Summary

Trump warned automakers not to raise prices after announcing a 25% tariff on imported vehicles starting April 3, claiming the tariffs would be “great” and benefit U.S. manufacturing.

Industry leaders, including GM, Ford, and Stellantis CEOs, expressed concerns about inevitable price increases, with experts warning tariffs could add thousands to car costs.

Auto suppliers stated that absorbing tariffs is impossible, and dealers fear affordability challenges for consumers.

While the United Auto Workers union support the move as a job creator, trade groups predict higher prices and fewer manufacturing jobs.

  • Gordito@lemmy.world
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    9 days ago

    So basically government price fixing. Isn’t USA supposed to be the pillar of libertarian capitalism?

    • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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      9 days ago

      So basically government price fixing.

      Not even. He’s not doing anything to prevent prices from going up. He’s just whining at businesses for refusing to cut their margins to fund his government.

      Isn’t USA supposed to be the pillar of libertarian capitalism?

      It’s funny. There’s a couple of think thanks - the Fraiser Institute, the Hoover Institute, in collaboration with the CATO Institute - that are constantly putting out papers saying how America hasn’t gone Libertarian Capitalist enough. Historically, the two places in the world they consider “Most Libertarian” have been Hong Kong and Singapore.

      However, over the last decade, they’ve been forced to delist both of these locations as Chinese business investment flooded in and American financial interests were shoved out. So now their new favorite spots are Switzerland, New Zealand, Luxembourger, and Ireland. Incidentally, these institutes are filling up with White Nationalists and other ultra-orthodox Christian Conservatives who refuse to acknowledge any country with brown people in it might have civil or economic liberties. The current issue of their annual newsletter blames a great deal of this shift on pandemic response and subsequent economic relief during the downturn. But there’s plenty of ink spilled denouncing any country that’s breaking away from the MAGA mindset, particularly Canada, China, and Mexico.

      As our relationships with the BRICS and the various Latin American, African, and Southeast Asian states have deteriorated, our ability to recognize them as free and liberal have decayed alongside them. And the criticisms internally ebb and flow with the state of domestic politics - Obama ushering in a low-watermark for American liberty, for instance.

      • Dagwood222@lemm.ee
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        9 days ago

        Funny story.

        A while back someone posed a question online. They wanted to know why all Socialist countries fail? I answered that they don’t; look at Canada. They told me that I was a fool, because the Heritage Foundation had showed that Canada was freer than the USA. I asked why we shouldn’t have Canadian style health care? They never got back to me.

        Reminded because of the folks you cited.

        • novibe@lemmy.ml
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          8 days ago

          Cool little story and all, but Canada is the furthest thing away from socialist.

          Socialism is not when the government does stuff. And the more stuff it does, it doesn’t get more socialist. Even if it does A LOT of stuff, it still won’t be communism.

          Socialism/communism is the method and path through which the working class will liberate itself. It’s the death of classes and class struggle through the dictatorship of the proletariat.

          • azertyfun@sh.itjust.works
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            8 days ago

            Where did you get the impression that the Marxist definition of socialism was even relevant here? Bringing philosophical jargon into colloquial conversations is basically trolling at this point since philosophical/social studies jargon often use words that have zero semantic overlap with their colloquial counterpart.

            Proselytize all you want but if you “um akshully” socialism in a colloquial conversation you will look like an unwashed cave troll at best.

          • futatorius@lemm.ee
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            8 days ago

            More precisely, to use Marx’s definition: socialism is when workers own and fully control the means of production.

            Government services: not socialism, no worker ownership or control.

            State capitalism (like China and the former USSR): not socialism, no worker ownership or control.

            Historically, the closest things we’ve seen to socialism so far are worker-owned co-operatives and city- or provincial-level anarcho-syndicalist systems such as the Spanish Anarchists before the fascists murdered them. Some grassroots movements like Podemos and Occupy have also attempted to implement such systems, with brief and limited success.

            Again going back to Marx, he expected socialism to be an emergent phenomenon as late capitalism in the most advanced economies becomes unsustainable (he didn’t anticipate the transition from feudalism to state capitalism in Russia and China, or its leaders fraudulently calling it socialism). You’ll see more attempts to implement worker ownership and control, and you’ll see those who get fat off the existing system do everything they can to smack those attempts down. That’s where we are now. Then there will be a sort of phase transition that might take the form of a revolution or might be a less brutal change.

