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Ok. I'm a teacher. So let me break this down for you into very very simple ideas and numbers.
Let's say you run a sandwich shop. You sell $10 sandwiches. It's a very good sandwich shop. You sell a lot of sandwiches. In fact, I buy a sandwich from you every single day. In a week, I have spent $70 buying sandwiches from you.
Now let's say I am selling my car. You, the owner of the sandwich shop, need a car. I decide to sell you my car for the very very reasonable price of $700.
So here's the situation at the end of a week. You have sold me $70 worth of goods. I have received $70 worth of sandwiches. In return, I have sold you $700 worth of goods, and you have received $700 worth of car.
Any reasonable, rational person would look at that situation and say "that's a fair exchange". Both parties paid an amount of money equal to the value of the goods they now own.
But Trump is not a rational person. What he has decided this means is that you have somehow cheated me out of $630, because $700-$70=$630. Does this make sense? Fuck no. If anything, I got the better part of that deal. I now have $630, plus a belly full of sandwiches.
But it gets even worse. Then, because Trump's a-brain is filled with maggots, he further declares that since $630 divided by $700 is .9, that MUST mean you, the owner of the sandwich shop, have been imposing 90% "sandwich shop tariffs" on me the whole time. Does THIS make a lick of sense either? Also fuck no.
But wait, you're going to love this. Trump's "solution" to this is to decree that going forward, all sandwiches you sell me will be marked up a "reciprocal' 90%, making the total cost for a sandwich $19 instead of $10. He says this will be good for sandwich sales. Does THIS make any goddamn sense either? Jesus fucking Christ on a pogo stick no it fucking does not.
This entire idea is complete horseshit for what I hope you can now see are a whole raft of very very obvious reasons. Among them:
1. There never was a "sandwich shop tariff" to reciprocate
2. There is no rational reason for you to buy a car from me ever again
3. This will not make sandwiches cheaper
4. That's not how numbers work
5. That's not how any of this works
Now replace the car seller with America, and the sandwich shop with an island inhabited only by penguins. I wish I was joking.
@Lana I wish to learn economy from a teacher like you.
I suspect those penguins don't even have drivers licences.
@IntentionallyBLANK @davidtheeviloverlord I bet they don't even like Teslur
Right. Godless heathen penguins. We should bomb them.
@IntentionallyBLANK @davidtheeviloverlord
Sigh... I'll get my sharpie.
@IntentionallyBLANK @Lana @davidtheeviloverlord He's just mad at the penguins because some of them are queer and none of the straight ones are bigots and a human had the audacity to write a children's book about a couple of them.
@Thebratdragon @PedestrianError @Lana @davidtheeviloverlord
Of course! Makes total sense now
@Thebratdragon thanks! That's a good website!
@adityakhanna it has its moments.
They eat sushi, not fish that burned to death in a locked swasticar.
@davidtheeviloverlord @Lana The penguins are sovcits.
@davidtheeviloverlord @Lana
Stupid freeloading woke penguins.
@ordrad you beat me to it! Those penguins are slackers.
@davidtheeviloverlord @Lana nor sandwiches
If they can afford those tuxes-- they SHOULD be tarrriffed higher and higher, and higher-Hitler too!
Fuck the penguins.
I love Trump.
@Lana I had planned to look into buying a car this summer. Now I'm not so sure.
@soulexpress @Lana have you considered the impact of your decision on sandwich sales?
@Lana There are a few extra steps in there with respect to currency exchange rates, but that's basically eliding over the fact that the car is either being paid for with N>70 sandwiches sold for $, now or some time soon, or the penguins will start a sovereign wealth fund and use it to invest in FishWishr, a startup that uses advanced AI and blockchain technology to deliver tasty fish to low-leopard-seal ice floes.
@log congratulations that made more sense somehow than Trump's tariffs
This is a dumb thread and NOBODY reading this deserves this. But well actually actually the excess fiat is exchanged like any other debt and the exchange rate is rarely (if ever) exercised (i.e. a dollar is a dollar everywhere, even to a penguin).
That is what it MEANT to be hegemon with the global reserve currency.
Maybe some dipshit somewhere has a different Krugerrand in mind.
@Lana
I hope my car holds out so I don't have to purchase another one for awhile. It's 7 years old.
@Callalily @Lana mine is 19 years old… hoping it lasts too…5 years of hardly driving during pandemic made a difference!
@littlescraps @Callalily @Lana not driving much during pandemic killed my car (well, technically, the mice just moved in and were absolute slobs and totaled the interior)
@c0dec0dec0de @Callalily @Lana oh gaaaads. That is horrible! So sorry!
@littlescraps @Callalily @Lana Mine is a '09 Pontiac Wave (5-speed & orange if that matters :p) and it's still going strong.
@Lana This is amazing.
@Lana err, what kind of sandwich ?
@Lana #notTheOnion Sigh. Where's the :party-try-not-to-cry: emoji when I need it...
> “You honestly didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. Few people ever cried more than once, if you’d used that up, you laughed.”
