They all thought the foreign company paid the tariff.
This is probably what Trump thinks, too. I can easily believe he is that stupid.
I’m also wondering just what the fuck Trump and co. are going to do with all the money obtained from these tariffs. Just, like, spend it all on hookers and blow or what? Remember how you all believed this was the party of “low taxes?” Yeah, guess what a tariff is, fuckers.
This is probably what Trump thinks, too.
100%. If he isn’t reading it from a script that someone else wrote, he knows nothing about the topics he’s talking about.
He even boasts about “knowing more than anyone about XYZ”, yet, it can’t expand on the subject, can’t answer questions about it, is vague, and reminds me of how really bad LLMs answer questions.
I found some additional articles on what he said about this, and he did indeed flat out say he expects the “other countries” to pay the tariffs. For instance, this.
A sweeping tariff policy will kill two birds with one stone, Trump says: It could find a new source of revenue for the U.S. government, which could offset losses from lowering or eliminating certain forms of income tax, while extracting money from rival governments.
That’s not how tariffs have worked at any point in history.
Yup. He does a great job “selling” ideas that simply aren’t grounded in reality.
Like that wall that Mexico was going to pay for. What an idiot. Did his base think the United States would just send Mexico a bill for work completed and expect them to pay it? You couldn’t make this buffoonery up!
I had a boss like this. Had all these million dollar ideas but no capacity to consider that someone else had the same idea and it either made no damn sense or it had already been done and people went to jail for it. Motherfuckers dream up grifts halfway and think everyone else is an idiot or sucker for not acting on the “golden opportunity”.
You couldn’t make this buffoonery up!
Well somebody did
When it’s returned to the feds it’s just destroyed. Federal return is just the return of debt, it’s not more money.
Just, like, spend it all on hookers and blow or what?
Would this honestly surprise you?
Considering the stories that came out about how they used the White House pharmacy as a drug dealer, no, it would not surprise me in the least.
Don’t forget who paid for the wall … I mean Mexico totally was writing the checks…fucking idiots.
Is the owner of the company purchasing a year’s worth in order to keep the price they charge down, or in order to raise prices in February when their customers expect it because of the new tariffs, and pocket the difference? While having avoided paying bonuses?
Obviously I don’t know the business in question, but it’s quite possible that the company has a bunch of longer running contracts that would become a loss if the inputs become much more expensive.
Of course, businesses will use the opportunity to charge more, but sudden price hikes are a very real problem.
This is almost certainly what’s happening. The proposed tariffs will be very hard on American businesses and devastating for the consumer. It’s quite literally a fairly severe tax on domestic companies and the American people. But, honestly, we could do with a less consumerism in this country. Unfortunately, it’s likely to cause a tough economic downturn that will hurt poor people the most.
that will hurt poor people the most.
As is tradition.
Be hilarious if Trump simultaneously collapses the economy and starts a green movement built around an inherent need for a second hand economy.
Stranger things have happened. Like him getting elected, for instance.
Large and small manufacturing companies have contracts for orders for months to years out with set prices, some of which might have wiggle room for costs but not to this extent. Plus manufacturing already tries to balance out costs across projects due to fluctuating prices for materials. If their materials double (or more) in price they will be screwed by the contracts and guaranteed to lose money on all of them.
Buying at the current prices means they will have to pay to have the materials stored in a warehouse, which will cut into their planned profits for those existing contracts. Hell, they might be buying at a higher cost than they normally would when fulfilling the contracts.
The company is getting screwed, not trying to fleece customers or their employees.
I’m pleasantly surprised how level headed the replies to that comment are.
Without having more detail I can’t speak with certainty, but, general principles of inventory management and cash flow discourage having a surplus of stock, as that ties up a significant amount of working capital in the costs of storing and handling it all - you risk not being able to pay your liabilities because you’ve sunk all your funds into inventory that hasn’t yet sold and generated more revenue.