            Now, whether Marx and his successors are correct in his prediction, only time will tell.

          • Dagwood222@lemm.ee
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            8 days ago

            You know, I really don’t care how you define the system as long as it works.

            I have been people argue about ‘socialism’ vs. ‘social democracy’ vs ‘communism’ since I was in grade school and none of it has done a drop of good for anyone whatsoever.

            While people on the Left are wasting time arguing, the people on the Right are voting. They are the ones who keep winning because they keep their eyes on the prize.

            Donald Trump is literally throwing people in jail for speaking out, and expanding the Gaza genocide right now, and you’re focusing on how I define 'socialism.

            • futatorius@lemm.ee
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              8 days ago

              I have been people argue about ‘socialism’ vs. ‘social democracy’ vs ‘communism’ since I was in grade school and none of it has done a drop of good for anyone whatsoever.

              If you’re unable to clearly define your terms, you’re unable to think correctly. Knowing what you’re talking about is a good in and of itself.

              the people on the Right are voting

              That voting is a downstream consequence of a long program of mass manipulation and propaganda, backed with voter-suppression measures. Unless you address that root cause, lecturing people about not voting is a pointless distraction.

              and you’re focusing on how I define 'socialism

              Making a couple posts didn’t take long, and education is part of the process. There can be no revolution without revolutionary consciousness. If you become capable of thinking more clearly, maybe you’ll someday be in a position to affect events in a more constructive way.

              • Dagwood222@lemm.ee
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                8 days ago

                You know, I really don’t care how you define the system as long as it works.

                You never answered the main point.

      • IninewCrow@lemmy.ca
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        9 days ago

        Aka the mafia … backed by muscle and violence

        Do as we say … or you’re going to have some trouble with your knees … you don’t want trouble with your knees do you? … wouldn’t want to have an accident with your knees

        • Mirshe@lemmy.world
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          9 days ago

          Awful nice automotive industry you got here. Be a damn shame if a training accident dropped some bombs on your factory. A real shame, it’d be.

    • AtariDump@lemmy.world
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      9 days ago

      Libertarian police

      I was shooting heroin and reading “The Fountainhead” in the front seat of my privately owned police cruiser when a call came in. I put a quarter in the radio to activate it. It was the chief.

      “Bad news, detective. We got a situation.”

      “What? Is the mayor trying to ban trans fats again?”

      “Worse. Somebody just stole four hundred and forty-seven million dollars’ worth of bitcoins.”

      The heroin needle practically fell out of my arm. “What kind of monster would do something like that? Bitcoins are the ultimate currency: virtual, anonymous, stateless. They represent true economic freedom, not subject to arbitrary manipulation by any government. Do we have any leads?”

      “Not yet. But mark my words: we’re going to figure out who did this and we’re going to take them down … provided someone pays us a fair market rate to do so.”

      “Easy, chief,” I said. “Any rate the market offers is, by definition, fair.”

      He laughed. “That’s why you’re the best I got, Lisowski. Now you get out there and find those bitcoins.”

      “Don’t worry,” I said. “I’m on it.”

      I put a quarter in the siren. Ten minutes later, I was on the scene. It was a normal office building, strangled on all sides by public sidewalks. I hopped over them and went inside.

      “Home Depot™ Presents the Police!®” I said, flashing my badge and my gun and a small picture of Ron Paul. “Nobody move unless you want to!” They didn’t.

      “Now, which one of you punks is going to pay me to investigate this crime?” No one spoke up.

      “Come on,” I said. “Don’t you all understand that the protection of private property is the foundation of all personal liberty?”

      It didn’t seem like they did.

      “Seriously, guys. Without a strong economic motivator, I’m just going to stand here and not solve this case. Cash is fine, but I prefer being paid in gold bullion or autographed Penn Jillette posters.”

      Nothing. These people were stonewalling me. It almost seemed like they didn’t care that a fortune in computer money invented to buy drugs was missing.

      I figured I could wait them out. I lit several cigarettes indoors. A pregnant lady coughed, and I told her that secondhand smoke is a myth. Just then, a man in glasses made a break for it.

      “Subway™ Eat Fresh and Freeze, Scumbag!®” I yelled.

