chapotraphouse

How to dominate world economy :

• step 1 : don't buy stuff from your rival
• step 2 : don't produce anything
• step 3 : ???
• step 4 : profit

Four stories from the COVID supply crunch stood out to me:

1. Factories building and garages maintaining 18-wheelers had to shut down because they couldn't source some small metal part that came from China domestically. It was just like a particular kind of ball-bearing.

2. A factory that made doors had to shut down because it couldn't source its inputs domestically

3. Municipal utility companies warned that they had no supplies to respond to infrastructure damage because they couldn't source them domestically

4. Nurses were wearing trash bags while people paid $100 for homemade ineffective hand sanitiser on ebay because the basic supplies required to respond to the pandemic at any level couldn't be sourced domestically.

Big fuck around energy.

lol, lmao even

50% on solar panels? Holy shit that's actually fucking insane, China makes 80% of all panels. They're nuking any hope of a green transition

The yanks will also impose tariffs on EV batteries

Without access to lower-cost batteries and battery materials made in China, EVs will be too expensive for mainstream U.S. consumers, automakers have said.

Americans won't even be able to afford EVs to go with their billion dollar charging stations

100% on EVs,
And 50% on solar panels.

Fuck off

I'm sure that voters will be ecstatic to hear that Biden is tackling the bread and butter issues like "everything isn't expensive enough".

Does he really think that the people he's trying to win over care more about sticking it to China politically at the expense of renewable energy than being able to afford basic goods? All those people have already been screaming at progressives that everything's their fault for 8 months.

So much for that infantesimal amount of inflation reduction they were trying to campaign on.

This fucking DUNCE is running the entire playbook to lose like a motherfucker

WHO THE FUCK HEARS HEY YOUR SOLAR PANELS ARE GONNA COST DOUBLE NOW AND SAYS OH THANKS CHIEF LET ME VOTE FOR THE CORPSE THAT SIGNED THAT SHIT

And yes I'm particularly pissed off because I was about to buy solar panels.

Remember this absolute fucking (I'm really holding back on language out of respect for people here, but my 14 year old 2002 inner child has so many choice words) clownass passed, less than 2 years ago, the "inflation reduction act" which had a pretty decently half ass ok part for homeowners (not landlords fuck them, although yes it benefited them. More actually. Don't make me think about that)?

Part of it was huge tax incentives (note: not rebates so people on social security or whatever who don't pay taxes can eat shit -signed, Joe Biden) on buying solar panels for homes, EVs, stuff like that.

Welp!

"Just kidding" says top dipshit in charge

Signing this when your polls are already at the bottom of the Mariana trench is just a "fuck you" to the last 3 "progressives" who may be supporting him and, imo, putting his hands up like "fuck it, Trump wins. I don't care. Hey oil companies, make sure my grandkids get a nice underground bunker!"

Anti green energy transition Anti "free market" competition

The perfectly moronic move to piss off everyone except, well, Exxon I guess? Maybe Elon? Everything and everyone who should be not just pissed off but...[redacted]... that's who he appeals to.

Tell me again liberals why I should vote for the rotten corpse who in his last moments of life jerked the wheel directly into the iceberg.

The president can't do everything, but he can do a fucking lot, and I can't think of more than a few times when Biden has even gestured at doing the right thing. Trump did a few right things too. Where's the fucking argument for this guy being better? Are they even bothering with that anymore?

Btw, I had a mental conspiracy theory that I didn't speak because I feared I'd bring it into existence... but it seems we've arrived anyway. My theory was basically after the IRA passed funding was immediately, or quickly anyway, available for states to start giving rebates where they were designated, etc. Well, many states have been draaaaaaaaging their asses for years now. Why? Well, incompetence is always number 1. The easiest answer. My theory was 2. To allow for manufacturers/retailers to jack the prices up to reap more profits.

Like I need a new oven/stove. I want one of the newer fancy ones which are incredibly overpriced. Oh hey, Corpse Joey passed a bill that will take off like 80% of the cost? Ok, I'll wait until the state gets their asses in gear. Should be available in a month! Right!? .... my current governor has pushed that timeline from late to 2022 to mid 2023 to not talking about it and now recently he said late 2024. For funding that was available in like Oct 2022. Incredible. And if you're wondering, ovens haven't gotten cheaper since 2022 I can assure you of that! I sure hope Biden sanctions Chinese ovens next without offering a single fucking solution to America NOT MAKING ANYTHING

From 2022: Trump metal tariffs ruled in breach of global rules by WTO

Trade wars are good and easy to win

The adults the room(tm) used to say the free market would solve climate change because eventually green energy would become cheaper and then it would be widely adopted. Now the price has fallen and they're slapping tariffs

Surely this is going to be followed by the largest attempt at reindustrialization in US history right?

"well the best part about the free market is that if you don't like a company, then a better company will come along and give you a better service. you can buy what you want and vote with your wallet"

I literally thought about this earlier today while on the bus, "What happens to the USA if they tariff all of Chinese goods, or China does it to them? Where will they get their treats from?" Well, looks like China needn't apply their own taxes and tariffs, cause dear old Joe is doing a capable job himself.

Certified :sit-back-and-enjoy: moment

there are some wonderfully salty threads on /r/neoliberal about this

If you actually cared to compete with China you would join the technology arms race by investing heavily into it instead of banning superior competitors. If state intervention does positively affect technological progress instead of just pure competition, then neoliberal ideology is wrong and should be abandoned.

Full Tweet if you're too lazy to click the title lol (it's fine):

I just imposed a series of tariffs on goods made in China:

25% on steel and aluminum,

50% on semiconductors,

100% on EVs,

And 50% on solar panels.

China is determined to dominate these industries.

I'm determined to ensure America leads the world in them.

I'm sure that'll help reduce inflation 🙄

Guess we're not coming anywhere close to carbon reduction goals

Born to lose

Election is a fuck

252,534,748,452 dead Palestinians

make the price of stuff go up

make green energy more expensive and less accessible

for the grand benefit of uhhh... sticking it to the reds?

this is why I can't take people seriously when they scream about how badly we need to get Biden elected to stop Trump. Because Biden seems to be doing everything in his power to lose 2024

Such an L even from a neoliberal point of view. The US is an advanced manufacturer, those are our inputs. Nations that are dominated by resource extraction get into a rut because they fundamentally can't match the productivity of economies that are creating the final end goods, because that's where most of the profit comes from. The sellers of inputs can only ever match the profit rate of the final good it's used for. The US is obviously not going to have a resurgence of production of steel, aluminum, solar panels, and semiconductors, so this is just going to end up tanking every sector that uses them. It's just the worst of the nudge-based economic brainworms taken to it's logical extreme.

This is it. This is the one that cements Americas decline into the annuls of history. All because of the Biden administration and the Dems. I will never vote for a dem as long as I live (I have never voted but still)