6 ms·

> thus paying more in taxes If the taxes were being spent to help those who were not working (unable to or for whatever reason) maybe that would be fine. We m

> thus paying more in taxes If the taxes were being spent to help those who were not working (unable to or for whatever reason) maybe that would be fine. We might take in more taxes, but when we cut funding for childhood cancer research, and build more missiles... is this really the way we want our money spent? > Democrats are by and large aligned with his economic agenda. Perhaps there was more overlap 10 years ago, but... that "both sides are just as bad" doesn't seem to ring true.

ericmay 1mo ago
> We might take in more taxes, but when we cut funding for childhood cancer research, and build more missiles... is this really the way we want our money spent? Well we all have our opinions on how our money is spent. I for one think we need a lot more missiles and a lot more folks working instead of living off of taxpayer dollars (labor participation rate is the lowest ever), broadly speaking. But we don't really have to have an either-or scenario here and it's unfortunate that politics has gotten this bad in America. > Perhaps there was more overlap 10 years ago, but... that "both sides are just as bad" doesn't seem to ring true. Well, I'm not suggesting both sides are bad (though they are in their own ways - we should eject all communists and fascists from this country and planet). I'm suggesting that Democrats agree with Donald Trump's economic policy even if some are politicking otherwise. If you look back to Trump's first term he began instituting tariff-like policies and other economic agenda items around restoring manufacturing capacity. Biden continued those policies, and then Trump has taken them a step further. Democrats today are campaigning on high inflation, but recall that inflation was also very high in 2022 and so forth, gas prices were even higher than during our support for Ukraine (I strongly support Ukraine), and so forth. But if/when Democrats are elected it is unlikely they will roll back the Trump tariff scheme though perhaps negotiate more favorable deals with less bickering with our European friends and partners, and will maintain tariffs and other economic measures against countries such as China and perhaps others like Mexico and Canada.
- mgkimsal 1mo ago
  global tariffs via ieepa or similar legislation - base flat tariffs against all imports from all countries - I think those will go. Biden kept some targeted tariffs, but didn't massive expand or do country-based tariffs.
  - ericmay 1mo ago
    I can see changes but I'm not sure about flat tariffs going away completely. One of the reasons for those is because what China will do to avoid American tariffs is to basically try and set up shop in a 3rd country, or just do some legal configuration to make the products they are dumping seem to come from the 3rd country instead. Kind of like a "final assembly" style loophole. I agree Biden largely just kept the Trump regime in place, especially with respect to China, but I also think he was dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic and so something like broad tariffs given the economic and political environment probably weren't really considered. Personally I feel like it's a win-win for me. Either we re-shore more manufacturing, stop China from dumping, &c. which result in higher prices but have other benefits that I value, or we don't and prices go down and wages and such go down which means cheaper goods and services which is also nice.
    - mgkimsal 28d ago
      been a few days but... I'm not actually seeing a whole lot of 'reshore manufacturing'... at best, it's uneven, but price increases across the board (even before iran/oil shock) have been quite prevalent. Without this being formalized, we're left with monthly changes based on one lunatic's emotional state. There will be no big long term reshoring of efforts because the requirements will constantly change. Yes, lunatic, nut, unstable, whatever. I went there (very edgy, I understand). The person inflicting all this chaos does not have the country's best interests at heart. To whatever extent his own power and money grabs have some positive spillover to the country... it's an unintentional by-product. We're just left with 'higher prices' and 'continually increasing prices' as far as I can see, without concurrent higher wages and increasing jobs (or even flat jobs numbers). I'm seeing very little positive outcomes here for anyone except the already-elite rich folks.

ericmay 1mo ago

> We might take in more taxes, but when we cut funding for childhood cancer research, and build more missiles... is this really the way we want our money spent? Well we all have our opinions on how our money is spent. I for one think we need a lot more missiles and a lot more folks working instead of living off of taxpayer dollars (labor participation rate is the lowest ever), broadly speaking. But we don't really have to have an either-or scenario here and it's unfortunate that politics has gotten this bad in America. > Perhaps there was more overlap 10 years ago, but... that "both sides are just as bad" doesn't seem to ring true. Well, I'm not suggesting both sides are bad (though they are in their own ways - we should eject all communists and fascists from this country and planet). I'm suggesting that Democrats agree with Donald Trump's economic policy even if some are politicking otherwise. If you look back to Trump's first term he began instituting tariff-like policies and other economic agenda items around restoring manufacturing capacity. Biden continued those policies, and then Trump has taken them a step further. Democrats today are campaigning on high inflation, but recall that inflation was also very high in 2022 and so forth, gas prices were even higher than during our support for Ukraine (I strongly support Ukraine), and so forth. But if/when Democrats are elected it is unlikely they will roll back the Trump tariff scheme though perhaps negotiate more favorable deals with less bickering with our European friends and partners, and will maintain tariffs and other economic measures against countries such as China and perhaps others like Mexico and Canada.

mgkimsal 1mo ago
global tariffs via ieepa or similar legislation - base flat tariffs against all imports from all countries - I think those will go. Biden kept some targeted tariffs, but didn't massive expand or do country-based tariffs.
- ericmay 1mo ago
  I can see changes but I'm not sure about flat tariffs going away completely. One of the reasons for those is because what China will do to avoid American tariffs is to basically try and set up shop in a 3rd country, or just do some legal configuration to make the products they are dumping seem to come from the 3rd country instead. Kind of like a "final assembly" style loophole. I agree Biden largely just kept the Trump regime in place, especially with respect to China, but I also think he was dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic and so something like broad tariffs given the economic and political environment probably weren't really considered. Personally I feel like it's a win-win for me. Either we re-shore more manufacturing, stop China from dumping, &c. which result in higher prices but have other benefits that I value, or we don't and prices go down and wages and such go down which means cheaper goods and services which is also nice.
  - mgkimsal 28d ago
    been a few days but... I'm not actually seeing a whole lot of 'reshore manufacturing'... at best, it's uneven, but price increases across the board (even before iran/oil shock) have been quite prevalent. Without this being formalized, we're left with monthly changes based on one lunatic's emotional state. There will be no big long term reshoring of efforts because the requirements will constantly change. Yes, lunatic, nut, unstable, whatever. I went there (very edgy, I understand). The person inflicting all this chaos does not have the country's best interests at heart. To whatever extent his own power and money grabs have some positive spillover to the country... it's an unintentional by-product. We're just left with 'higher prices' and 'continually increasing prices' as far as I can see, without concurrent higher wages and increasing jobs (or even flat jobs numbers). I'm seeing very little positive outcomes here for anyone except the already-elite rich folks.