      Too late. He was already out the front door. I went after him.

      “Stop right there!” I yelled as I ran. He was faster than me because I always try to avoid stepping on public sidewalks. Our country needs a private-sidewalk voucher system, but, thanks to the incestuous interplay between our corrupt federal government and the public-sidewalk lobby, it will never happen.

      I was losing him. “Listen, I’ll pay you to stop!” I yelled. “What would you consider an appropriate price point for stopping? I’ll offer you a thirteenth of an ounce of gold and a gently worn ‘Bob Barr ‘08’ extra-large long-sleeved men’s T-shirt!”

      He turned. In his hand was a revolver that the Constitution said he had every right to own. He fired at me and missed. I pulled my own gun, put a quarter in it, and fired back. The bullet lodged in a U.S.P.S. mailbox less than a foot from his head. I shot the mailbox again, on purpose.

      “All right, all right!” the man yelled, throwing down his weapon. “I give up, cop! I confess: I took the bitcoins.”

      “Why’d you do it?” I asked, as I slapped a pair of Oikos™ Greek Yogurt Presents Handcuffs® on the guy.

      “Because I was afraid.”

      “Afraid?”

      “Afraid of an economic future free from the pernicious meddling of central bankers,” he said. “I’m a central banker.”

      I wanted to coldcock the guy. Years ago, a central banker killed my partner. Instead, I shook my head.

      “Let this be a message to all your central-banker friends out on the street,” I said. “No matter how many bitcoins you steal, you’ll never take away the dream of an open society based on the principles of personal and economic freedom.”

      He nodded, because he knew I was right. Then he swiped his credit card to pay me.

    • futatorius@lemm.ee
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      8 days ago

      It never has been. US capitalism has always been the kind that actually exists in the wild: corrupt, subsidy-consuming, protected by regulatory capture, and inextricably entangled with the workings of the government.

      Libertarians’ ideas of what capitlalism is fail to reflect any historical situation anywhere, since their simplistic models fail to consider second-order effects, non-linearities and human nature. But coupling with other systems is inevitable, and there is no economics that exists independently of politics. Karl Marx got a lot of things wrong, but he knew that key fact.

  • Libra00@lemmy.world
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    9 days ago

    Is that… is that a portrait of Reagan on the wall behind him? The man has no concept of irony…

    • futatorius@lemm.ee
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      8 days ago

      May Reagan burn in hell.

      Especially because that quote was to counter pressure to say that trade relations were invalid if one party wasn’t protecting the environment and human rights (for example, by imposing slave-labor conditions on factory workers).

      • Libra00@lemmy.world
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        7 days ago

        Oh 100% agreed, Reagan was a piece of shit, I just find it hilarious that Trump reveres a man who spoke openly against exactly what he’s doing.

    • rumba@lemmy.zip
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      9 days ago

      It’s not just irony he has no knowledge of history. He know that Reagan said that. All he knows is that Reagan has an R beside his name and maybe possibly the words trickle down economics.

      • ripcord@lemmy.world
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        9 days ago

        He know that Reagan said that.

        Since we’re talking about Trump I am 100% confident you are wrong on that.

        He doesn’t care about R, just ego.

        Reagan also never used the words trickle down economics. Nor would pretty.much anyone Trump talks to. He wouldn’t associate Reagan with that either.

        • Libra00@lemmy.world
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          7 days ago

          I’m going to guess from context that they meant to write ‘doesn’t know’, but…

    • CitizenKong@lemmy.world
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      9 days ago

      But he had the best bankruptcies, beautiful bankruptcies, everbody said say, many woman said “no more bankruptcies, they are too great”, believe me!

    • CosmicTurtle0@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      9 days ago

      He doesn’t have to. The goal of Trump is simple: exert power. He doesn’t care who gets hurt in the process so long as his base sees him as their God (intentionally using the capital G here).

    • Kecessa@sh.itjust.works
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      9 days ago

      Who was the ex member of his team that said he was in the room when people tried to explain tariffs to Trump and he clearly didn’t understand them, he just likes them based on his misunderstanding of them…

      I’m sure he believes that other countries are paying the tariffs and it’s money going to the US federal coffers…

      • PurpleSkull@lemm.ee
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        9 days ago

        He seems to consider them in a vacuum.

