburgh (1976–present)Apr 21
Did Trump not have a clue that countries would retaliate and hurt the
USA economy and cause inflation? Did he just think of the money U.S.
importers would send to the Treasury so he could cut taxes for
millionaires?
He does not understand tariffs and neither do the media. When I read
or hear that counties are lining up to cut deals and Diplomats are
saying “Please sir, which boot can I lick?”, it tells me the
journalist has not a clue about tariffs. Americans pay the Trump
Tariffs. All of them, twice. China has never and will never pay a
penny in tariffs. It is Apple that pays. It is Boeing that pays. It is
General Motors that pays. They pay once when the goods are
nationalized. A consumer pays it again when purchasing the good for
use. It is a tax. It is a price increase. There is no lens one can
view tariffs as beneficial. MAGA all say, no panic, be patient. Yes,
be patient, like when you get cancer. We are headed for a recession,
that is, if we don’t go into economic depression first. What results
do you expect? You put a rapist with 8th grade education in charge. He
needed help, so he hired an Afrikaner.
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Greg Brecht
·
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Freelance writer, blogger, Floridian, liberal.Mon
Donald Trump says he’ll eliminate income taxes. Is there a problem
with that or will it just be great to have no federal government and
only pay tariffs?
Been there, done that.
Here’s a clue: on his first day in office, Trump changed the
indigenous name of Mt. Denali, the highest mountain on North America,
back to Mt. McKinley. Trump has repeatedly expressed admiration for
the McKinley presidency—1897–1901.
The federal government then was largely financed by tariffs, and there
was no income tax.
But let’s look at what else was going on then:
Aside from a couple of Western states, women could not vote. Americans
of color were caught in Jim Crow and white terrorism enforced it in
many parts of the country. Most people worked a 60 hour week of 5 and
a half days. Only the rich had vacations. There was no Social Security
and old age was often a time of misery and poverty. We annexed Hawaii,
Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico and the Philippines and had a protectorate
over Cuba. Child labor was legal and it was common. Industry could
pollute the water and air as much as they wanted. Stores commonly sold
spoiled milk and moldy bread. Every year, thousands of workers died in
the coal mines and on the railroads.
Trump appears to not consider that McKinley was shot in 1901 by an
anarchist in Buffalo, New York. His VP was Teddy Roosevelt.
__________________________________________________________________
Elena Gold
·
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Media analystApr 24
Why is China now ignoring Trump and his pleas to do a deal? Is Trump
in some serious trouble? Has he grabbed the tail of the tiger?
By all accounts, China appears to have the resolve to push back hard
against Trump’s tariffs — even though Trump might think that “they
don’t have the cards.”
China won’t yield.
For China, it’s once in a lifetime opportunity to change the world order.
Chinese Communist Party is the one ruling the country, and they don’t
need a democratic vote. The unifying idea is to never go back to
centuries of humiliation from American and European imperial powers.
Meanwhile, in the U.S.:
Shipping volumes are down to pandemic era levels.
U.S. farmers won’t survive without subsidies.
Walmart and Home Depot CEOs warn of shortages by the summer.
The U.S. stock market is like a casino, jumping up and down on
haphazard messaging from Trump and Bessent: tariffs on, tariffs off,
trade negotiations on, trade negotiations off.
Home loan financing refusals skyrocketing.
The majority of Americans are worried about tariffs affecting their
ability to buy what they need.
Consumer confidence hits record lows.
Meanwhile, China was prepping to withstand a storm like this for years.
After Trump’s first attacks in 2017, China started to work towards
removing risks of working with the U.S., building relations within
Asia, Latin America, Oceania, and Africa.
Trump’s hostile rhetorics and indiscriminate tariffs against Canada
and Europe are making them realize the importance of stable
partnership with China.
“America First” is turning into “America alone”.
Unless there is a swift reversal of the course by the Trump
administration, things can turn really bad for the USA — and this will
weaken the whole collective West.
There are no 2 ways about it: Trump’s trade war against China is going
to hurt the U.S. itself. It already has.
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Yiannis Papadopoulos
·
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Following Global PoliticsApr 26
Donald Trump claims to have closed 200 tariff deals, but are there 200
countries? With whom did he close deals?
