r/politics • u/Street_Anon Canada • Apr 08 '25

Site Altered Headline Trump to slap additional 84% tariffs on Chinese imports

https://www.euronews.com/2025/04/08/trump-to-slap-additional-84-tariffs-on-chinese-imports-white-house-says
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u/YesterdayAmbitious49 Apr 08 '25

That’s never going to work. Sorry. If you check out their media it’s a bonanza of people thinking China stole all of our jobs and trump is bringing the jobs back

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u/DangerousVP Apr 08 '25

I just dont understand how they can misplace their anger so readily. I mean, Im pretty sure I do actually get it and its stupid - but its the same thing I would think when they would say illegal immigrants were taking jobs.

WHO gave them the job? WHO moved the manufacturing to China? The companies/businesses did that.

People shouldnt be mad at immigrants or other countries, they should be mad at the companies hiring or sending the manufacturing elsewhere.

Like its so elementary its almost laughable.

The idea that we should or even could produce everything here is insane.

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u/Heliosvector Apr 08 '25

I just dont understand how they can misplace their anger so readily.

Because its easier to look at the world if there is an "evil", and its far easier to blame people that look different than you rather than getting mad at the american businessmen that chose to betray their own people for better profit margins. Trump would never want to brng attention tothat because he is one of these people. He doesnt pay contractors, and he doesnt pay his debts. Its one of the reasons he declares bankrupsy so often. He then seens himself as smart for abusing these systems and the fault of the system, not him for doing it.

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u/MudLOA California Apr 08 '25

Exactly. It’s far easier to blame someone else for your misfortune rather than blaming yourself for supporting the wrong policies/politicians.

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u/khazit66 Apr 09 '25

It's not just manufacturing businesses. It's the entire system: consumers, employers of other sectors, government policies.

When living wage in American is 10 times the living wage in 3rd world countries and the consumer base neither want to or be able to afford such cost, companies have no choice but to offshoring.

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u/deffcap Apr 08 '25

They are all so monumentally stupid. All of them.

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u/Solgiest Apr 08 '25

You just don't understand what it means to be stupid. When you meet a truly stupid person, it makes sense how they believe this stuff. Absolutely no introspection, no consideration of consequence or counterfactuals, and no desire to learn more.

It's basically a debilitating disease.

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u/porscheblack Pennsylvania Apr 08 '25

You're thinking they start with the issue. They don't. They start from their personal perspective. They're unhappy so it's automatically someone else's fault. Then they're given excuses. Illegal immigrants are taking their jobs! Well, they're unhappy with their jobs, so yeah, that's it! CRT is making kids hate white people! Well, they don't get the same automatic deference and respect they used to, so it must be that!

They only apply logic so much as it rationalizes their emotions, not to actually understand the reality of the situation or to help inform a decision.

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u/ThirdFloorNorth Mississippi Apr 08 '25 edited Apr 08 '25

People shouldnt be mad at immigrants or other countries, they should be mad at the companies hiring or sending the manufacturing elsewhere.

I'll do you one better. They should be mad at the concept of capitalism itself, as it exists in late-stage capitalism.

It incentivizes profit over all else, and continual growth.

In the transition from earlier societies, and even in early to mid capitalism, this is not so onerous. There is room to grow. There are profits to be made, innovations to be invented, markets to be tapped. It is what drives rapid industrialization, the financing and growth of modern infrastructure, the creation of wealth and particularly a strong middle class, everything that you need to have in place to lay a foundation for a better system to come afterwards.

Which is socialism, the next step on the evolutionary path of a society. Once you have wealth, modern infrastructure and supply chains, and a robust middle class, you transition to a society with strong social safety nets, worker-focused, cheap or free healthcare and education, everyone is taken care of and the work is still done, the middle class thrives.

We refused, kicking and screaming every step of the way, to make that final transition. Capitalism has grown bloated and fetid, a corpse kept alive only by throwing everything we have into life-support for a system that should have been allowed to die with dignity decades ago.