        “Prices rise, but that’s only a temporary problem for plebs refusing to buy American. Once US manufacturing catches up, they will buy American and all is well.”

        That is of course incomplete and ignores the very real problem of manufacturing PARTS and raw resources also being affected. If not by Trumps tariffs, then by retaliatory ones from other countries. It also squashes your own export market. All of that together will leave prospective American factory bosses with a choice: Will they build a factory in the US and deal with higher prices and less customers, or will they build a factory in India, where they can export to every country on this planet (except the US but who cares) and have quick and cheap access to Chinese and Russian raw resources and a cheap labor pool?

    • Trihilis@ani.social
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      9 days ago

      Yeah and the worst part? People will probably still will vote overwhelmingly republican. If you’re gonna be dumb you gotta be tough i guess…

  • Etterra@discuss.online
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    9 days ago

    Trump: worship me

    Auto makers: you literally fucked us all over.

    Trump: and I expect you to thank me for it.

  • Hemingways_Shotgun@lemmy.ca
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    8 days ago

    So he’s basically telling the other billionaires to eat the cost of the tariff themselves and NOT pass them on to the consumer.

    Trump really is stupid enough to start biting the hands that gave him his current position, all because Musk tells him to.

      • Hemingways_Shotgun@lemmy.ca
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        8 days ago

        it makes line go down.

        You often see the question asked online “What radicalized you?”

        For me, I was working for a telecommunications provider as a manager and was told that neither myself nor my staff would see any raises or bonuses that year because “the company didn’t make any money.”

        The kicker being that the company made 6 billion that year. But because the money counters had projected them to make 7 Billion, and they didn’t hit it, giving out raises would make the stock price drop even more than it was already going to. Essentially, not enough profit, is the same as NO profit.

        But you better believe the CEO and executives got their bonus that year.

        it makes line go down.

        • ThomasCrappersGhost@feddit.uk
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          8 days ago

          “Projected profit” versus “actual profit”. Thank you, cause I’ve always wondered how a company can make a profit and high up people in that business can say that the actual workers don’t deserve a pay rise.

          The really stupid part is a well paid and well educated work force will create more money than the alternative.

          • dnick@sh.itjust.works
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            8 days ago

            Problem is that a well paid and well educated workforce will make more money ‘sometime after the next quarter’ and in a diffuser way spread evenly across the board.

            Stiffing people and withholding raises will show a profit within a quarter someone’s bonus is based on.

            Guess which option the people who get the bonuses will pick.

            Honestly the ‘fiduciary responsibility to maximize shareholder value’ might be the phrase we’ll look back on as the downfall of the human race.

    • Tiger666@lemmy.ca
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      8 days ago

      It will kill more than just dealerships. Imagine being any company operating in the US and the president threatening other companies for not paying the tariffs he is imposing. Imagine the investor confidence imploding and companies refusing to operate and close doors because they are not willing to pay for a stupid president destroying their profits. Companies have a fiscal responsibility to their shareholders, and this won’t be tolerated.

  • collapse_already@lemmy.ml
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    9 days ago

    I cannot wait for that fat bastard to die. Plenty of much better, useful, kinder, loved, younger people die every day. Why can’t we have some fucking justice?

    • Podunk@lemmy.world
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      9 days ago

      Im worried that at this point, for all the destruction and permanent damage hes done, that we may just need him to stick around and break more things.

      If he kicks off tomorrow, we could have this happen again. It all gets washed under the rug and hes replaced with more subtle powers. It only took 4 years for the majority of the usa to forget the first round of damage he caused, after all.

      But then again, if he lasts too long, we risk never recovering.

      There is a sick, nihilistic balance to all this now imo. I want a guarantee that we dont slip down this road again. And unfortunately more pain may be the only way to guarantee it for the next few generations.

      I feel dirty even saying it. But in my gut, i believe it.

      • MDCCCLV@lemmy.ca
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        9 days ago

        That’s the sam brownback concept, but even though he was so terrible Kansas switched to a democratic governor they still voted Republican federally. So it’s not like the real maga people will ever be contrite, they’ll just blame people who hindered trump no matter what.

        • Podunk@lemmy.world
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          Yeah i think we will soon be far along enough that my personal feelings about this, in comparison to a random unpopular kansas govenor, are irrelevant and not a fair comparison. Its hardly a fair comparison right now.

