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.
So basically government price fixing. Isn’t USA supposed to be the pillar of libertarian capitalism?
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.
Trading through coercion.
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
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.
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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.
Still one of the absolutely best things I’ve ever read; always reread in full.
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Is that… is that a portrait of Reagan on the wall behind him? The man has no concept of irony…
It feels so gross upvoting a picture and quote from Reagan.
Agreed. But this is a stopped clock situation, and the sentiment is not wrong.
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Truth is truth, no matter the source.
you’re upvoting an even worse than Reagan meme
I felt pretty gross posting it, so, ya know, fair enough.
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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.
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.
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.
I’m going to guess from context that they meant to write ‘doesn’t know’, but…
I’m starting to think that this guy might not understand how economies work.
But he had the best bankruptcies, beautiful bankruptcies, everbody said say, many woman said “no more bankruptcies, they are too great”, believe me!
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).
And if his decrees don’t have the expected results, it’s someone else’s fault.
The guy owned casinos that went bankrupt. It takes a special kind of person to do that
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Trump: worship me
Auto makers: you literally fucked us all over.
Trump: and I expect you to thank me for it.
At least they’re wearing suits, am I right?
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.
If it actually worked it’s a funny way to say, let’s tax corporations. It would never happen though because it makes line go down.
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.
“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.
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.
How great would it be if he somehow accidentally killed car dealerships
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.
I thought China was paying the tariffs?
/s
Fuckcars is delighted
Sneaky carbon tax lol
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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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.
Only problem is if he does before the next US election JD Vance will take over and that could be just as bad
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.
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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…
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.
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I hope the car makers said ‘thank you’
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are they even able to produce the parts domestically?
Not for a few years at least, if ever. And building this capacity costs money they will want to recoup.
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?
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.
Tariffs at least historically have been used to mess up the economy and prepare the population for a new deal.
Building capacity costs a ton of money and with the constant flip flopping on tarrifs there’s a lot of hesitancy to break ground.
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.
trump has had 6 companies go bankrupt he is not a good business man.
No, no, no. Don’t you see, making 6 companies go bankrupt makes Trumpy a very a good business man. /s
Why’s he so utterly obsessed with tariffs? Like he thinks they just fix everything. It’s so stupid.
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.
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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.
I mean he’s essentially just following project 2025. They clearly didn’t want him to think too much this time around.
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.
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”.
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I don’t know, I feel like if he was dumber than most people thought he would be vegetative.
The list of allies is not that long at the moment.
The list of allies is not that long at the moment.
And continues to shrink every time he opens his mouth.
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.
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.
He’s using the money to pay for the impending wars he’s trying to start.
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.
If nothing else, I look forward to the history books and a tragicomedy documentary about…everything, really.
History is written by the victors, and the outcome is looking grim right now.
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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.
I am certain that Dogey America will lose. Whether any good parts of the USA survive the chemotherapy is the question.
I want to be there when the students ask “”why didn’t the ones with the guns to protect against tyranny use them”.
Is he so stupid he doesn’t understand how to fascism?
Yes, and at this point it’s the United States’ only hope.
Can’t count on the people, better hope the regime kills itself.
Don’t worry guys, he “saved them” by eliminating subsidies for EVs. That fad is clearly going away, and by gutting the American auto industry’s ability to grow their EV market share, we’ll clearly be poised for global dominance. Obviously the rest of the world LOVES smog and HATES silent/emissions free vehicles and will FLOCK to ICE cars that are priced the same as Chinese EVs.
The silent part is a bit of an issue though. For safety reasons.
Trivially solvable with regulation
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idk about you but i greatly value the opportunity to track nearby vehicles that are outside my field of vision without having to turn around constantly or wear one of those hats with rearview mirrors
Just need to find good solutions.
Literally just require a noisemaker
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I ring my bell when I pass people that won’t see me on my e-bike.
if I wanted to be a complete fucking jackass, I’d just pass them at 30 km per hour without making a sound.
I’m sure they would love that.
It’s the responsibility of the vehicle user to make sure that people know of them.
Noise is extremely useful as it’s a 360 radius.
It’s annoying, but useful.
Unless you can come up with other solutions to make pedestrians aware of vehicles. Beyond just looking. It’s extremely easy for a pedestrian to put their foot on the road before looking sideways just because he heard nothing.
From outside the main thing you hear from a car is the noise it makes through rolling. You still hear that with EV. The silent part is when you’re sitting inside since good cars are dampening the roll (and wind) noise
It’s an issue at low speeds where tyre noise is nowhere as loud. Also in a city it’s fighting against the other ambient noises that are quite loud.
That’s why they’re emitting sounds at such low speeds (at least in the EU, no idea how they’re regulated elsewhere)