The Trump Administration was very close to concluding a deal with the
Heard & McDonald Islands
But then VP Vance made a demeaning remark about the emissary’s tuxedo,
and unfortunately Trump went along by saying that the emissary could
not hold any cards with his useless flipper.
Wait, what? The Islands are not a country?
That’s not right! The President’s bigly board specifically mentioned
“Country” just below “Reciprocal Tariffs”!
And we all know President Trump has never, ever lied to the public.
EVER!
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Ted Smith
·
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Self Employed Graphic DesignerUpdated Apr 14
If moving manufacturing back to America would drive the price of goods
significantly up, then how could people afford goods back when
everything was made in America?
I’m amazed at the level of ignorance and lack of simple logic in this question.
Ask yourself, what is missing today in American industry that was
there back in the 50s and 60s?
Give up? Think factories! Manufacturing. The basic ingredient of your
premise. Things were cheaper because we had the capacity right here,
in a post-WWII era that had tons of factories and a multitude of
opportunities. And workers were paid a living wage so essentials were
affordable and luxury items were not priced through the roof.
Forward 25 years and we have Reagan administration which clears the
way for manufacturing to move overseas and practically overnight
factories all over the country move production overseas, close
factories and kill jobs and the middle class starts a slow and steady
descent into poverty. Meanwhile, costs of goods and services goes up
in a global market and those costs get passed on to consumers.
So what would it take to get manufacturing back to the US. Trillions
of dollars. It means buying property, building new or refurbishing
existing plants. Building or updating infrastructure to support that
new plant. Purchasing new equipment and training workers to use it.
Finding and securing resources, parts and supplies and paying to have
them shipped here. Add to that, it would take 5 or more years to get
all that done. And all that comes out of private pockets; even with
government subsidies, it’s still a hugely expensive proposition. In a
country that has conditioned itself on short term profit above all
else, spending that kind of money and time is never going to happen.
EDIT 4/5: Think manufacturing is coming back to America? The recent
tariffs imposed by trump just ERASED $9 TRILLION dollars in wealth.
Where was that money coming from? The rich and corporations who would
have been the backers for any repatriation of manufacturing. Even if
they wanted to, they don’t have that money now.
EDIT 4/14: I think it’s time to close this discussion down. Since it
was featured in a particular group, the upvotes and comments have
grown considerably. I have tried to respond to many of them, whether
they agreed with me or not, but it is taking too much of my time and
effort. Unfortunately,the comments have become either repetitive;
anecdotal; immaterial to the topic; or, in typical Quora fashion, just
plain insulting, filled with not just derogatory remarks but hateful
personal attacks. I particularly enjoyed the one from the supposed
economics instructor, who not just disagreed with my opinion, but felt
it necessary to include in his typo ridden screed religious invectives
and homophobic slurs. There were only two comments I deleted, the
above being one of them, and I had to block three individuals who were
particularly hateful. No doubt there will be those who think this
cowardly and a vindication of their particular philosophy or delusion.
I don’t care. Fuck off.
It has been an interesting discussion and many have made some very
interesting and salient points some of which I touched upon in further
comments. You might be interested in reading some of the other
comments and not just my answer. Even some of the more absurd comments
which I left up are entertaining.
So thanks again and best to all, “even the haters and losers” to quote
our ignominious leader.
Mike Fink
·
Lives in Miami, Portland, Pittsburgh (1976–present)Apr 25
When Trump says that “China wants a deal, China needs a deal” does he
mean that Trump desperately wants a deal, needs a deal, needs an off
ramp from the catastrophe he’s created for himself and the country?
You are seeing part of it. China doesn’t pay tariffs. No country in
the world pays them. Countries don’t pay tariffs, companies do. China
has told Trump to go pound salt. They don’t need to make a deal and
they aren’t here asking to make one. Yesterday, Premier Xi correctly
called out the news who proclaimed Trump is making a deal with China.
China called this headline, “Fake News.” The President of Apple,
General Motors, Bristol Meyers, they do want deals. A headline
proclaiming that American Companies want deals and not foreign
countries, is missed, because that doesn’t sell papers. They see the
President of Apple talking to the President and they report that China
is making a deal. NOT! Your average Chinese citizen knows this. Your
average MAGA know nothing. Your average media may print what they’re
told. This catastrophe has all the earmarks of a Trump failure. It is
a success, once FOX explains it to you the correct way. You have less,
until your perceptions have been MAGA’d. We don’t need no stinking
I-Phones! The one I have should outlast Donald Trump.
