• Zeppo@sh.itjust.works
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    11
    Ā·
    1 day ago

    If Trumpā€™s goal was really to bolster domestic manufacturing and other industries, I support that. The way heā€™s going about tariffs has been incredibly dumb though. One, he seems to think itā€™s a way to punish a country. Itā€™s not clear why heā€™s picking the biggest fights with our allies, either. Claiming itā€™s about fentanyl and migrants is absurd. Then also, the admin has regularly lied about who pays tariffs and how they work. Trump also says incredibly stupid things like ā€œonce we have hundreds of billions in tariffs coming in, weā€™re going to be so richā€.

    And if he really wanted to encourage people to switch to domestic production, introducing them gradually would make more sense to give companies time to build factories and whatnot. But also theyā€™re not going to make investments with no guarantee that the tariffs will be around d in 5 years. Also, there are some products that simply canā€™t be produced in the US because we donā€™t have the resources - why tax those? Such as fertilizers and lumber from canada? Whatā€™s the point? Why not just selectively tariff things for industries he wants to promote?

    So in real life it seems Trump is just harming consumers, picking fights with our allies, regressive shifting tax burdens, and wrecking the economy. Hmm.

    • just_another_person@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      7
      Ā·
      1 day ago

      Itā€™s a way to destroy the economy and let the oligarchy come in and buy up everything at bargain prices. Watch how many companies get ā€œacquiredā€ in the next six months by all the billionaires sucking MAGA dong right now.

      • deranger@sh.itjust.works
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        2
        Ā·
        1 day ago

        Destroying the economy also allows them to write bills to give trillions to companies ā€œtoo big to failā€ just like the automaker bailouts, bank bailouts, and PPP loans.

        Economic conservatives my ass.

    • TinyRhino@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      6
      Ā·
      1 day ago

      Yeah, I think we can all agree that having a strong domestic manufacturing industry is a good thing. But it simply canā€™t be done the (insane and unhinged) way the Trump clowns want to do it. Making the economy unstable and volatile is not going to encourage new manufacturers to start companies and invest in infrastructure. In fact, itā€™s more likely to have the opposite effect.

      We had a great thing going with the CHIPS act, here in central Ohio they were building a huge Intel fabrication facility. Well, now it seems unlikely to ever be finished. Thanks Trump - great job supporting US manufacturing.

      We can all speculate on what the real end goal is, but none of us really know for sure. My take is that they want to isolate the US, wreck the economy, have us all begging for food and housing, start martial law, then be the ā€œsaviorsā€ that we all love for restoring some food and jobs. All while enriching themselves and ensuring that they can remain in power without elections.

      Truly, just a straight by the book fascist takeover.

    • aubeynarf@lemmynsfw.com
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      3
      Ā·
      edit-2
      1 day ago

      He has a deficit in abstract thinking, so resource extraction (oil) and low-value commodity goods manufacturing and about as far as he goes, while he chases scientific research, knowledge industries, and long-horizon efforts out.

      it doesnā€™t make sense to him that we should keep the beautiful parts of our country, beautiful, like Forest and national wildlife preserves, and make our money from culture, tech, finance, communication services, etc. while we buy oil and lumber from elsewhere.

      The whole ā€œChina is taking advantage of usā€ thing is a hoot - the reason those factories are in china is because American management and corporate boards took great advantage of cheap labor and very intentfully moved production.