          I had to look up brownback tbh.

          The “sam brownback concept” isnt a thing. But there are real examples of the yoyo slinging back hard enough to hit someone in the face and make them reconsider letting out the string again.

          • MDCCCLV@lemmy.ca
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            9 days ago

            It was a case where they really let him put all the conservative tax policies in place and do everything he wanted and it went terribly. Rachel Maddow covered it pretty thoroughly.

            • Podunk@lemmy.world
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              8 days ago

              I understand what you are saying. But i believe that it is not really representative of what is happening or needs to happen to the usa as a whole.

              Brownback just wasnt strong enough of a virus to build immunity to this sickness.

              He may have been an slight inoculation for some people, but the immune system as a whole went on and then forgot about the weak virus.

              what is happening now is a bigger bug. Lets just hope the fever doesnt kill us.

      • futatorius@lemm.ee
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        8 days ago

        I think that’s a form of accelerationism, but I am less sceptical of that position than I used to be. Trump has shown what the system is capable of once the mask is stripped off. Many of the horrors of Trump’s misrule are matters of degree, not of kind. Under the veneer of gentility, noeliberal capitalism was just as rapacious as it is now, inequality was growing rapidly, and US imperialist interference with other countries, including giving support to genocide, was carried out even without Trump’s foul presence.

        Is ot worse now? Yes, in every way. But will restoring status quo ante be sufficient to stop the rot? No, which is one explanation for the popular revulsion not only at MAGA, but alos at the mainstream Democratic Party’s gormless money-grubbing lip service.

      • InvertedParallax@lemm.ee
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        9 days ago

        No.

        My fear during the first Trump was that he would be followed by someone who learned his lessons but wasn’t an infinite man-child.

        That partly happened, his handlers are far more efficient now.

        This train ain’t got no stops mow.

    • samuelwankenobi@lemm.ee
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      9 days ago

      Only problem is if he does before the next US election JD Vance will take over and that could be just as bad

      • Notyou@sopuli.xyz
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        8 days ago

        It would be worse but JD doesn’t have the cult of personality behind him. More repubs would speak out against JD pulling this. It wouldn’t be as effective.

    • massacre@lemmy.world
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      9 days ago

      Not sure what we should expect when the advice is coming from a “businessman” who’s art of the deal has been to bankrupt 6 or 7 businesses…

      • alanjaow@lemmy.world
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        9 days ago

        And what, two or three of those were casinos? Anyone who’s worked in one can tell you how hard it is to do that. They absolutely PRINT money. It would be impressive, if he wasn’t running the country in the same way.

  • orcrist@lemm.ee
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    9 days ago

    Let’s do some overly simplistic bad economics just for fun. Let’s suppose that the American car companies are not hurt by the tariffs because those only target foreign car companies. Now all the foreign cars are 25% more expensive. This raises the demand for domestic cars. If the domestic car companies are trying to make money, they will jack up their prices 24%. And what are we told? Something about how they have duty to their shareholders? … Donald is having fun living in his dream world.

        • shawn1122@lemm.ee
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          The idea behind tariffs is you take the money earned by taxation on foreign goods and invest it in domestic production.

          Except Trump leaves the second part out completely. He should be announcing large subsidies for American auto companies to bring those jobs back to the US but he’s not.

          He’s going to find a way to siphon the money to himself and his magnificent 7 buddies.

          Tariff then invest the proceeds into domestic production. Why is he leaving the second part out?

          • kent_eh@lemmy.ca
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            8 days ago

            The idea behind tariffs is you take the money earned by sale of foreign goods and invest it in domestic production.

            Except, due to Trump’s lashing out randomly at the rest of the world, the world is turning its back on American companies and American made products.

        • IMALlama@lemmy.world
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          8 days ago

          Building capacity costs a ton of money and with the constant flip flopping on tarrifs there’s a lot of hesitancy to break ground.

    • madcaesar@lemmy.world
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      8 days ago

      Yup that’s literarily what happened last time he did this shit with washing machines.

      Now washing machines are more expensive across the board.

      Trump is a moron, and his voters are even bigger morons.

  • A_A@lemmy.world
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    9 days ago

    unions support the move as a job creator

    … until manufacturers go bankrupt

    • Shiggles@sh.itjust.works
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      9 days ago

      unions

      Article only says the UAW, which has more retired members than it does active, and a pathetically small percentage of the active automotive workforce.

