• Phoenicianpirate@lemm.ee
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    6 days ago

    Maybe it’s because I took economics as far back as high school, but even just from reading high school history books I knew what a Tariff was. How the FUCK did they not know that?

    I am also willing to bet that they will eventually blame the democrats for breaking the system, as they always do.

    • minibyte@sh.itjust.works
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      There’s a fair portion of people 21+ that have difficulty playing blackjack because they can’t add to 21. Last night I was asked by a grown man what 9+1+3 is.

      You’d be surprised how incompetent some people are.

      • Phoenicianpirate@lemm.ee
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        6 days ago

        I worked in customer service for 7 years. I am aware… so very aware…

        To give you an idea, when I worked for Verizon mobile, it was a few times a week that I came across a client who did not know how to hang up their cellphone calls. No joke. It took such a while to get them off the hook it wasn’t funny. And if you ask me why I wouldn’t hang up on them, it was because Verizon had a strict no hang-up policy. You were not allowed to hang up on a client no matter what. It was grounds for immediate termination.

      • dejected_warp_core@lemmy.world
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        6 days ago

        Holy shit. I never put this together.

        Last time I was at a casino I kept asking myself: who honestly thinks any of this is a good idea, or thinks that any of these are “games” in the conventional sense? Now I know.

        Edit: I have also been confronted with people that simply cannot do addition, period. It’s wild.

        • Phoenicianpirate@lemm.ee
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          6 days ago

          Funny you should mention a casino. Remember when Donald Trump bankrupted multiple casinos? That is actually quite impressive given how often casinos attract people even during recessions as they get stressed and desperate.

        • minibyte@sh.itjust.works
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          The quickest and easiest way to win at a casino is not to buy in, don’t play. You’ve got the right idea!

      • AnarchistArtificer@slrpnk.net
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        6 days ago

        Even if you’re competent at arithmetic in school, those skills can definitely atrophy. I say this as someone who’s unreasonably slow at basic arithmetic despite being an ex-mathlete; I got complacent because I’ve been learning and using graduate level maths, so I thought that would keep me from getting rusty. Nope — it turns out that basic arithmetic that you’d use in daily life is a different “muscle” to the kind of maths you use in academic research (which is obvious in hindsight)

        I can’t imagine how much I’d be struggling if I didn’t have a good foundation to be starting from

        • Phoenicianpirate@lemm.ee
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          6 days ago

          You aren’t alone. Historically before calculators were common, engineers and mathematicians would actually have books with basic arithmetic answers already done, or they would hire people (usually women) called ‘computers’ (no joke, that’s what the term was used for before computers as we know it were invented) to do the basic calculations for mathematicians so they can focus on the more complicated stuff.

          So even a highly talented mathematician from the 1910s and 1920s would still struggle as you do.

          • AnarchistArtificer@slrpnk.net
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            6 days ago

            This is only tangentially related, but I’m reminded of a thing from Plato where he was complaining that communicating through writing was a bad way of doing philosophy. His concerns weren’t just around communicating ideas between people; he was even opposed to writing as an introspective tool to help a person think through their ideas, or make notes to come back to.

            "And so it is that you by reason of your tender regard for the writing that is your offspring have declared the very opposite of its true effect. If men learn this, it will implant forgetfulness in their souls. They will cease to exercise memory because they rely on that which is written, calling things to remembrance no longer from within themselves, but by means of external marks.”

            • Plato, “Phaedrus” ^([citation needed])

            It’s interesting because I don’t think he’s necessarily wrong about the skill atrophy angle of it. It’s just a question of to what extent we need those memory skills in the modern era.

            • Phoenicianpirate@lemm.ee
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              3 days ago

              There is a question of just how much better or worse human memory was in the old days. Some say it was better because there just aren’t that many things people need to remember, so they can remember what they consider to be important more easily.

              Laws were generally far more rudementary and easier to remember. People didn’t need to remember as many numbers as we do now, and as a general rule, the amount of news and events that the average person contended with within their lifetimes was also far fewer. I remember learning a fact that the average amount of news and information a person gets in just one week today is actually more than what the typical farmer would get in their lifetimes. That is mind boggling when you think about it.

      • ArcaneSlime@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        6 days ago

        Math anxiety is real tbf, I can add that up real fast without the pressure of someone looking at me waiting for me to solve it, but the second another person is watching I can’t even think about the math I just obsess about how I should be solving it faster and how they now think I’m dumb because instead of doing the math I’m thinking about this bullshit and it’s taken 10 whole seconds which is a lot longer than it sounds…

    • VeganPizza69 Ⓥ@lemmy.world
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      6 days ago

      One thing that fascinates me is that Trump’s definition of tariffs seems more like the definition of kickbacks.

      As he was (is?) a landlord, he may also think of it as seeking rent, like how malls get rent from the stores inside.

