this post was submitted on 17 Mar 2025
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Leopards Ate My Face

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[–] DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social 40 points 9 hours ago (3 children)

Man, this isn't even "doing your research" it's just knowing what very basic words mean.

[–] ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.world 46 points 9 hours ago (8 children)

I bet a coworker $20 that "tariff" and "tax" were synonyms. Motherfucker refused to pay up, calling merriam-webster.com, thesauraus.com, wikipedia etc. "fake news".

[–] towerful@programming.dev 22 points 7 hours ago

Your mistake was referencing a woketionary.

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[–] null_dot@lemmy.dbzer0.com 9 points 8 hours ago

It's anti-intellectualism.

You don't need to understand any of it, you can just ask people who spend their lives researching this stuff.

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[–] Kichae@lemmy.ca 13 points 8 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago) (3 children)

Of course the employee is wrong, but the OOP isn't tackling the argument in a really productive way. There's an opportunity to meet the employee where they are.

People caught in the right wing noise machine always seem to understand that businesses pass on business taxes to the consumer. So, if other countries were paying the tariffs, why wouldn't they pass those costs on?

[–] prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 7 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

Did you read the post? It sounds like they explained it thoroughly to them prior to the tariffs going into effect and it went in one ear and out the other.

[–] Kichae@lemmy.ca 2 points 4 hours ago (2 children)

I read the post. I understood the post. Did you understand what I said?

You can be perfectly correct, or you can reach people who reject reality. You gotta decide on your goals, and understand that peacocking on the Internet isn't useful.

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[–] JackbyDev@programming.dev 4 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

Yeah, whenever people say "the other country pays" (well, before this election cycle) what they meant was that the higher price would encourage shoppers to buy domestic this the other country "pays" because they get less revenue. Prices would go up either way though because of the domestic goods were cheaper they would've already been the first pick. The thing about taxes is that it doesn't really matter if it's placed on the supply or demand side, the end effect is the same. Sure, it will feel different and there might be different short term effects, but it's the same regardless. The price is higher and government gets a cut.

So I don't really understand why people believe that even if the foreign country/company was paying the tariff why people would think prices stay the same. As if other countries are just going to get a 25% fee and not increase prices by ~25% to cover that.

[–] JuxtaposedJaguar@lemmy.ml 3 points 5 hours ago

The most charitable argument for Trump would be that foreign businesses reduce their prices such that the price paid by their US customers is the same as before the tariffs to remain competitive in the US market, but I think most MAGAs literally just never thought about it.

[–] OutlierBlue@lemmy.ca 1 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

I get what you're saying but you're reinforcing the belief that other countries are paying the tariffs. They're not paying anything. A tariff is a direct tax on anyone importing products into the country.

[–] Kichae@lemmy.ca 2 points 4 hours ago

I'm not reinforcing anything. I'm saying bypass that part entirely, and use the conservative talking points against taxes to discuss this. That the end consumer is ultimately the one that pays, no matter what.

[–] nul9o9@lemmy.world 142 points 12 hours ago (2 children)

Or, we can hold the fucking media accountable for telling blatant lies about the impacts of tariffs.

[–] jonne@infosec.pub 35 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

Fox News got around that by claiming they're entertainment, not news.

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[–] j4k3@lemmy.world 44 points 12 hours ago

Ignorance is not an excuse. Fire all MAGAs for taxifs.

[–] Ghyste@sh.itjust.works 98 points 12 hours ago (3 children)

The OP is battling against what Faux Newz, Dipshit Donnie, and other right-wing propagandist shitrags are telling his employee, all which the employee takes as indesputable truth. If he can override that much brainwashing he can convince anyone of anything.

[–] orbituary@lemmy.dbzer0.com 38 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

"The Big Lie" is what Sanders is calling it.

[–] jabeez@lemmy.today 13 points 7 hours ago

How many "big lies" are we up to now?

[–] Sixtyforce@sh.itjust.works 15 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

But the guys in OP, they don't turn on daddy Trump. It can't be that they were lied to, then they'd have to do something alien to them like introspection. No, it must be...an honest mistake? Honestly have no idea how they'd justify it internally.

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[–] WolfmanEightySix@piefed.social 6 points 12 hours ago (2 children)

How does the saying about selling a lie go?

[–] jagermo@feddit.org 15 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

Well, a lie can be half around the world before the truth even has its boots on.

That's because the lie's boots have already been licked clean.

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[–] Evil_Shrubbery@lemm.ee 22 points 9 hours ago

Isn't this the same debate as to how one country can (or cannot) force another country to pay for a random construction project that isn't in anyones interest (that wall)?

It's not like the concept is beyond (basically, 99.9+%) anyones cognitive abilities. It's just how ads (the science behind it is plentiful, it's a giant business sector) work on human brains.