Companies often have longer term contracts with specific prices agreed that can’t always be easily changed. Those contacts could quite easily become unprofitable if there are sudden increases to the direct costs of fulfilling them. So, rather than trying to fuck customers, this company is likely trying to stock-up at current market prices to ride-out the first year of tariffs, but in doing so, needs a large injection of working capital to cover the expenditure (hence cancelling bonuses), and also puts itself in a very vulnerable position where cash flow is concerned by tying up that capital in inventory - any further sudden and unexpected costs could lead to the business folding.
Yeah, this seems like those redhats need a union.
But that’s socialism!
Them: Make America Great Again!
So, like the 1950s?
Them: Yeah!
When corporate tax rates and union membership were much higher?
Them: Not like that!
That’s the thing though, most customers don’t expect the price increase because they’re fucking idiots who believes tariffs are good for the economy.
they’ll pocket the difference, jack up prices, refuse bonuses next year, business slows, lay off half the staff, buy material on credit–maybe siphoning some of that off, bonuses are now a distant memory, jack prices up again. business slows to a crawl, lay off more. business falters. file bankruptcy with millions of outstanding debt to write off.
just like their diaper-wearing idol would.
Well you’re 💯 correct on what Trumps would do!
As an individual small business owner however, they could have gotten caught in the squeeze between contracts and tariffs.
Does it matter? This wouldn’t have happened without Trump being elected and the looking threat of tariffs. Whether the owner is using that as cover for jacking up the prices or not, it’s still a LAMF moment.
Oh I don’t disagree! I’m just wondering if the owner is face-eaten or face-eating. Small business owners are more varied than big business leopards.
if anything like it happens in Turkey, most businesses will buy early, stockpile goods as prices keep increasing (increased effect of tariffs + shortage of goods in market) and release them to the market for a hefty profit
If they’re reputable enough and tend to operate in good faith, they could be giving their customers time to prepare for the incoming price hike. They’ll probably lose customers that can’t afford to operate with the new price later on but the transparency would go a long way towards maintaining healthy business relations with the remaining customers.
Definitely the latter.
Unfortunately, this kind of ignorance comes from a weakening of our education system. It’s not just on them that this has happened, and its only going to get worse if we don’t try to stop it.
Hey, exactly! The fact that we are even allowing this nonsense is a true testimony to how extremely important education is! If you remain ignorant, you are more easily persuaded to believe anything because you aren’t taught what “bullshit” is, and have no real ability to think for yourself.
Education is freedom from ignorance.
And that’s why red states are slashing school budgets en masse and continue to have consistently terrible academic performance.
Don’t forget the propaganda.
This!!! I don’t actually expect our K thru 12 education system to inform the average people about macro-economic policy impacts. This is about being gullible, hearing what you want to hear, refusing to listen to opposing opinions with an open mind, and hero worship.
So if there’s anything to blame on our education system (and society culture at large) it’s a lack of critical thinking education and an excess of magical thinking education that emphasizes blind agreement with authority.
Unfortunately one of the stated plans is for trump to completely and utterly eliminate the department of education entirely.
Trump’s Tariffs are BIDENS FAULT! And they’ll STILL be Biden’s Fault EVERY TIME I vote for the man who LITERALLY campaigned on creating these Tariffs!
“you won’t have to vote anymore” --the diaper, july 2024
I’m sure some of them will still blame Obama too out of habit
To be honest, this kind of feels to me like the boss was just looking for an excuse to not have to pay workers.
I mean, he got it and it’s actually a good one. Uncertain finances tend to cut into bonuses of all types.
The truly enraging thing about the voters who said they voted for trump due to economic concerns is HOW IN THE GODDAMNED FUCK do they think he’s going to fix anything? To the extent that a president can change the cost of living, among the worst ideas is probably to fucking add fees to imports. This is his one idea and yet no one can explain to him the extremely simple negative effect that it would have on consumers.
This absolute fucking dope had one terrible idea for helping lower prices (which will certainly raise them) and the voters lapped it up without thinking. America is full of morons.
Studies generally show the economy does better under Democrats than Republicans, in measurements of CPI, GDP, job growth, and unemployment. Republicans however have a massive propaganda machine that has gaslit the country in believing the opposite. Frequently this is backed by short term plays that make things “feel” better but cause significant long term problems. Like a CEO firing the QA team, line goes up this quarter and by the time the consequences arrive they’re gone and blame the next guy.