      • LustyArgonian@lemmy.world
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        6 days ago

        As a foreign asset, I think Trump is just actively performing a proxy war to drain the US of money, power, and resources for Russia. If you think he’s going to be doing anything else - lol.

        • VeganPizza69 Ⓥ@lemmy.world
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          Extracting rent can be seen as private taxation. He’s not a “career politician”, so I’m trying to understand how he’d see it from the private realm.

          An entry fee, a toll, a tax, a rent - whatever. In the end, the cost will be added to the products going in. It’s not a usual tariff, but the outcome is the same. Maybe he thinks that this trickery helps avoid problems with “free trade” conventions.

  • ATDA@lemmy.world
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    6 days ago

    Just read estimates his tariffs would cost the average household 7600 annually. I told my folks and they didn’t understand why I thought it was funny. I told them they wanted this.

  • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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    6 days ago

    I posted a meme last week before the election about a lot of my fellow Americans being depressingly ignorant and a bunch of people got pissed off about it.

    I’m just saying…

    • VerdantSporeSeasoning@lemmy.ca
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      6 days ago

      Yeah, a lot has been said about why the ‘Democrats’ failed; sure they were/are imperfect.

      Where are the articles bemoaning our stupid and/or mean citizens who have no curiosity and think being obstinate will work like a time machine? I’m frustrated to hell with apathy of my countrymen.

      • Duamerthrax@lemmy.world
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        6 days ago

        “Democrats” is too vague to be meaningful in this discussion. I do put a lot of blame on the DNC organization for deenergizing their base, but also the working class for not understanding basic economics and being taken by a carpet bagger.

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        6 days ago

        And the huge shift right by male GenZ people. Reading posts by them specifically today: they felt marginalized by democrats and ignored. They felt like Maga cared about them, and they could belong in the Republican party. And some of them simply wanted revenge and to feel powerful.

        Now this isn’t everyone, but I gotta say:

        WTF are you doing thinking about feelings? And fitting in? Look at the damn effects your choice is going to make based on “feelings”. That group is going to lose consumer protection, worker protection and safety, medical coverage, relief on college tuition, housing subsidies, debt relief, small business loans. What they gain is higher prices, worse infrastructure, and possibly the nastiest thing of al:l the direct path of their income going to the wealthiest people and perpetuating generational wealth for the very few.

        Because they wanted to “feel” like they were seen and heard as men. You got played!

    • Jax@sh.itjust.works
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      6 days ago

      Their ignorance is equally as valuable as your knowledge. To them, anyway.

  • genXgentleman@lemmy.world
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    7 days ago

    I don’t know if this post is true or not. However, a lot of people don’t know history, civics, & economics. (This is the result of the Reagan & Bushes dismantling of the education system.) I’ve told a lot of people to look up the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930 and the impact it had on our and the global economy. Tariffs will start a trade war. That’s what happened to our farmers the last time Trump was in office. He ended up having to bail out farmers which cost more than the tariff brought into the government. The Chinese simply bought their soy beans from other countries instead of paying for ours. There were a lot of farmers that lost their farms then.

    • Clent@lemmy.world
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      I have been told many times to feel bad for those farmers, that they aren’t idiots, etc.

      I thought I ran of fucks for them but a few more just flew out like butterflies from a dusty chest.

      I hope ever single one that put up those massive Trump signs loses their family farms to big corporations.

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        We need fewer corporate farms, which are dirty as fuck now let alone after they gut the USDA. I hope that they lose their family farm to two gay dudes from Vermont who got really into organic gardening and decided to cash in their b&b for corgis to start growing high quality produce right here in America’s heartland.

    • Halosheep@lemm.ee
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      7 days ago

      I’m sure the corporate farmers were happy to buy up that land and cut the trump admin a nice check for the convenience.

      • genXgentleman@lemmy.world
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        7 days ago

        OMFG!!! LMFAO🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 I totally forgot about that. Great memory and response!!! Line of the day!

  • chellewalker@lemmy.ca
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    7 days ago

    To be honest, this kind of feels to me like the boss was just looking for an excuse to not have to pay workers.

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      I mean, he got it and it’s actually a good one. Uncertain finances tend to cut into bonuses of all types.

  • brucethemoose@lemmy.world
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    6 days ago

    This tells me the information pipe to voters is broken, and hacked.

    People live in their own social media realities. There has always been ignorance, but it’s never been so widely personalized. And Trump and the GoP played it like a fiddle.

    And just watch, the Dems are going to learn precisely nothing from this and campaign like it’s the 1950s again, thinking policy was their problem.

    • Phoenicianpirate@lemm.ee
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      The sheer stupidity of the dems is kinda astonishing. The reason why Obama won is because he had a goddamn narrative. Yes we can! Change you can believe in! It’s almost like they were onto something… then they did nothing.