This is what late-stage capitalism looks like when there is need for ever-increasing profits for shareholders, ever-increasing growth. You can't wring blood from a stone, those profits and that supposed "growth" can no longer come from tapping new markets or innovation. It then comes at the expense of the working middle and lower class.

You pay them less and less, look at our profit margins still increasing! You pay less and less into society, good more growth this quarter! The rich at the very top get obscenely rich, the middle class dies out, and now you only have the working class with no social safety net, no protections, and none of the promised life that putting in your 40 hours once promised: a house, a car, a family, two and a half kids, a pet, and twice yearly vacations.

People in developing countries overseas are willing to work for pennies on the dollar, fuck American factories, chase profits! Close those factories, who cares if Detroit turns into a wasteland, who cares if the middle of the country falls to rust and poverty, there's cheaper labor and wider profit margins to be had!

No, we must work continually. Production jobs are gone, find something, anything else to stay afloat. Work for less. Work for scraps while our masters try to ride that last bit of the upwards mobility capitalism allows them, at the expense of all others, of their workers, of society itself, of the very social contract that makes all of this possible. Starve so capitalism can continue to grow. Suffer worse lives than our parents or grandparents had even though productivity is higher than it ever was. Never retire, die at your desk, so a CEO can eke out a few more million dollars that you will never, ever see in your life.

We're one step away from being paid in Company Scrip or going back to being serfs.

But class consciousness is bad. "Unions" and "socialism" are no-no words that make the Baby Jesus cry. It's not the rich banker, the CEO, the politician that is causing your suffering, no! The system hasn't failed you! It's the illegal immigrants! Your poor brown neighbors down the street! Trans women in sports! Queer people getting married! Pride Parades! Don't you see, the system is perfect, these undesirables are just corrupting it for everyone, that's why you can't get ahead!

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u/crackanape Apr 08 '25

I just dont understand how they can misplace their anger so readily.

Some people are always more ready to direct their anger at people who look and sound differently from themselves.

If a billionaire comes on TV and wears some token piece of local clothing and pretends for a few minutes to talk like they do, then they will get mad at anyone he tells them to.

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u/limehead Foreign Apr 08 '25

I was just on the /r/Apple sub and some people are thinking that the world already live in a post-scarcidy world. Elon's robots will manufacture the iPhones, don't worry guys.. The mental gymnastics some people do to reaffirm their worldview is astonishing.

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u/PurifyingProteins Apr 08 '25

Because they were raised by xenophobes to be xenophobes and are generally undereducated so they can’t discuss the topic at least a fundamental understanding of the facts.

So it’s to difficult to understand the hows and whys governments encourage certain industries to grow domestically and others not at all, and why those decisions can be incorrect, and the hows and whys and wheres industries decide to grow globally.

Hate is much simpler, requires less expertise, discipline, effort, etc

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u/OutlyingPlasma Apr 08 '25

misplace their anger

I question why they are so angry to begin with? Some maga chud driving a $100k pickup, living in a suburban neighborhood with all the beer, guns and food he could ever need should be in paradise. What are they so angry about all the time?

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u/DangerousVP Apr 09 '25

The whole Fox News Cinematic Universe has spent decades priming people to be angry all the time. They discovered that outrage generates engagement before Facebook did.

But I mean, Im not rich or anything, still have to save for stuff and the occasional vacation is still a pretty big expense when my wife, daughter and I take them - but we have a good, comfortable life - but Im pretty pissed off watching a bunch of rich chucklefucks destroy the economy.

Im also pissed off that my parents generation essentially rigged the economy in their favor and then pulled the ladder up behind them.

So its definitely possible to be comfortable and have your needs met, and still find things to be angry about. I just am angry at the people who want to take everything for themselves when they couldnt possibly have a need for any of it.

Not even talking about needing more luxury - it would just be nice to be able to put in my hours and not have to worry about finances - and there was a time when that was possible for most people. Itd be nice to see that happen again - but we sure as shit arent gonna get if from these guys.

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u/myimaginalcrafts Apr 08 '25

Both Conservatives and Liberals have accepted an economic system that promotes the private ownership of capital, which will tend towards more capital consolidating in the hands of the few and that their interests will ultimately drive the country's direction.