      I’m not super well versed in “healthy union demographics”, but a quick wikipedia perusal says the three largest US unions (National education association, service employee international union, and the american federation of state, county, and municipal employees) have between 2-15% retirees.

      Something tells me the UAW is just led by chuds but what do I know?

      • breakingcups@lemmy.world
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        9 days ago

        I thought that couldn’t be true, but yeah, you’re right. Over 400,000 active members and more than 580,000 retired members. Odd.

        • Billiam@lemmy.world
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          Why is that odd? It makes sense that as the automotive industry has increasingly become automated, there would be less of a need for human labor.

          • Avid Amoeba@lemmy.ca
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            9 days ago

            And since auto jobs have been exported to Mexico since NAFTA.

            And since the auto sector is more than a century old.

            • Billiam@lemmy.world
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              8 days ago

              And since auto jobs have been exported to Mexico since NAFTA.

              The big 3, sure. But there’s many automakers who still do manufacturing in the US- Toyota, VW, Rivian, and Tesla (lol) come to mind. However, they’re also building those plants in the South because of crap labor protections for workers and no unions.

      • Sir_Kevin@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        9 days ago

        UAW also represents DoD workers, which has a lot of (retired) veterans on it’s roster. I don’t know if that’s skewing the numbers but something to consider.

      • brendansimms@lemmy.world
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        9 days ago

        It seemed odd to me to that Shawn Fain would throw support behind tariffs, but it does make sense in this way: “free-trade” agreements allowed US mftr companies to move manufacturing outside the US, where they could pay employees way less while still charging huge markups while selling inside the us, and the c-suite pockets the surplus. The new tariffs '‘supposedly’ should encourage companies to bring manufacturing jobs back to the states, which is in line with the goals of the UAW - improve working conditions and encourage job growth in the auto sector in the US. So even if the real end result of the tariffs is that companies just continue to overcharge and screw people over and find ways to avoid paying fair wages (which is clearly whats going to happen), the alleged goals of the tariffs are in line with UAW goals…but its still bad optics for Shawn Fain to agree with Trump on anything for a siginificant amount of UAW members, especially since UAW now includes a lot of college/university/education/science sector members as well

    • kryptonianCodeMonkey@lemmy.world
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      9 days ago

      Tariffs for Canada and Mexico would only be beneficial for automotive manufactures if A) American manufacturers were not heavily invested in and leveraging factories in Canada and Mexico and B) Canada and/or Mexico had any major auto manufacturers of their own competing with American brands. Neither of those is true. They MAY divest from Canadian or Mexican factories as a result and reinvest in domestic factories. BUT they are going to take big losses for that divesture AND be paying tariffs every time their parts ship between their factories across the borders right now. Their costs are going to go up and Americans will have to pay for the difference there.

    • Avid Amoeba@lemmy.ca
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      9 days ago

      You drank some neolib koolaid if you think manufacturers are going bankrupt from this. Auto manufacturing is one of the sectors where jobs have been continually exported to Mexico for lowering labor costs and increasing profit margins. It’s also a sector where there still is a significant manufacturing base in the US and it can be expanded if needed. The real issue is with auto tariffs is parts since those have more diverse sources across borders.

      This isn’t the chips manufacturing sector that doesn’t exist in any significant capacity in the US, where increasing tariffs would just increase prices / lower margins without any chance of recourse in the short term.

      • A_A@lemmy.world
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        9 days ago

        Thanks for this detailed analysis.

        As for my comment, it was from an extremely simplistic reasoning (that you could call borderline dumb but probably not neoliberal 🤣).
        My reasoning was that, if their costs goes up (because of tariffs) and they have to sell at the same price, so, making a loss on every sell, eventually, they would go bankrupt.

      • futatorius@lemm.ee
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        8 days ago

        The real issue is with auto tariffs is parts since those have more diverse sources across borders.

        That doesn’t convey just how insanely complex car-manufacturing supply chains actually are. And the transition to just-in-time manufacturing has meant that stock on hand is kept to a bare minimum, so the impact of disruptions is even greater than it would have been a generation ago.

  • Generic_Idiot@lemm.ee
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    9 days ago

    Why’s he so utterly obsessed with tariffs? Like he thinks they just fix everything. It’s so stupid.

