• @nutsack
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    163 days ago

    thanks Walmart this is really good timing

  • @brucethemoose
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    4 days ago

    It doesn’t even matter:

    https://www.axios.com/2024/11/18/consumer-confidence-trump-republicans-white-house

    Turns out, a lot of consumer mood is literally just people’s social media feeds. Even if prices go up and QoL goes down, on average, consumers might feel better simply because Trump being in office makes them feel good.

    I am not going to point out how monumentally problematic this is… Nope. There’s definitely no bad precedent for that.

  • Queen HawlSera
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    313 days ago

    I feel like no one bothered to campaign against Trump… until… AFTER he won

  • @[email protected]
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    2474 days ago

    No shit.

    This is literally in the first paragraph of every economics textbook when they talk about tariffs.

    • @dhork
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      1444 days ago

      Donald Trump didn’t win the Presidency by reading textbooks.

      • @TrickDacy
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        394 days ago

        And you don’t need a textbook to understand how the very basics of business work. You know, the thing people seem convinced he understands? A fucking toddler has more knowledge than Trump. The United States of America doesn’t have two brain cells to rub together

        • m-p{3}
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          224 days ago

          They heard lower taxes, and simply misunderstood that tariffs are another form of taxation.

          • Billiam
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            204 days ago

            They heard whatever they wanted to hear, because that rambling shitgibbon said everything to everybody.

          • @TrickDacy
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            34 days ago

            They heard that from a proud liar. It’s not a secret he lies constantly

      • @psmgx
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        114 days ago

        He won it by taking bribes from billionaires, like a true politician

      • @Zidane
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        194 days ago

        Nobody who voted for Trump read[s] that book homie.

        Fixed that for ya

    • @HappycamperNZ
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      174 days ago

      No, the first page is how it introduces inefficiencies into a supply/demand equilibrium, resulting in a lower quantity supplied and at a higher price.

      No one who every studies economics, even in passing, would even consider another country paying a tarrif for something you buy. The concept is just… what?

      • @Jiggle_Physics
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        44 days ago

        Yeah, the, misguided, idea is that the increase in price from imports will drive domestic production, of those things, as the high prices reduce demand, and cut into profit margins. This used to be something that was a sensible assumption of what would happen. However the contemporary world has far too much infrastructure for tariffs to truly work like that any longer. It will, usually, be cheaper to increase the costs for the tariffs, than to restructure back to domestic production.

        • @HappycamperNZ
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          13 days ago

          It could drive up domestic production, however there us a good reason we import, which is similar to your last point.

          Bad example, but its the same reason you “import” Mexican workers - their skills and work ethic, along with willingness to work long hours for low wages. You aren’t going to get hundreds of thousands of Americans to decide to work in a sweat shop, or on farms, or doing handyman work for the same wages.

          I was going to mention the low cost of a life in China, and the lax H&S, ethic and environmental regulations, but America is trending that way too.

          • @Jiggle_Physics
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            13 days ago

            Yes, for capitalism to exist, there must be both a consumer class, and a labor class, below the capitalist class. The cost of labor in highly industrialized countries is one of the largest driving factors behind the development of this infrastructure. We need to make sure we can import from places where the cost of labor is low enough, for the long term. Even China, and India, are starting to off-sure labor. The problem is that this, along with population growth, can’t be perpetual. Which is the inherent problem underlining capitalism as a permanent economic system.

    • @[email protected]
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      54 days ago

      My friend just got into a fight with some MAGATs on facebook about why we need things like civics education so we know what we’re voting for.

      You’ll be shocked to learn the MAGATs called him a communist for daring to want to educate them. They don’t even want to open the textbook let alone read it.

    • @fluxion
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      94 days ago

      Clearly we need to add those to the banned books list

  • @danc4498
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    894 days ago

    But the question is, will American manufacturing make up for the costs? Or, will American manufacturing just raise their prices to match the tariffs and lump the profits into their executive bonuses. They deserve it after all for being smart enough to raise prices.

    • @ansiz
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      474 days ago

      American manufacturing CAN’T, it would take years, decades honestly, to get back the capacity to make all the crap we’ve outsourced to other countries.

      • @[email protected]
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        474 days ago

        And this is the absolute brain rot fantasy of tariffs that I keep explaining to these idiots, and keep getting blank stares or awkward silences.

        Tariffs are 100% punitive, without a domestic/alternative sourcing strategy. They can work long term to reduce a foreign nation’s competitive advantage in an industry while allowing a domestic industry space to exist, but that only works if there’s a domestic industry that already exists (at enough scale to meet demand) or a long term government program to nurture and build those industries - education/vocation training, regulatory concerns, infrastructure development, raw materials availability, etc

        Tariffs Chinese steel/electronics/machine tools/etc into oblivion? Either buy the imported at a high price, or buy the domestic at a slightly less high price - but the cost is always carried by the consumer no matter what.

