Anonymous #5 4d

What he should be doing is pausing the tariffs on Brazil, at least for beef. They’re a major supplier

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Anonymous #5 4d

Brazil mentioned

6

Anonymous #2 4d

Argentina didn’t even bribe us. Conservatives simply staked their reputations on Milei, and he failed. Also, some of Scott Bessent’s friends need some help

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Anonymous #8 4d

Fairly sure the USSR simply starved their population when there were shortages

7

Anonymous #7 4d

Because the people around him really like the Argentinian president, and a lot of his playbook is based on the Argentinian president, so if that guy crashes the entire economy of Argentina then it looks had for him and his buddies who wholeheartedly endorsed that guy.

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Anonymous #8 4d

It’s so funny how Americans call everything “literally the USSR” when it comes to foreign policy like our countries weren’t acting damn near the exact same for the entire Cold War lmao

11

Anonymous #8 4d

Leftists do the same shit when they’re like “CIA activities” as if the KGB didn’t do the exact same fucking job too lmao

10

Anonymous #8 4d

are you fucking stupid? what kinda communist playbook teaches the principles of free trade?

0

Anonymous OP 4d

I mean the USSR did be propping up any socialist regime that asked them to, that is a true history fact

4

Anonymous #8 4d

“straight out of a USSR playbook” no motherfucker it’s straight out of any economics textbook. principles of macro teach you that everyone is better with trade. international econ teaches you the same

-1

Anonymous #10 4d

the bailouts are a different issue entirely. this is the “basic biology” crowd violating the fundamentals of basic econ, having it backfire, and pretending they just discovered it and that it’s the best thing since sliced bread

1

Anonymous OP 4d

You think government purchase of a commodity is free trade?

4

Anonymous #10 4d

The USSR had drastically different economic policies during the cold war

1

Anonymous #8 4d

Domestically, absolutely, foreign-policy wise, it’s a mirror.

1

Anonymous #10 4d

“Prop up the economies of poorer nations that agree with me, conduct clandestine operations to remove regimes in my sphere of influence that don’t agree with me” was the foreign policy of both the USSR and the United States from the late 1950s onwards.

1

Anonymous #10 4d

Okay? I don’t support that type of foreign policy but I’m not sure how thats relevant. My point is: A.) Trump has terrible economic policy B.) Many of Trump’s economic policies, including this one, have historically been supported by leftists under left leaning governments.

1

Anonymous #8 4d

Difference being that leftists wouldn’t have supported a guy claiming that the government would implement tariffs and saying that they would lower consumer prices, and then him proceeding to chicken out because his tariff policy failed.

3

Anonymous #8 3d

But no leftist is going on and on about “America First” and how countries won’t buy our products. And threatening countries who won’t buy our “beautiful” food.

3

Anonymous #11 3d

Tariffs were part of Bernie Sanders’s platform in 2016 and leftists didn’t seem to mind then.

1

Anonymous #12 3d

I’ll grant you that leftists use a different vocabulary

1

Anonymous #8 3d

Leftists didn’t seem to mind most of Trump’s first term tariffs either. He targeted a large manufacturing nation (China) in order to both protect domestic manufacturers and move more manufacturing back to the USA. Bernie’s policies on this are similar to Trump’s in 2016, and there’s nothing inherently wrong using tariffs for their intended purpose (although Bush’s steel tariffs had some undesirable outcomes in the long run). It’s also why Trump pulled us out of NAFTA and negotiated USMCA.

4

Anonymous #8 3d

Skip to term 2, he’s violated his own free trade agreement and placed high blanket tariffs on most countries in the world, higher than Smoot-Hawley which is credited for worsening the Great Depression. Currently it’s an estimated 23.1% average rate, the burden is largely on consumers. Look at Lesotho! We have two diamond-producing areas in the US, one is a state park. We just don’t mine diamonds, but we put a 15% tariff on Lesotho? They are poor and don’t buy from us, and they produce diamonds.

7

Anonymous #8 3d

Leftists aren’t stupid enough to wonder why Europe won’t buy fucking Suburbans and Tahoes

7

Anonymous OP 3d

Tarriffs on things we simply do not have the capacity to produce en masse in America are fundamentally stupid, and to be as fair as I can to the administration, they did say within the last couple days they’re looking at rolling back the ones on things we can’t produce. It’s the “wine in Scotland” problem Adam Smith describes in Wealth of Nations

8

Anonymous #5 3d

The Ford Fusion actually does well in Europe but that’s an odd exception. Otherwise, we really don’t make much that suits their tastes

4

Anonymous #10 3d

Adam Smith’s example is that the climate in Scotland isn’t good for growing grapes the way the climate of France’s west coast is, and that if the UK put a tariff on French wine it wouldn’t help the Scottish wine industry that doesn’t (and can’t) exist, it would just make it more expensive to get wine.

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Anonymous #10 3d

It’s basically a 1:1 example with America’s recent issue of tariffing coffee from Colombia, as an example. Only one US state can grow coffee, and that state is further from mainland America than Colombia is. It’s also TINY. They do grow some bomb ass coffee, I bought some straight off the farm when I was there, but their productive capacity is low, so Hawaiian coffee is a luxury, not the standard good. And that’s for GOOD REASON. It never could be the standard.

1

Anonymous #10 3d

Unironically it’s like trying to purchase Canadian Ice Wine in the states right now. But it also goes beyond just tariffs on things we’re incapable of producing. It’s the fact that de minimis has been closed too. Grandma lives in Canada and sent you a Nintendo Switch 2? Have fun paying a tariff. Some Chinese e-commerce sites like Temu and Shein abused it to avoid tariffs, but there’s ways to close it off to companies while keeping it for Americans. It’s bleeding our wallets to the last penny

8

Anonymous #10 3d

I remember being in my International Relations class arguing with another student about the coffee tariff and saying “I’ve been to the only coffee plantation in America, and if you think they can supply the entire country, you’re deluded”

6

Anonymous #10 3d

I do find the economics of Hawaii to be interesting though, almost everything in their grocery stores is expensive as hell because of shipping costs from the mainland, but then you’ll notice that things grown on the islands like pineapples and avocados are dirt cheap compared to on the mainland. Hawaiian coffee is a luxury anywhere but Hawaii, but it’s the cheapest stuff when you’re actually on the islands. Kauai’i specifically has insane agriculture because it’s the rainiest place on earth.

1

Anonymous #10 3d

Specifically the mountains on the northern end of the island are the rainiest place on the planet, while the low-lying south of the island is always sunny. So what ends up happening is the rainwater flows down the mountains and makes the entire island’s soil lush with foliage and ideal for agriculture since it already has the nutrient-rich nature that volcanic soil comes with.

4

Anonymous #10 3d

Literally! I’m all for tax on luxury goods and Philly does it well with their tax on sweetened beverages. The MAIN thing with tariffs is that they’re not meant to generate significant revenue. That’s a very basic teaching of International Econ. I personally believe Trump wants to dismantle our tax system in favor of a flat sales tax, but that’s gonna hurt poor Americans who spend a higher % of their paycheck on necessities. Our progressive income tax system is flawed, but it’s the best we have

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