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      9 days ago

      Usually, it takes Congress to agree on something to raise taxes on the working class. With tariffs, he can do it by himself like a real dictator would.

      • futatorius@lemm.ee
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        8 days ago

        Keep in mind that Congress delegated that power to the President, and (if they were ever to become vertebrates) they could rescind that power too.

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      Trump is not nearly as smart as people seem to think he is.

      I 100% guarantee you that someone in his inner circle has convinced him that tariffs fix everything and it’s now the entirety of his economic playbook.

      It also hurts America and alienates us from our allies, which is what his puppet master wants, so two birds/one stone.

      • shawn1122@lemm.ee
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        8 days ago

        I mean he’s essentially just following project 2025. They clearly didn’t want him to think too much this time around.

      • Halcyon@discuss.tchncs.de
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        8 days ago

        He had to learn that even a president doesn’t have absolute power to rule. And he’s intellectually incapable of drafting and passing proper laws. Therefore, he uses decrees and tariffs, tools that even a teenager could use. His actions reveal that he does not really understand the complexity of society or the economy.

        • andallthat@lemmy.world
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          8 days ago

          Trump’s thing are 1:1 negotiations, like with Putin. He’s all about making a deal personally and people gushing over how great of a deal he made. Unfortunately he’s not nearly as good as he thinks he is.

          Tariffs are meant as his opening power move, like the used car salesman’s firm handshake. Same (I hope…) as the fuckery on Canada or Greenland. They are the “I am strong and I want something, let’s sit and negotiate”.

          Problem is that the used car salesman only has two outcomes: customer buys the clunker or customer walks away. But it rarely happens that “customer is strong-armed into buying the clunker but customer is fire-fighter and next time will let the car dealership burn down”.

          • futatorius@lemm.ee
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            Unfortunately he’s not nearly as good as he thinks he is.

            Let’s be clear about it: he’s absolutely worthless at it.

            And to those who adhere to the lazy “Trump is always transactional” pseudo-explanation: Trump is never transactional when it comes to Putin. The words you’re looking for in that case are “consistently, predictably servile.” And I wouldn’t call his multiple divide-and-rule extortion schemes “negotiations” either. He’s just seeing how much he can get away by strong-arming weaker nations or organisations.

      • Daggity@lemm.ee
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        8 days ago

        I don’t know, I feel like if he was dumber than most people thought he would be vegetative.

        • kent_eh@lemmy.ca
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          8 days ago

          The list of allies is not that long at the moment.

          And continues to shrink every time he opens his mouth.

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      9 days ago

      The government takes the increase at import from the importer. He’s the government. He’s telling them he’s keeping the money that he inserted himself into the supply chain.

      Like it’s probably going to his personal bank account.

    • futatorius@lemm.ee
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      Like he thinks they just fix everything.

      Like those who pull his strings know that tariffs are an effective means of economic sabotage.

    • BedSharkPal@lemmy.ca
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      9 days ago

      Isn’t the narrative that he’s jacking up Tariffs to remove the income tax? Like how it used to be 100 years ago or some shit.

        • kent_eh@lemmy.ca
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          8 days ago

          He’s using the money to pay for the impending wars he’s trying to start.

          Or the wars that he’s going to accidentally start.

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      In addition to what others have said, he also enjoys the direct power it gives him over corporate leaders. He wants to coerce them into subservience so they have to kiss his ass and be nice to him. Tariffs give him something to hold over their heads.

  • SabinStargem@lemmy.today
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    8 days ago

    If nothing else, I look forward to the history books and a tragicomedy documentary about…everything, really.

    • nfreak@lemmy.ml
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      8 days ago

      History is written by the victors, and the outcome is looking grim right now.

      • chatokun@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        8 days ago

        That works much less in an interconnected world (part of why they hate globalism). There are other countries keeping tabs as well. It’s also why we know of the many atrocities committed by the US worldwide. They can try and hide what they can, but it’s much harder these days.

      • SabinStargem@lemmy.today
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        8 days ago

        I am certain that Dogey America will lose. Whether any good parts of the USA survive the chemotherapy is the question.

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      8 days ago

      I want to be there when the students ask “”why didn’t the ones with the guns to protect against tyranny use them”.