> —Michael David Herr, *Dispatches* (1977)
@Lana The idea is to turn us into an isolationist authoritarian state like Russia and destroying the economy serves that means. Crony billionaires can do extremely well in that sort of economy, even if as a whole their earning potential decreases with a smaller economy. The billionaires are trading some money for even more power. A weakened population economically, specifically a weakened relatively liberal upper middle class, helps his authoritarian vision, assuming that the people dont revolt in the process. This is coupled with agressively targetting 'liberal' civil institutions like media and independent judiciary, while attempting to create a police state.
@coppercrush @Lana I've been trying to understand what Trump's tariffs were about, because it clearly isn't trade.
Your explanation is the first I've read that makes sense. Which is the most depressing thought I've had for a long time.
@patrickhadfield @Lana thank you!
I'm hoping that people internalize them following a playbook makes them predictable. Authoritarians are notoriously rigid; their strategy leaves them very little flexibility besides repression, which makes them weak. Once they make a move, like tanking the economy, they cant go back without looking like fools to everyone, especially their supporters, because 'strength' is the only quality that matters. This means they tend to compound their mistakes.
@Lana Wait, if the car seller is America how is it the car that gets hit by tariffs (that's export)? Something doesn't make sense here, I suspect your swapped something in the process... I really loved the explanation thought.
----EDITED----
Ok. I'm a teacher. So let me break this down for you into very very simple ideas and numbers.
Let's say Donnie takes over a popular sandwich shop. The shop sells $10 sandwiches. It's a very good sandwich shop. The shop continues to sell a lot of sandwiches. In fact, Simone buys a sandwich from Donnie every single day. In a week, Simone has spent $70 buying sandwiches from Donnie.
Now let's say Simone is selling her car. Donnie, the owner of the sandwich shop, wants a car. Simone decides to sell Donnie her car for the very very reasonable price of $700.
So here's the situation at the end of a week. Donnie has sold Simone $70 worth of goods. Simone has received $70 worth of sandwiches. In return, Simone has sold Donnie $700 worth of goods, and Donnie has received $700 worth of car.
Any reasonable, rational person would look at that situation and say "that's a fair exchange". Both parties paid an amount of money equal to the value of the goods they now own.
But Donnie is not a rational person. What he has decided this means is that Simone have somehow cheated him out of $630, because $700-$70=$630. Does this make sense? Fuck no.
Donnie has a trade deficit because Donnie chose to spend more money. In fact, Donnie went all over town, buying lots of things from lots of people, and creating trade deficits with all of them.
If anything, Donnie got the better part of the week's deals because Donnie's household has generational wealth, and greater disposable income, to make economically advantageous choices and purchase more items for convenience and pleasure.
But it gets even worse. Then, because Donnie's a-brain is filled with maggots, he further declares that since $630 divided by $700 is 0.90, that MUST mean Simone, the seller of the car, has imposed a car tariff of 90% on Donnie. Likewise, Donnie insists that everyone around town has also cheated him.
Does THIS make a lick of sense either? Also fuck no.
But wait, you're going to love this. Donnie's "solution" to this is to decree that going forward, all sandwiches he sells to Simone will be marked up a "reciprocal' 90% to $19.00
And, everyone else in town is also going to get hit with higher prices, proportional to how much he spent, buying things from them last week.
He says this will be good for sandwich sales. Does THIS make any goddamn sense either? Jesus fucking Christ on a pogo stick no it fucking does not.
This entire idea is complete horseshit for what I hope you can now see are a whole raft of very very obvious reasons. Among them:
1. There never was a "car tariff" to reciprocate
2. There is no rational reason for Simone, or anyone in town, to buy a sandwich from Donnie ever again
3. This will kill the sales of sandwiches
4. That's not how numbers work
5. That's not how any of this works
I am so sorry to edit without checking with you first. I'm happy to delete if you like.
I spent a few years in actuarial work and theoretical mathematical modeling, so I thought it might be useful.
Love your writing style and foundational ideas here, you're perfectly on point.
@Lana You're on a roll today, girl. 
@Lana And don’t forget the fact that Cheeto is completely ignoring services. That sandwich shop owner’s kid was taking music lessons from you for $100 a week and you didn’t give him any credit for that. Think the kid is going to be taking lessons from you anymore?
@Lana ok, look, I just figured out this awesome eggplant schnitzel sandwich recipe. It’s a tremendous sandwich, some people say it’s the most amazing sandwich ever made. I’ll trade you a sandwich for the car, and we’ll get rid of the tariff. It’s an amazing deal, I can’t believe I’m offering it to you.
@Lana excellent, well presented. Can you get the professional news people to explain it like this now? Expletives optional but recommended.
@Lana@beige.party reciprocar tariffs
@Lana This is very well explained. Well done.
@Lana
Someone who sounded credible claimed to have gone over all of Trump's 'deals' and found none involving equitable exchange, but rather occasions where he had obtained some sort of advantage (e.g. wired-into the N.Y. political machine) and pressed it to get a good deal for _him_ alone.
He can not believe in any human interaction not based on dominance/submission, or a temporary alliance of two parties continually on the look-out for a way to screw the other.
'Youʼve got to be a _killer_.'