- cross-posted to:
- leopardsatemyface@lemmy.world
- cross-posted to:
- leopardsatemyface@lemmy.world
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Maybe it’s because I took economics as far back as high school, but even just from reading high school history books I knew what a Tariff was. How the FUCK did they not know that?
I am also willing to bet that they will eventually blame the democrats for breaking the system, as they always do.
There’s a fair portion of people 21+ that have difficulty playing blackjack because they can’t add to 21. Last night I was asked by a grown man what 9+1+3 is.
You’d be surprised how incompetent some people are.
I worked in customer service for 7 years. I am aware… so very aware…
To give you an idea, when I worked for Verizon mobile, it was a few times a week that I came across a client who did not know how to hang up their cellphone calls. No joke. It took such a while to get them off the hook it wasn’t funny. And if you ask me why I wouldn’t hang up on them, it was because Verizon had a strict no hang-up policy. You were not allowed to hang up on a client no matter what. It was grounds for immediate termination.
Maybe it was a HR call to test your patience with customers
Even if you’re competent at arithmetic in school, those skills can definitely atrophy. I say this as someone who’s unreasonably slow at basic arithmetic despite being an ex-mathlete; I got complacent because I’ve been learning and using graduate level maths, so I thought that would keep me from getting rusty. Nope — it turns out that basic arithmetic that you’d use in daily life is a different “muscle” to the kind of maths you use in academic research (which is obvious in hindsight)
I can’t imagine how much I’d be struggling if I didn’t have a good foundation to be starting from
You aren’t alone. Historically before calculators were common, engineers and mathematicians would actually have books with basic arithmetic answers already done, or they would hire people (usually women) called ‘computers’ (no joke, that’s what the term was used for before computers as we know it were invented) to do the basic calculations for mathematicians so they can focus on the more complicated stuff.
So even a highly talented mathematician from the 1910s and 1920s would still struggle as you do.
This is only tangentially related, but I’m reminded of a thing from Plato where he was complaining that communicating through writing was a bad way of doing philosophy. His concerns weren’t just around communicating ideas between people; he was even opposed to writing as an introspective tool to help a person think through their ideas, or make notes to come back to.
"And so it is that you by reason of your tender regard for the writing that is your offspring have declared the very opposite of its true effect. If men learn this, it will implant forgetfulness in their souls. They will cease to exercise memory because they rely on that which is written, calling things to remembrance no longer from within themselves, but by means of external marks.”
- Plato, “Phaedrus” ^([citation needed])
It’s interesting because I don’t think he’s necessarily wrong about the skill atrophy angle of it. It’s just a question of to what extent we need those memory skills in the modern era.
There is a question of just how much better or worse human memory was in the old days. Some say it was better because there just aren’t that many things people need to remember, so they can remember what they consider to be important more easily.
Laws were generally far more rudementary and easier to remember. People didn’t need to remember as many numbers as we do now, and as a general rule, the amount of news and events that the average person contended with within their lifetimes was also far fewer. I remember learning a fact that the average amount of news and information a person gets in just one week today is actually more than what the typical farmer would get in their lifetimes. That is mind boggling when you think about it.
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Math anxiety is real tbf, I can add that up real fast without the pressure of someone looking at me waiting for me to solve it, but the second another person is watching I can’t even think about the math I just obsess about how I should be solving it faster and how they now think I’m dumb because instead of doing the math I’m thinking about this bullshit and it’s taken 10 whole seconds which is a lot longer than it sounds…
One thing that fascinates me is that Trump’s definition of tariffs seems more like the definition of kickbacks.
As he was (is?) a landlord, he may also think of it as seeking rent, like how malls get rent from the stores inside.
Or a tax?
Extracting rent can be seen as private taxation. He’s not a “career politician”, so I’m trying to understand how he’d see it from the private realm.
An entry fee, a toll, a tax, a rent - whatever. In the end, the cost will be added to the products going in. It’s not a usual tariff, but the outcome is the same. Maybe he thinks that this trickery helps avoid problems with “free trade” conventions.
And it’s sooo typical of their hyper-inflated personal and national egos:
They didn’t wonder for one minute why on earth foreign companies would pay up. For the honor or doing business with the greatest country on earth tm? Because they’d have no choice of other buyers, since no other countries has car / computer / whatever manufacturers who’d buy their products instead?They. Are. So. Fucking. Insular.
It’s simpler than that. They have literally no idea what tax incidence even is, and think the government just decides who the burden falls on.
“Greatest country on earth” sorry bud, just lost that title.