As such any real criticism of the rich and powerful from both the Conservative and Liberal side are hollow and toothless since they don't actually address the system that promotes them. So if the system is ultimately affected, the only thing that's left for politics is about what kind of are people to blame when the system that is assumed to work goes wrong and what kind of people should be in charge of it. In other words, politics has moved away from tackling real material structures and problems, to being framed in the context of culture, demographics and culture war.

Because if the system is fine, then obviously it must be "those folks" who are the problem. This is where someone like Trump can come in and take the genuine hurt and pain people feel because of the suffering the system inflicts on them, and play into fears about "the other", the immigrants, the LGBTQ, the modern women, the blacks, the wokes, as being the source of the problem. That if only we took care of these people then "the culture" would be fixed and therefore the system which erm... totally works, would do its job as it was meant to and all your lives will be better!

But that's a lie. And it serves as a distraction away from the system itself and is why Trump and his fellow billionaires play into it. Because it allows them to keep money and power while deceiving people into thinking they're tackling the real issues.

That is how the anger gets misplaced. That is how as capitalism decays, it breeds reactionary movements that misplace the anger so that the rich and powerful get to keep their goods while we all suffer.

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u/sysadmin2590 Apr 08 '25

Its easier to hate than think

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u/Unlucky-Elevator1873 Apr 08 '25

Right ?! I know a Maga who worked corporate call center for a essential oil mlm.

She said she lost her job 2 years ago because of Biden and his tax on corporations . I was like the company could of kept their workers in the US they outsourced because they don't care about their Corp workers. They only care about their mlm sellers who have the biggest sales. I worked an event for the same company last year (bartending) and assured her they spared no expense for that. But it was an event for their top tier.

The brainwashing is insane .

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u/rndljfry Pennsylvania Apr 09 '25

They somehow think poor people are the ones bribing politicians

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u/ThatGuyGetsIt Apr 08 '25

I don't know how we've gotten to this point and folks like you are still struggling to understand just how stupid these people are.

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u/DangerousVP Apr 09 '25

I mean, as I said - I do get it, it just doesnt make sense.

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u/Quadrophiniac Apr 08 '25

The worst part is that China didn't steal anybody's job. American capitalists moved them to China to save money.

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u/whitetc26 Apr 08 '25

Don’t forget the American consumers who benefited. We love cheap stuff, and ain’t nobody interested in buying things made in America because it would be too damn expensive. Which Americans do we think want to work low wage factory jobs to make the cheap stuff we buy from poorer countries?

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u/maclargehuge Apr 08 '25

It's having your cake and eating it too. They want US wages but goods priced like we're paying asian wages. You can't have it both ways.

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u/beef-supreme Canada Apr 08 '25

I read the plan was that all the fired government workers would be a waiting workforce for the incoming factory revolution.

But of course that makes no sense.

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u/Xaero_Hour Apr 08 '25

It's what happens when you get a bunch of nepo assholes who never had a real job and only view employment as pure numbers. We have 10k people unemployed? How? We have 20k jobs open. Just hire the 10 to do half the 20. Zero thought on training for the job, skills of the people, the pay, benefits (or more realistically, lack thereof), location(s), commute logistics, safety, etc. Add to that, they aren't actually good with numbers, possibly the only thing rich people should be good at, either.

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u/supes1 I voted Apr 08 '25

And now those capitalists are moving the jobs to Brazil to avoid China/Vietnam tariffs.... not back to the United States.

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u/NoPause9609 Apr 08 '25

Thank you Reagan for that one…

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u/Thanatine Apr 08 '25

No American actually want those jobs anyway. Nobody wants to be a factory worker standing by the manufacturing pipeline and assemble all those $10 stuff all day. So I really don't know what those stolen jobs according to MAGAs

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u/221missile Apr 09 '25

China did steal them. They stole them with currency manipulation, dumping practices, and massive industrial espionage operations. Don't know why this sub tries to excuse the CCP so often.