They’re operating under a lot of propaganda, and no understanding of economics. They’re ignorant of the fact that Trump inherited the economy that Obama fixed, which is why at the time under Trump things were better. They’re ignorant of the fact that Trump fucked everything up with his handling of the pandemic, previous tarrifs, and in turn fucked the economy up on the way out. They’re ignorant that Biden was trying to clean up Trump’s mess, and instead assign blame to Biden.
And every after all that, there is still the added fact that the president doesn’t directly control the economy, and has limited options. But that doesn’t matter to them. They’ve been sold a simple solution to a complicated problem.
Hold MAGA voters accountable for their choices. Every. Single. Day.
Thanks Trump.
I’m about to print off about a million of those “I did that!!” stickers that the magats loved to stick on gas pumps. You better believe those things are going everywhere.
I don’t want to put blame directly on individual voters, in the sense that they might be able to learn in 4 years, and “Trump did that” only addresses the symptom of the problem. “MAGA did that” sounds apt to me.
They didn’t learn in 2016, why would they now?
I’m already too optimistic but perhaps a more direct awareness campaign on how climate denialism, economic isolationism and anti-immigration stances hurt themselves, their friends family and neighbors, and directly make their lives worse.
Make sure to get pictures of the prices before and after and then toss them on the products with the new price.
Good. Hope it hurts.
It will.
Unfortunately, it will also hurt those who wanted nothing to do with Trump’s lies.
Everyone, except the rich, will suffer. Thanks for voting! /s
I am a hollow shell of a man, emptied of all but schadenfreude. If we’re all going to suffer, I find peace in the fact that they’ll suffer alongside me.
I have been made into that which I hated most and now I don’t even have the energy to fight it anymore.
but that’s the goal of fascism. they beat you down until you don’t want to fight anymore. the way out of this is to get organized and fight back. look for volunteer opportunities with the ACLU. be involved.
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.
I’m sure the corporate farmers were happy to buy up that land and cut the trump admin a nice check for the convenience.
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.
Anyone? Anyone? Raised or lowered? Anyone? Anyone know what this is?
not exactly shocking, not the first time Trump has made tariffs. Last time they drove the cost of house construction up.
In already prepared. I haven’t bought anything but the small food essentials since 2020. I’m 100% with consuming and will for the foreseeable future.
Yup. My household is going to pull back on the impulse to improve and just build up the reserves for the “have to fix” things that happen.
Working on doing more cooking, more gardening, cutting out expense conveniences. With the waves of deregulation and tariffs coming, prices on everything are going to skyrocket while quality goes to hell. The more we can produce ourselves, the better.
Second hand market is going to be crazy!
Waitaminute…since when can tariffs eat my face??
So they immediately left that meeting and started talking about how to unionize, right?
Right?
And the union organizer’s name? Albert Einstein.
Not sure what a union would have done in this case. The problem is near term cost of inputs vs long term contracts with fixed revenue.
I’m not saying it would be bad for this to kick them into forming a union, only that it wouldn’t have solved this problem unless the union had an education campaign to explain why excessive tariffs are bad.
Unfortunately a union after the fact does nothing to help the workers.
Unions are great for ensuring that the profit from their labour; is fairly distributed.
If the company is unprofitable; forming a union to squeeze blood from a stone is not helpful. It will just hasten the demise. These tariffs, as others have pointed out are probably making their fixed term contracts into money losers…We don’t have all the data, but it is quite likely.
And from a personal point of view, smaller companies tend to care more than big ones…I’ve worked in both. Being 1 of 5 is great, being 1 of 15,000 not so much.
If only he had sat them down and explained that on November 4th
Ah but see, there’s juuuuust enough left for the execs to still get their bonuses, and we wouldn’t to deny them their bonuses lest they stop “creating jobs”. And they really needed more corporate tax cuts, so we can’t tell people not to vote against their own interests because then that’s not in the company’s interest.
tl;dr get fucked peasants
Sorry not sorry.
Those tariffs are going to be a bitch. On the bright side, collecting aluminum cans is going to be way more lucrative.