[–] The_Caretaker@lemm.ee 8 points 8 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago) (1 children)

God damn! This is so simple a third grade student can understand it. The US government has no authority to tax foreign governments, citizens or businesses. They can only tax American citizens and businesses. So Trump puts a 50% tariff (Import Tax) on tea from England. The tea costs $5.00. The person or corporation who imports it, pays the $5.00 cost plus the $2.50 tariff. The US government gets the $2.50. In this case, Trump and Musk are probably just stealing it.

[–] Glent@lemmy.ca 5 points 6 hours ago

You forgot that the tea now costs $7.50 which is paid by the consumer. The tea company sure as shit isnt taking a 50% loss to sell tea now. So the american consumer pays the tariff. Shitler and goebbels pocket the 25% that comes out of an american workers paycheck.

[–] ColonelMustard@lemmy.world 9 points 8 hours ago (1 children)
[–] loonsun@sh.itjust.works 8 points 7 hours ago

Those cost more, and with the tariffs I doubt he can afford it

[–] gon@lemm.ee 4 points 7 hours ago (1 children)
[–] Kazumara@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 5 hours ago (1 children)
[–] gon@lemm.ee 1 points 5 hours ago (1 children)
[–] Kazumara@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 5 hours ago

No problem. I remembered seeing the self.[subredditname] sometimes in the reddit is fun app, before they killed it.

[–] adarza@lemmy.ca 69 points 13 hours ago (2 children)

and every one of the millions who ~~were~~are just as dumb, will forget the lessons learned well before the next election and vote for it all over again.

[–] aeternum@lemmy.blahaj.zone 11 points 9 hours ago

nice of you to assume there's gonna be a NEXT election.

[–] obinice@lemmy.world 40 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

You know, the one Trump wins with 106% of the totaled votes.

[–] zephorah@lemm.ee 39 points 12 hours ago (4 children)

To be fair, economics is not intuitive. Half of it is built out of unicorn dust and human imagination. How else would bitcoin even exist? For those of you who are economists and love the money side, vs the behavioral side, that’s great, we need people like you to explain it to the rest of us.

I work with a real system that will still exist no matter what happens with politics or money, so it takes work, for me. That said, tariffs and inflation are not difficult concepts provided you simply take the time to learn.

I know someone who lost their job in December due to tariffs anticipation, and they were not alone in that group of layoffs. The effects are there even if you fail to learn the reasons.

[–] kiterios@lemmy.world 7 points 8 hours ago

Half of it is built out of unicorn dust and human imagination.

Economics is applied psychology at scale hiding behind the idea of math and using "businesses" and "markets" to depersonalize their findings and play pretend at describing natural laws. All it's really describing is the behavior of people, and a wildly nonrepresentative subset of people at that.

[–] some_dude@lemm.ee 14 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

I'm of average intelligence so if I can understand it, so can they.

[–] pleasestopasking@reddthat.com 2 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

Honestly I'm dumb as hell, and when I didn't understand something I just trust my friends who I know share my values. MAGAs seem to have decided they trust Trump over their children, for the most part.

[–] Seleni@lemmy.world 1 points 3 hours ago

He probably shares more of their values, to be fair…

[–] Tramort@programming.dev 7 points 11 hours ago

It's not that complicated that when a company with thin margins has to pay a tax, they have to pay it on to consumers.

Your finance department doesn't care about the difference between a more expensive part due to scarcity vs a more expensive part due to a tax.

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[–] Etterra@discuss.online 18 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

Some people are just dumb. It doesn't help that our education system is designed to produce worker bees and not educated citizens.

[–] Evil_Shrubbery@lemm.ee 4 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 9 hours ago) (1 children)

Worker bees don't even get to have sex with the queen-president!! :'''(

Are the male bee drones the cabinet circle?

[–] JackbyDev@programming.dev 2 points 6 hours ago

Male bees have sex once mid flight and die.

[–] Goun@lemmy.ml 13 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

I don't understand how they think this works

[–] Delphia@lemmy.world 34 points 12 hours ago (2 children)

A lot of them think that the country with the tarrifs levied against them needs to pay the country they are exporting to to sell the goods there like a "If you want to do business here" tax on the country exporting.

But in all honesty even if it did work that way, the exporting country would just jack the prices up to cover it. The end result for US citizens would be the same.

[–] Schadrach@lemmy.sdf.org 8 points 8 hours ago

But in all honesty even if it did work that way, the exporting country would just jack the prices up to cover it. The end result for US citizens would be the same.

This. It doesn't matter whether the exporter or importer is payign the tariff, the result is the same - it increases the cost of goods, and that cost is going to get passed down the line, plus margin.

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