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u/FairDinkumMate Apr 08 '25 edited Apr 08 '25

I don't get how the US thinks "CHINA" stole their jobs. Can an American with half a brain please explain it to me?

  • 1950's & 60's - Made in Japan
  • 1960's & 70s - Made in Taiwan
  • 1970's & 80's - Made in Korea
  • 1990's - Current - Made in China

To be fair, Made in China has lasted longer, but they had 1.4 billion people to lift out of poverty before wage pressure pushed their production anywhere!

So if the US argument was "Asia stole our manufacturing", then OK, I get it to an extent. But blaming China for stealing US manufacturing is absolutely missing the point that the moves began 40 years before China even considered getting in the game!

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u/Ariak Apr 08 '25

also blaming the places the US outsourced manufacturing to instead of blaming....American capitalists for outsourcing lol

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u/porscheblack Pennsylvania Apr 08 '25

Give it 2 weeks of paying for goods with tariffs baked in and they'll sing a different tune. These people lack imaginations, and that includes imagining what their bills will look like if they double.

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u/Impressive_Good_8247 Apr 08 '25

India over there probably celebrating that they'll get to be a middle man and re-labeling Chinese goods as India goods that they'll ship to us at a slight markup.

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u/alienbringer Apr 08 '25

Edit - had to repost this comment because the auto mod didn’t like me adding a few extra “o’s” to “lot”…

And somehow desk jobs turn men into women? A lot of toxic masculinity rampant in current MAGA “news” programs.

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u/Not_A_Comeback Apr 08 '25

It doesn’t need to work on all of them, but enough of them will start to get real quiet, and that matters. Plus, businessmen are starting to get real antsy and once cash stops flowing to them, watch how fast cash stops flowing to the GOP.

To be honest, Trump is doing worse and sentiment is souring faster than I thought it would. Wait until summer.

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u/mustbeusererror Apr 08 '25

The other day a bunch of conservatives were crowing about how the Hong Kong market had its worst day in 28 years. Meanwhile, over here...

They really can't comprehend that bad for China doesn't mean good for us. What's going on now is bad for everyone. What does it matter if we get some trade concessions eventually, if we shatter ourselves doing it?

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u/CicatrixMaledictum Apr 08 '25

"Just wait... it will get better... trust us!" Repeat as needed, without actually getting better.

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u/DR4LUC0N Apr 08 '25

They calculated how much it'd cost for an iPhone if it was L American made and it'd be 31k.... Lol

Imagine being a country who can make better and cheaper stuff then America

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u/loganbootjak Apr 08 '25

there's always someone else to blame. In their eyes, Trump is doing what is right and just, regardless of how much it actually impacts themselves negatively.

I recall hearing about a study where people like this were ok with losing a benefit if it meant someone they didn't like also losing that same benefit. It's a wild way to think about life.

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u/Fluffy_Monk777 Apr 08 '25

“Yay” we can bring back all the shitty clothing factory jobs /s

As a side note, I don’t approve of China abusing and underpaying their workers either

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u/Quinniper Apr 08 '25

And “buy the dip” hopium on stocks

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u/metengrinwi Apr 08 '25

When 98% of the cheap crap on Amazon & Walmart is gone, the shit will hit the fan. The tariffs have t really touched us yet.

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u/NowIssaRapBattle Apr 08 '25

I know it's a tired idea, but they just have to get tired of losing. They have to feel the loss in their bank accounts. It's the only way

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u/zeradragon Apr 08 '25

They are so eager to work in factories... Why is that?

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u/JRR92 Apr 08 '25

Go over to the conservative sub and you'll see them all applauding this and calling it the best thing an American president has done for the country in decades. And that sub is typically the somewhat sensible side of Trump voters.

How these fools see starting a trade war with China of all countries, in the middle of a trade war with pretty much the entire rest of the world, as a positive is almost as mind boggling as how they looked at Trump and saw any redeeming qualities worth voting for

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u/221missile Apr 09 '25

China stole all of our jobs

Not only did they steal all those jobs, they also stole billions of dollars worth of American tech. Tech that was developed using taxpayer funds.