This is definitely fake, but it’s tremendously funny so I choose to believe it’s real
This is definitely fake, but […] I choose to believe it’s real
2024 election in a nutshell
Drawbacks of living in a country where half the people are dumbshits. It’s the new normal and we better get used to it. When you are out in public doing anything, look around. Roughly half the people you see are fucking idiots.
Does Trump not know what a tariff is? Or does he know, and he is deliberately misleading his followers?
He likely understands what a tariff is well enough. His problem is that he either doesn’t understand the implications or chooses not to communicate that part to voters.
He understands tariffs in his terms - that “tariffs” is a useful word to trick people into doing what he wants. How tariffs work in the real world is irrelevant to him, the word gets him what he wants, and that’s all he needs from tariffs.
Trump understands tariffs, as far as they sound fancy and like a threat to foreigners, his followers understands it even less. Using fancy words make you sound authoritative. Trump’s followers like authoritarian leaders.
In general, I say why assume malevolence when ignorance explains it as well… Trump is an exception to that rule.
this looks truthy
Sometimes in order to learn something is bad you need to experience it.
Like, say, from January 20, 2017 to January 20, 2021?
Yep your right that’s why we got Biden. The other side also learned and they double down on their base, pretty much declaring themselves Nazi. That gain them more voters along the way. As for people who did not vote or voted the wrong guy will just have to learn the hard way. Perhaps it did not affect them on the personal level before despite we had the COVID pandemic.
I’m honestly elated, let the leopards feast
Liberals enjoy that schadenfreude a little too much. They’re the ones that are first to turn in their minority neighbours to protect their own status in society. They’re the Reddit mods of society
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.
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.
And 20 million voters disappearing into thin air…
Well, they didn’t disappear into thin air. 12 million less people voted for Harris, so basically the democrats lost the election more than Trump won it. Trump got basically the same number of votes as he did against Biden.
Yes that’s what I meant though. Their votes disappeared. Our electronic voting machines have known first hand vulnerabilities.
I think they figured it out finally. They’ve been trying to gain access this entire time, and some Republican traitors are being prosecuted for it as we speak. Or were. I guess laws don’t matter anymore since America is finished.
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.
But that’s not even the point of this. It’s not the company is greedy or not, it’s this administration is causing this.
Oh I know. I was just trying to shed a bit of light on whether this company’s decision was an attempt to take advantage and screw people over, or a genuine survival measure.
The root cause is ultimately the tariffs that will be imposed by the US government.
In reality the decision will be more nuanced, and this company will likely raise prices wherever it can whilst also securing long-term stock at current prices to both avoid the tariffs and increase margins to recover the capital quicker.
But yeah. It’s all down to the government’s tariffs.
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.
Yeah, this seems like those redhats need a union.
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.
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.
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.
Anyone? Anyone? Raised or lowered? Anyone? Anyone know what this is?
OMFG!!! LMFAO🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 I totally forgot about that. Great memory and response!!! Line of the day!
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.
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.
Hold MAGA voters accountable for their choices. Every. Single. Day.
Thanks Trump.
I mean the whole point is paying a tariff so American companies make the goods instead for less.
But if paying Chinese poverty wages and tariffs is still less than paying Americans to do it, then guess what they’re going to do?
I mean the whole point is paying a tariff so American companies make the goods instead for less.
So American companies make the goods at the current prices which are now relatively lower than the imports, but still the same or more than they are priced now.
Tariffs always increase prices overall.
Correct, tariffs increase prices.
Ideally to more than what they would be if they were made by American workers in American factories. Otherwise there’s no point and you’re just increasing prices out of spite.
But we’re relying on a lot of landlords to go “fair enough, we’ll lower our rents so you can buy those American goods at their new higher prices” rather than going “no, go fuck yourselves”. And I feel that’s unrealistic.
But whatever, turkeys voting for Christmas is not a new thing and I’m sure they’ll find a way to blame it on immigrants or gays or something.
Rationally implemented tariffs to keep people employed by countering foreign imports is the goal, since it is hard to complete on price with slave labor that is common in things like clothing manufacturing. It doesn’t have anything to do with landlords.
Obviously Trump is not proposing rationally implemented tariffs.
Raise the tariffs?
Sure, but the whole concept relies on Americans being too wealthy and need to pay more for their stuff. They’re lazy and need more work to do.
And with all the poverty about, people working multiple jobs, the gig economy turning minimum wage evasion into “well you chose to do it”, I’m surprised that over half the country agreed with the billionaire about that.
