politics

Socialism is only bad when the left does it.

It's an element of a planned economy which has been more commonly used in authoritarian socialist countries but isn't exclusive to them.

(Fun fact because I just looked it up: There doesn't seem to be one generally accepted definition of "socialism".)

I honestly don't think anyone actually informed him of how this would go down.

The president currently holds a cabinet of people and constituents who have, for the greater part of the past 12 years, relied on the ideals of sycophantic behaviour and likewise. To be in the room and suggest that an idea is not good would and likely has turned heads and gotten them removed from their positions. Look at the most recent Removal of the FEMA administrator: bashed on fema previously, incited change, told congress that axing FEMA would be a bad thing, immediately fired and replaced with a sycophant

Lack of informed information because it doesn't align is part of the M.O. of this administration and the GOP for several years now. The only thing that matters is the ideal of greatness, whatever logic that entails.

This individual also has notably refuted and refused to consume media that doesn't tailor to his outlook. Even bashing on Fox, which is the biggest right winged media outlet out there.

My point is, he probably did not truly know what would happen. On paper and in his entourage, tariffs are indeed technically a tax on other countries, but in practice It is a tax on the people.

He thought that applying pressure through broad import taxes would force foreign manufacturers to drop their prices to avoid losing those sweet sweet US sales, and that foreign governments would line up at his door, begging for "deals". He was wrong, and anyone with a brain would have known that.

Ironically, the Economy was one of the number one concerns among voters during the election. People blamed Biden for the stores raising prices, while the Biden admin actually investigated major grocers over artificially high prices, and then elected Trump who is actually responsible for raising prices.

Captain dipshit said he’ll be watching and so will the customers. So? The price will go up from the tariffs. It’s like he struggles to be this much of a moron. I feel like he’s so stupid that I get dumber every time I have to listen to him talk.

8647

Thoughts and prayers.

Walmart is garbage, but the claim they can eat 30% tariffs because they made billions is by itself not a credible argument.

They made 16 billion in profit, on the back of 650 billion in revenue. Percentage wise that's 2.5%. The acquisition cost of the goods is a fraction of their operating costs, but if cost of acquiring the goods was even only 10% of their revenue, the tariffs are enough to push them red.

If he is right then I would expect a nice analysis of the financials of Walmart showing this is feasible, rather than a hollow rant.

Alternatively, if it were as he stated earlier temporary pain like medicine to fix the manufacturing imbalance, I would want a more coherent strategy. As it stands, businesses can't plan around his tariff policy as it shifts day to day without warning. If they did bring home manufacturing at significant expense, they lose because Trump gives in and competition that didn't bother has an advantage.

The only thing I agree with on Trump here is that he's correctly pointing out that WalMart made billions in profits last year. Yes, WalMart supported this monster in the first place thinking it would work out for them in the long run, so it's a leopards eating faces scenario for sure, and I wouldn't be sad if WalMart lost profits this year because of Trump's stupidity. It's just too bad that regular people are going to suffer because WalMart killed the small businesses that used to support towns that they wormed their way into.

We aren't even done adjusting to inflation pricing, and here we are not getting slapped with a Trump Tax on top of it. Madness.

Well you see the problem here is that you're using your brain and well we just can't be having that

If the tariffs are immediately refunded, why collect in the first place?

What a Cnut.

Walmarts whole thing is driving out competition. They're the richest company in the world and supported Trump. They asked for this.

That's a bit of a gross oversimplification. Overseas or foreign product? Sure tariffs apply 100%.

But what if the modified corn gloop is processed with a machine from Germany? And quality inspected with a sampling device from Canada? And the cameras used to inspect the packaging come from Japan? And the computers to power the logistics operations come from Taiwan, Korea and China?

Sure the corn gloop isnt taxed via tariff, but every single part of its manufacturing just got 20-120% more expensive (and supply chains got that much less predictable). Most businesses would go under if they tried to eat that cost.

The answer? Sweeping tariffs mean sweeping price increases. The list of which prices won't go up will be infinitely smaller.