__________________________________________________________
Cathy Cooper
·
Follow
political activist and researcherMon
If the US tariff “plan” works and the trade deficits and surpluses
become perfectly balanced, what will be the economic benefits to the
USA?
A Canadian here.
Our trade surplus with the U.S. is caused by the fact that the U.S is
the #2 manufacturing country in the world, so it needs all sorts of
raw materials and energy products to feed its manufacturing beast. The
U.S. buys electricity, gas, oil, potash (for fertilizer), steel,
aluminium, lumber, rare earth minerals and more from Canada because it
either does not have enough of its own, or it takes those raw
materials and then makes finished goods that it exports at a
considerable profit. (It buys crude oil from Canada and then refines
it and exports tit to other countries for a profit.)
So, tRump’s tariff ‘plan’ will essentially force Canada to sell its
raw materials to someone else in order to balance our trade surplus
with the U.S. In turn, that will force U.S consumers and businesses to
buy those raw materials somewhere else, at a higher price.
It makes no sense at all. Perfectly balanced trade with Canada would
result in harm, not benefits, to the U.S. economy. If tRump had
attended his classes at Wharton, he might have learned this.
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Michael Cheng
·
Follow
Lives in San Jose, CA20h
Prices are expected to inflate in 6-8 weeks after businesses run out
of stores and need to import from China. How will you deal with the
145% tariffs on Walmart goods?
I don’t shop at Wal-Mart, so the price hikes won’t impact me.
As per usual, these hip shot moves from Trump are designed to hurt the
poor at the bottom 60% of the income range.
In any case, there’s nothing to worry about. China has stopped
shipping goods and when Wal-Mart runs out of stock, there won’t be
anything to buy on the bare shelves. Problem solved!
If you actually still need stuff, you’ll be glad to learn that
Wal-Mart and most retailers won’t pass on the tariffs proportionally.
After their importer pays the 145% tariff tax, Wal-Mart will work on
some concessions with the supplier desperate enough to still ship to
find offsets on the price. You might only pay 60–100% more, yay!
Nothing like a little triple-digit percentage price increase to soothe
over the bad, bad 5–8% Biden-inflation, right?
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Angela Birch
·
Follow
Apr 24
Elon Musk claims that he found 23 million dead Americans still
collecting Social Security. Since he has resolved that issue, doesn’t
that mean that Social Security is now solvent and there is absolutely
no reason to worry at all?
Except the muskrat lied, he does that a lot. He didn’t find 23 million
dead Americans collecting Social Security. That would be about 1/2 of
all Social Security recipients. The fool also said he found millions
were getting small business loans from Social Security so he stopped
that. Turned out of be survivors benefits for orphans. I wonder if
they have been restarted?
Factually Musk has no idea what he is doing. He has fired people that
are necessary for the safety of our flight systems, our nuclear
stockpile and the US is bleeding actual real live scientists and
medical professionals. The massive funding cuts and pretty much the
elimination of medical research is a major problem. Cutting funding
for childhood cancer research and then parading a kid who survived
cancer due to cancer research was the ultimate cynical play. We are
now out of the WHO so the benefits scientists all over the world will
discover will not be shared with Americans. Some MIGHT trickle back to
the US but we will no longer have the benefits of world wide medical
research and actual real life scientists are fleeing the US moving to
other countries where they can do their job. Musk and Trump claim a
lot of things in reality they are both ignorant liars.
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Democratic Defenders
·
Follow
Answered by
Gio 59
5h
Trump has posted “The United States is not going to be subsidizing
Canada any longer,” adding “We don’t need your Cars, we don’t need
your Lumber, we don’t your Energy, and very soon, you will find that
out.” Does anyone actually believe this?
I’m sure there are people who believe it.
Don’t buy the cars, buy more expensive ones. No problem, you have the
extra money right?
Don’t buy the lumber, buy more expensive wood. No problem, you have
the extra money right?
Don’t buy the energy, buy more expensive sources. No problem, you have
the extra money right?
You’ve been buying from Canada, from Mexico and from China, because
it’s less expensive. You look at all of the products out there, from
every source, including American ones, you do the calculation, and you
choose Canadian, or Mexican or Chinese. Why? Because it’s cheaper to
do that. You’ve made that calculation over and over and over again for
50 years or was it a 100? And the result was always the same. it’s
cheaper.