        • @[email protected]
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          154 days ago

          And then there’s the ensuing trade war that always happens, with the countries retaliating with their own tariffs to the US. Tariffs are a lose-lose scenario, just like they were in 2019.

        • @A7thStone
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          124 days ago

          And they want to kill the CHIPS act, which was going to build some of that local supply.

          • @[email protected]
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            104 days ago

            IMO that’s the height of economic policy stupidity because if/when Taiwan gets invaded, China will own nearly all semiconductor manufacturing outside of the highest end fab houses such as Intel or GlobalFoundries. The future of domestic manufacturing is high tech or specialty like Corning glassworks or L3-Harris, even car manufacturers get beat out by imports with our current tariff structure

      • @vala
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        13 days ago

        More like generations IMO

      • @captainlezbian
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        44 days ago

        And beyond that, it will incentivize further automation rather than more blue collar jobs.

      • @[email protected]
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        04 days ago

        This is largely accurate unfortunately. A good example is Apple. They tried to make a high-end desktop computer manufactured in the US. To do this they needed a specific type of screw. In the area near their factory, they only found one machine shop that could make the screw and they could guarantee an output of 50 screws per day after a 3 week lead time to tool up. And that was the final offer.

        When they finally moved to China, they submitted the same request. Multiple vendors appeared offering thousands of screws per day and if they wanted to place a bigger order the company would set up a new factory just to produce those screws and could output tens or hundreds of thousands per day depending on requirements.

        Another example is the iPhone and Gorilla Glass. There were a few Chinese companies in the running to manufacture the glass panel that would go on top of the phone. The one that got the contract, in anticipation of getting the contract, had already purchased the machine to form the glass and had samples ready for inspection at the contract signing.

        We have allowed our business climate to become so bogged down in red tape and liability and lawyers and insurance, that most American companies are simply unable to execute at the same speed as China when it comes to manufacturing.

        I would absolutely love to get more manufacturing back in the US. But the process of outsourcing is not going to get unwound overnight. It took two decades to move everything to China, even if the whole country agreed that was a mistake it would take another two decades to bring it back. Because as the Apple screws demonstrate, it’s not just about the factory that produces the widget. It’s about everything that goes into that factory, the companies that make the parts and the screws and the plastic. When you deal with China, they are all right there and they are all ready to go. Same can’t be said for the US.

        • @Tonguewaxer
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          174 days ago

          I was sorta on board until you blamed regulations as a reason businesses can’t have manufacturering I. The US.

          Regulations are written in blood. Stop pretending like a living wage and no slave labor is a bad tbi g inhibiting production.

          Tarrif the snot out of the slave wage countries.

          • @[email protected]
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            117 hours ago

            An awful lot of regulations are written in blood. I am not suggesting we relax any of them. I’m talking about the endless supply of permits and forms and local government licenses and that sort of thing. There is an awful lot of regulation that does absolutely nothing to increase safety, it’s just bureaucracy. We could get rid of all that without impacting safety.

          • @[email protected]
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            44 days ago

            Unfortunately, the United States is also a slave country within it’s prison system.

            Want a slave? Just trump up some nebulous charges about them, so to speak. Profit.

          • ObliviousEnlightenment
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            44 days ago

            While youre correct, it’s worth noting that alot of the reason China can outmanufacture us is the lack of those sane regulations. Nets for suicidal factory kids and all that. Thing is, the tarrifs also arent just being applied to slave wage countries, but the entire world basically

    • Coriza
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      If some other countries are any indication, not only will they raise the prices but they will raise it way more than the tariffs and just blame on tariffs and with time people will just think that is the way it is. “X cost 3 times as other countries? That is because the tariffs” no mind that the tariffs is like 50% and not 300%. Like they already do with gas prices. Gas go up immediately when oil prices rise but only goes down, if ever, for new stock.

    • @dgmib
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      234 days ago

      During his first term Trump put a tariffs on Washing Machines. The price of imported washing machines went up. The price of domestically manufactured washing machines was also raised. Even the price of dryers — which didn’t have a tariff — went up on both imported and domestically manufactured appliances.

      I have yet to see an economist that thinks Trumps tariff plans will benefit the working class.

      • @[email protected]
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        -54 days ago

        Those prices entirely rebounded by the end of 2019. Thats how tariffs work. It became more expensive to import, companies slowly replaced imports with cheaper local goods, the cost settles.

        There are surely instances where it didnt rebound entirely but thats not one of them.

        • @JamesFire
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          23 days ago

          That doesn’t change that putting the tariff in place was a stupid idea that didn’t help anyone. Rebounding after the removal of the tariff doesn’t undo the damage done while it was in place.

            • @JamesFire
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              12 days ago

              Overall, no, I do not believe they helped anyone.

              And even if they did, they still did more damage to everyone else than any small group of people they may have helped. Which is still reason enough to say that it didn’t help anyone, because, as a group, the country was worse off with them in place.

