sarker
It isn't happening, and if it is, it's a bad thing
No bio...
User ID: 636
sarker
It isn't happening, and if it is, it's a bad thing
1d ago
manufacturing, which is real positive-sum activity.
Unless it's iPhones being manufactured, presumably?
sarker
It isn't happening, and if it is, it's a bad thing
1d ago
The bad thing about slavery isn't that they did it for free. In fact, they didn't even do it for free, they got room and board.
The bad thing about slavery was that they (or their ancestors) were forcibly abducted, transported (across state lines!), and put to work at gunpoint, with their children being born into the same situation. Illegal immigrants can leave at any moment and their kids cives Americani sunt.
It sucks that there are people born every day into poverty in third world countries. However, people who illegally (often perilously)come to this country for opportunities they don't have at home obviously will not benefit from being sent home. They know what home is like and they made the decision to come here anyway. We can talk about whether they are good for the country, but the argument that illegal immigration is bad for the illegal immigrants just doesn't hold water.
sarker
It isn't happening, and if it is, it's a bad thing
1d ago
We could get rid of migrant farm labor by subsidizing/tariff-exempting cheap automated farming equipment from China.
Could we? We're not reaping grain by hand these days. My understanding is that farm labor mostly goes towards harvesting fruits and vegetables and that this largely has not been automated anywhere because it's really hard. I'd be surprised if it's been economically automated in China where labor cost is much lower. I'm sure they have prototype robots, but do they have any in actual use?
sarker
It isn't happening, and if it is, it's a bad thing
2d ago
as territories, Australian business could just "incorporate" in Heard or McDonald, and completely bypass the tariffs levied against Australia, were this not done.
Is this actually true? It's not obvious to me that it is. Presumably American businesses are not able to incorporate in, for example, Midway Atoll or Baker Island, even though these are nominally American territories.
The alternative theory is that whoever drew up this table looked at bogus data that listed millions of dollars of machinery imported from that uninhabited icebox. That seems more likely to me.
according to export data from the World Bank, the US imported US$1.4m (A$2.23m) of products from Heard Island and McDonald Islands in 2022, nearly all of which was “machinery and electrical” imports.
sarker
It isn't happening, and if it is, it's a bad thing
2d ago
Aunt Stephania and Bronislaus
Kino names, gotta get back.
sarker
It isn't happening, and if it is, it's a bad thing
2d ago
It's pretty amazing that the solution to the harm caused by liberal immigration policy is to give even more money to liberals in the department of economic equity to distribute according to equity metrics designed by some other liberal consultant from harvard.
To my knowledge, the primary means of redistribution in the US is the EITC which does it on the basis of income. That doesn't seem very objectionable to me.
sarker
It isn't happening, and if it is, it's a bad thing
2d ago
the cost of groceries
Is the cost of groceries going to go up or down with tariffs on imported groceries and with reduced Mexican farm labor?
After democrats have restricted demand and subsidized supply right into the toilet, republicans seem to be interested in doubling down on restricting supply but this time without demand subsidies. Have we tried increasing supply instead?
sarker
It isn't happening, and if it is, it's a bad thing
2d ago
But I think you underestimate the psychological effect of holding investments yourself versus having somebody else do it for you.
401ks and (especially) IRAs are held by you, though. I can log on to vanguard and see how much money I have there along with my brokerage account. I make investment decisions for that money, etc. No bureaucracy involved.
Your argument holds perhaps for company managed funds, but it's not clear to me how many people even have those these days.
sarker
It isn't happening, and if it is, it's a bad thing
3d ago
sarker
It isn't happening, and if it is, it's a bad thing
3d ago
Tariffs have been at least partially priced in for a while, though. And SPY has been sliding since mid February.
sarker
It isn't happening, and if it is, it's a bad thing
3d ago
Why can’t houses depreciate without an apocalyptic event?
A more cynical commenter than me might suggest it's because it takes an apocalyptic event for the federal government to stop propping up house prices.
As 2rafa suggested, you only eliminate the marginally best economic immigrants. If you're swiss, maybe you'll stay in Switzerland if American opportunities aren't what they used to be. If you're from Haiti, well, there's a long way to go until it's better to stay in Haiti.
sarker
It isn't happening, and if it is, it's a bad thing
3d ago
The (classical) Liberal World Order was premised on free trade and financial/industrial interconnections between various countries disincentivizing wars and conflicts and fostering greater cooperation. I sincerely believe that they do have this effect, but I can see and admit there are parts of this order that are causing major issues and yet are not being corrected. I'd point to mass immigration as one example, and collapsing global fertility as another.
Not only does immigration have nothing to do with free trade, but it's not even obvious how eliminating free trade reduces immigration. It's "burgers?" all over again.
sarker
It isn't happening, and if it is, it's a bad thing
3d ago
So howcome I have never seen a "made in USA" label
Iirc you don't live in the US, right?
Off the top of my head, I recently bought an American made water filter. Klein tools are also American made.
sarker
It isn't happening, and if it is, it's a bad thing
3d ago
If you acknowledge that the median American has stock market exposure, I'm not sure what there really is to argue about.
Only a minority of people are on defined benefit pension plans that are perhaps what you, as a European, envision when you think about retirement funds.
Most people are on defined contribution plans, whether that's a 401k, IRA, 403b, or some employer invested plan, are "directly" affected by the market tanking because they have no guaranteed payouts. The payouts are simply what the market provides. None of those people are gonna want to hear about how their positions taking a shit is OK because it's not "direct" exposure under some gerrymandered definition.
sarker
It isn't happening, and if it is, it's a bad thing
3d ago
In 2022 nearly 60% of American households had some stock market exposure, with a median of 50k and a mean of 480k invested. Tanking the S&P is well into the territory of materially hurting the median voter.
sarker
It isn't happening, and if it is, it's a bad thing
3d ago
"Adolescence" isn't like that.
Like what? What is "Adolescence" and what is it supposed to (not) be like?
sarker
It isn't happening, and if it is, it's a bad thing
4d ago
Yes, I mean to say "mirandizing".
sarker
It isn't happening, and if it is, it's a bad thing
4d ago
So your objection is basically just to Miranda rights?
sarker
It isn't happening, and if it is, it's a bad thing
5d ago
Is calling France a Latin country a joke? If so, it's a pretty good one.
sarker
It isn't happening, and if it is, it's a bad thing
5d ago
Sure. I believe that the cops should not have near-infinite leeway to bend the rules and trod upon civil liberties to secure a conviction so long as they can convincingly make up a story about how they e.g. executed a warrantless wiretap in good faith.
sarker
It isn't happening, and if it is, it's a bad thing
5d ago
The problem is that just about every error can be made to seem good faith.
sarker
It isn't happening, and if it is, it's a bad thing
5d ago
The Russians claim it exists, anyway.
New (to you) music thread?
I recently came across this choon:
Al Chem - Fistful of Snow
It's kind of a Marty Robbins x New Order sound. Surprisingly catchy.
More options
Context Copy link