    • dejected_warp_core@lemmy.world
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      Silicon valley: Here is a device that makes it possible to exchange information to everyone, everywhere, immediately.

      GOP: Oh, you mean I can disseminate anything I want? How about lies? That’d be neat.

      Silicon valley: No, not like that.


      One thing that I observed is that the right wing had/has the more progressive campaign, from a technology and media use standpoint. The DNC, on the other hand, was still more or less using the same moves they had back in the 1990’s, relying on extinct concepts like the fairness doctrine, debate performance, and journalistic integrity of news outlets (fact-checks anyone?).

      It’s not just the Overton Window that has moved: our information diet has completely changed too. To win at politics today, the entire landscape has shifted to propaganda, bombast, showmanship, clickbait, and leading the 24/7 news cycle by the nose. You must be louder and more interesting than the other guy. I think it’s possible to play that game ethically though, without disinformation, but what’s clear is that billionaire-owned media isn’t going to do it for you anymore.

      • brucethemoose@lemmy.world
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        Silicon Valley is laughing all the way to the bank enabling this.

        They are the root cause, because no one told them they aren’t allowed to rot brains with relentless engagement optimization. Modern politics would still be bad, but it wouldn’t be so apocalyptic without the monsters they built.

  • cultsuperstar@lemmy.world
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    6 days ago

    Some companies have already said they’re going to pass the extra cost onto consumers, so while the companies will pay more, they’ll make a lot of that back from the consumers that can still afford the products.

    Electronics will probably be the hardest hit, with prices of cell phones, laptops, and game consoles increasing quite a bit.

    • explodicle@sh.itjust.works
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      6 days ago

      Low inflation statistics have been helped significantly by cheaper electronics. So everybody who voted Trump to lower inflation is in for a surprise.

    • Phoenicianpirate@lemm.ee
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      Good thing I got a new computer now. They’ll just blame democrats (who do have a lot to blame for not countering the bullshit of the Republicans over the past 45 years) for it and insist that the tariffs would have brought prices down if they were done without democratic interference…

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          3 days ago

          It’s like in 1984 where the Party blames all problems on Emmanuel Goldstein, and even if he was dead or long dead it was all the machinations that he put into place that is causing all their issues.

      • cultsuperstar@lemmy.world
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        They’re supposedly opening a semiconductor plant in Arizona. I think Biden and Trump are attending a groundbreaking ceremony or something.

  • AlecSadler@sh.itjust.works
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    Guise, I’m struggling. Part of me says…let them all burn for their “fuck around and find out”.

    But I know that isn’t completely right. I just, am, so, angry (and sad).

    Will probably choose the let them burn route.

  • Mariemarion@lemm.ee
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    7 days ago

    And it’s sooo typical of their hyper-inflated personal and national egos:
    They didn’t wonder for one minute why on earth foreign companies would pay up. For the honor or doing business with the greatest country on earth tm? Because they’d have no choice of other buyers, since no other countries has car / computer / whatever manufacturers who’d buy their products instead?

    They. Are. So. Fucking. Insular.

    • brucethemoose@lemmy.world
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      Their

      They

      They

      They being Americans?

      There was another post about how Americans unfairly generalize Russians (or others) for the things their country does, and how hypocritical it is, implying we would get defensive. Well here I am, an American, reacting to my people being generalized:

      Nods

      Agrees

      We are like that, and did this to ourselves.

      • ℍ𝕂-𝟞𝟝@sopuli.xyz
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        6 days ago

        It’s not just Americans, remember the Brexiteers realizing that due to Brexit, they need a visa for their Spanish holiday, and they have to stand in the “rest of the world” line?

        We will see a bunch of “this is not the Brexit I’ve voted for” to come.

        • Thebeardedsinglemalt@lemmy.world
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          We will see a bunch of “this is not the Brexit I’ve voted for” to come.

          No, they’ll just continue to blame dems, immigrants, and anyone else under then sun except for their godemporer for the mess they voted themselves into.

          • ℍ𝕂-𝟞𝟝@sopuli.xyz
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            6 days ago

            Oh of course, the Brexit idiots were also faulting the EU for “retaliating”, as in reinstating border controls for UK citizens when the UK pulled out from the relevant international treaty.

            They are never wrong, are they?

    • explodicle@sh.itjust.works
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      It’s simpler than that. They have literally no idea what tax incidence even is, and think the government just decides who the burden falls on.

  • Blackmist@feddit.uk
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    7 days ago

    I mean the whole point is paying a tariff so American companies make the goods instead for less.

    But if paying Chinese poverty wages and tariffs is still less than paying Americans to do it, then guess what they’re going to do?

    • CafecitoHippo@lemm.ee
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      7 days ago

      It’s also dumb to just assume that foreign companies can just flip a switch and start building/assembling whatever they sell in America. You need facilities, you need to hire employees, you need to train employees. You can’t just pick up your factory, drop it in Kansas, and just slot people into the building to work it right away.