    • @hydrospanner
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      204 days ago

      That is exactly what US steel did in response to the steel tariffs back in Trump round one.

  • @A_Random_Idiot
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    4 days ago

    100% guarantee price raises across the board, even for stuff not affected by tarrifs/mass deportation labor shortages.

    It’ll be covid all over again, an excuse to price gouge the fuck out of those who can least afford it.

    • Rentlar
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      94 days ago

      If companies are going to suck consumers dry just because they can, they’d better put Republican’s name on it.

        • Rentlar
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          54 days ago

          I know I know, Walmart is in the GOP’s pocket. But if the DNC knows what’s good for them they’ll take any scraps they have from Harris 2024 and painting the entire Republican movement as lovers of raising prices on Americans.

      • @Bruhh
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        34 days ago

        What are you talking about? It’ll all be Biden’s fault.

  • @LittleBorat3
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    83 days ago

    They voted for nonsense looks like they are getting nonsense.

    How will they call the new inflation and how are they going to pin this on not Trump. Curious how this is going to play out.

  • @just_another_person
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    1194 days ago

    It’s a certainty, not a fucking "likelihood’. That’s how they work.

    • wagesj45
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      654 days ago

      You mean there’s no chance that Wal-Mart might choose to absorb the increased prices out of the goodness of their hearts? :o

  • @aesthelete
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    344 days ago

    China will pay for the tariffs in the same way Mexico paid for the wall.

    • @[email protected]
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      83 days ago

      Realistically it will shift more work to India, vietnam, mexico. I’m not in supply, but I’m pretty sure my company has started shifting out of china in prep for this.

  • @ikidd
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    173 days ago

    Oh, I thought he was fixing inflation!

    Wow, what a shocker! Who could have predicted how that turned out?

  • @[email protected]
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    173 days ago

    So nice of them to say this after the orange fuck was elected. Heaven forbid they tell their customers that when their customers could actually do something about it.

    • @acrayclay
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      233 days ago

      What incentive do they have to tell people that ahead of time? Instead of propping up the prices by 10% to deal with the tariff they can increase it by 20% and pocket the extra, then blame it on China. Worked during the Covid inflation, why wouldn’t it work now?

      • @[email protected]
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        23 days ago

        Oh I know they have none. I just love that they’re saying it at all – being silent on the matter until said tariffs come to pass would have at least given them the “duhhhh we’re dumb too we didn’t know that either, oh well” excuse.

    • @[email protected]
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      474 days ago

      Thing is, basic economics is a high school subject, except:

      “Sir, when am I going to have to know how tariffs work in the real world?”

        • @[email protected]
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          244 days ago

          I don’t think mine even had it as an elective. We were too busy spending 2 years of history classes learning how nice the Pilgrims were to the natives. And this was in Massachusetts, which I believe ranks #1 in education in the US.

          • Billiam
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            164 days ago

            #1 in education.

            And also the only state in the country where every precinct voted for Harris.

            Surely that must be a coincidence, right?

      • @2pt_perversion
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        94 days ago

        Basic economics was not a required class in my high school. Macro and Micro Economics were both electives.

        • @[email protected]
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          34 days ago

          tariffs, trade wars, and their effects surely were covered, or at least touched on, in a history class or two.

      • @Trual
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        64 days ago

        Hmm maybe my highschool was far below average then

        • @[email protected]
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          4 days ago

          I was the idiot who though skipping school to partake in smoking weed was the better outcome of studying at school, although I do partially blame being bullied at school for me avoiding it.

    • ERROR: Earth.exe has crashed
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      A simple google search would have many credible sources giving the answer to what tarrifs are.

      But to the magats, only fox news has the truth.

    • @[email protected]
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      44 days ago

      I bet a big portion of that 9% shops at Walmart.

      Would been smart for Wally’s bottom line to maybe tell their customers about this before the fucking election.

      • @Seleni
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        124 days ago

        They don’t care. The owners of Walmart are some of the richest people in the world. So like all rich people they just figure they’ll hike prices and people will still pay (and they’ll have to, because Walmart tends to drive all its competitors out of town).

      • @[email protected]
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        14 days ago

        They do not care, and the Waltons probably like Trump. They’ve got their money already. Waltons don’t care about America; they’ve been in bed with China since Sam died & they’ve been gobbling up the excessive profits for years. Cheap Chinese goods for low-ish American prices.

  • @rayyy
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    394 days ago

    Everything he will do contributes to anger, division and the collapse of the United States.

    • NeoToasty
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      204 days ago

      People will be angry but angry at the wrong people. No, let’s not be angry at the guy for actively destroying everyone’s lives. Let’s be angry at blacks. Or gay people. Or transgenders. Or police. Or scientists.

      Fucking dumb Americans.

  • @Suavevillain
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    264 days ago

    The I voted for him for cheaper eggs crowd are about to call this fake news.