Now you’re going to stop doing that because you “don’t need” those
things. Great. You’re going to pay more. That means that your expenses
are going to up. That’s obvious.
And it also means that your American products that you sell to other
countries are going to be more expensive as well. So your sales are
going to go down. Was that not obvious?
And if your sales go down, you won’t make as much money. You will lay
off workers because you can’t afford them. Was that not obvious?
And if you have fewer workers paying taxes, then your government is
going to shut down services. Was that not obvious?
All of these effects, combine them all, are called a recession. You’re
headed into a recession. Was that not obvious?
+______________________________________________________
No More Trump
·
Follow
Answered by
Danny Haledon
3h
I want honest answers: do most American citizens seriously believe
Trump’s trade war is making their country great again?
You want an honest answer?
Well, here’s as honest as I can be . . .
Whoever asked this question is making the same mistake that nearly
everybody else (including the major media) is making in regards to
Trump, and Republican politicians: we cannot use Trump’s lies to
assess Trump’s performance . . .
If I just rode into town and lied about seeing a gang of thieves on
their way in, then talked the mayor into hiring me and my friends as
deputies to keep the town safe, what purpose does it serve to assess
my performance based on the fact that I “kept the town safe,” when
nothing ends up happening?
It serves the lie.
There is no “Trade War.”
There’s two things happening with these tariffs:
Trump is accepting bribes to exempt companies from the tarrifs through
his memecoin
The money the tariffs generate will be used to help replace some of
the massive income tax revenue the goverment will lose from the one
trillion dollar billionaire tax cuts that this regime will soon be
enacting. Since Tarrifs act as a tax on consumers, this translates
into one of many strategies devised by the billionaire class to shift
their tax burden onto the shoulders of ordinary Americans.
You want to know another one . . . they have gradually altered the
narrative to normalize the idea that working Americans receiving
government services to fill in the gap between paychecks is what
“welfare” was supposed to be used for . . . but that’s a lie, that’s
what the minimum wage is supposed to be used for, but their operatives
in the Republican Party have continually blocked raises in the minimum
wage, so you have millions of working Americans on government
assistance. Wages: they pay. Government assistance: we pay. The
American people are helping to subsidize Walmarts labor force . . .
the biggest employer in over a dozen states, operated by the richest,
non royal family in the world.
You want to know another way . . . Heavy trucks do 99% of the damage
to the roads (just look at the right lane on any urban area highway)
but commercial users only pay 35% of the annual $30 billion cost to
maintain the highways (this amounts to more than $600 a year per
person) the rest is paid by us everytime we fill up our tanks.
We are being robbed America, again and again and again . . . don’t let
anybody convince you that demanding the wealthy pay more tax is
unfair, they utilize the government far more than the ordinary
American, the FCC, the FDA, the state department, the court system,
intelligence, even the military, and on and on, the entire government
is designed to support commerce . . .
Don’t be suckered . . .
There is no “trade war . . .”
There is:
1. A vehicle to induce bribery
2. A consumer tax to help fund a trillion dollar tax cut for
billionaires, many of whom pay little or no tax as it is.
In respect to how Americans feel about this . . . which is the
question asking about, the pretense or the reality . . .
This is the only way to approach any question in respect to Trump, his
regime and Republican politicians.
They’re lying all the time, in many ways we know nothing about . . .
They are literally playing make believe.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Follow
Lives in Miami, Portland, Pittsburgh (1976–present)Apr 19
America’s contribution to global trade is 13%. Globalization is taking place right now. The tariff is paid for by an American. Trump’s China tariffs? Paid by Americans 100%. Who are these tariff paying Americans? They are Apple, Boeing, Cisco, Dell, Ford, General Motors, etc., etc. You thought China paid the tariff? So does Donald. He thinks Premier Xi gets his checkbook out and writes the American Treasury a check. The people lined up to make deals are already here. They didn’t come from overseas. They are Americans. They are being taxed by a man child who knows not what he’s doing. Donald knows tariffs don’t work. He’s just following Project 2025. He’s a good person to take their insane program seriously. He’s a total dunce with numbers and money. In 10 years when everything in America costs beyond what anyone can pay and Donald has an approval rating of 85%, we’ll accept our devalued greatness as part of Donald’s greater plan.