      • Hobo@lemmy.world
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        Also, unless your plan is to exclusively export to the US, then it’s less cost effective to open up new facilities in the US. You just raise prices and and have the consumers take the hit for the tariff. There’s also the problem of logistics for raw materials for whatever products your manufacturing. Those also tend to cost more to acquire stateside.

        The worst part is that policy is only a single bullet in the policy foot gun Trump has loaded. It gets even more expensive when the low cost labor is suddenly deported and/or put in camps. Which I realize isn’t even the worst thing about the immigration policy, but just pointing out that it too has consequences to these same people.

        • LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          6 days ago

          What do you mean my car is now valued for so much less? Well see all the parts are all manufactured overseas, so we have to pay tariffs to acquire the parts and they cost much more. Higher repair costs, lower value. Also, your car insurance just went up.

          Repairs on any products you currently own, more expensive.

          Don’t worry, in 10 years these prices will stabilize and we’ll still have 8 dollar an hour minimum wage, but a new car only cost 80,000 starting. Well that’s MSRP, Desantis banned direct sales of ICE cars without going through a dealership, so they need their cut.

          We were going to subsidize vegetable based meat substitutes to drive the cost of food down, but instead we decided we should ban lab grown meats from existence, and not subsidize the vegatable based meat because if I I don’t know if I’ll like it, NO ONE else is allowed to try it!

          Welcome to America, home of our grave

      • LillyPip@lemmy.ca
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        You can’t just pick up your factory, drop it in Kansas, and just slot people into the building to work it right away.

        This was demonstrated in Springfield, OH. That whole thing about Haitian immigrants? A large factory opened there, but they couldn’t find Americans who wanted to work there for wages that would make them profitable, so the mayor sent out a call welcoming Haitian immigrants to the town. They were invited specifically for this reason.

        What happens when immigration is halted and people are deported? Where do they expect to find Americans willing to work for wages that will have to be even lower to make up the costs the tariffs will cause?

        It takes only minutes of thought to realise how stupid and doomed trump’s plan is (which is obviously more than his supporters can manage).

    • nucleative@lemmy.world
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      7 days ago

      Global trade drove the cost of supplies and goods down to the lowest available prices, so while setting tariffs may encourage local production because it makes overseas less attractive, the price of goods still goes up on both scenarios.

      If moved locally, there will be more local labor required for production but it’s not clear if that is a net benefit.

      Hypothetically under globalism more developed countries shed their “dirty manufacturing labor jobs” and move more people upmarket. Of course this is matter of nonstop debate among economists because as we all know the whole population of a country can’t move upmarket together and a lot of people were/are screwed because of lack of education and opportunity to develop themselves.

      In an ideal implemention of this, more people would be moving to the arts, self expression, and technology, while fewer are involved in survival activities like shelter and food.

      I think the unsolved problem now is that average people believe way too much of that wealth went to the top while the middle class is working harder than ever and getting less.

    • snooggums@lemmy.world
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      6 days ago

      I mean the whole point is paying a tariff so American companies make the goods instead for less.

      So American companies make the goods at the current prices which are now relatively lower than the imports, but still the same or more than they are priced now.

      Tariffs always increase prices overall.

      • Blackmist@feddit.uk
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        Correct, tariffs increase prices.

        Ideally to more than what they would be if they were made by American workers in American factories. Otherwise there’s no point and you’re just increasing prices out of spite.

        But we’re relying on a lot of landlords to go “fair enough, we’ll lower our rents so you can buy those American goods at their new higher prices” rather than going “no, go fuck yourselves”. And I feel that’s unrealistic.

        But whatever, turkeys voting for Christmas is not a new thing and I’m sure they’ll find a way to blame it on immigrants or gays or something.

        • snooggums@lemmy.world
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          Rationally implemented tariffs to keep people employed by countering foreign imports is the goal, since it is hard to complete on price with slave labor that is common in things like clothing manufacturing. It doesn’t have anything to do with landlords.

          Obviously Trump is not proposing rationally implemented tariffs.

      • Blackmist@feddit.uk
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        6 days ago

        Sure, but the whole concept relies on Americans being too wealthy and need to pay more for their stuff. They’re lazy and need more work to do.

        And with all the poverty about, people working multiple jobs, the gig economy turning minimum wage evasion into “well you chose to do it”, I’m surprised that over half the country agreed with the billionaire about that.

  • Maple Engineer@lemmy.world
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    4 days ago

    Not only do US companies pay the tariff but they pass it on to their customers and other countries put counter tarrifs on US products.

    • OsrsNeedsF2P@lemmy.ml
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      6 days ago

      This is definitely fake, but […] I choose to believe it’s real

      2024 election in a nutshell