The economy and Trump: everything he touches turns to shit
Folks, I've published this article on March 7, 2024, on Medium. I'm from the future and sorry, I have bad news.
There are two types of economy: the first is when everyone is doing relatively well and enjoys and benefits from a collectively shared wealth; social services paid by taxpayers generally cover most individuals and families.
The second type of economy is when the country has immense wealth, but only a few enjoy it, and power and wealth are concentrated in the hands of fewer and fewer individuals. Social services here are few and mostly privatized. But if Trump wins, we are about to enter a whole new level of injustice and inequality.
For some inexplicable reason, many in the United States, and not only the MAGA nut cakes but the power elite, are firmly determined to make Donald Trump the supreme ruler of America. They believe one man above the law can satisfy their ideological and political cravings. At the same time, responsible adults left in the room are terrified of what they are witnessing: the installation of a Russia-like regime that is about to rape the United States and destabilize the world. But don’t fear a fake dictator.
Trump is no Mussolini, Putin, or Hitler. These actual dictators had an agenda and an ideology. Trump, on the other hand, has no agenda, no plan, no nothing. He is a terrible businessman who bankrupted every business he touched. The only person who will benefit from his pseudo-dictatorship wannabe experiment is himself — the lord of the golden toilet.
Donald Trump does not have any smart economic agenda because he simply doesn’t. He pulls everything out of his ass and is controlled by his narcissistic ego. His only agenda is to cater to himself, and his delusion is that he is the supreme ruler.
He doesn’t even want to be the president; he is only running from jail, and the chance to enrich himself and his family by using the privileges and powers of the presidency
The Economy and Trump
Now, let’s move on to the wonderful world of wreckless mismanagement and rotten policies that await us all if the orange catastrophe puts his hands on the steering wheel of this great nation.
#1 TRUMP HIMSELF
It will be panic on day one, and the following days won't look much better either. Trump’s agenda will be all about retaliation, xenophobia, and vengeance against the former administration, the media, and his opponents. You don’t have to be an economics professor to realize that stable economies hate social instability and panic.
There will be complete economic paralysis. No one will buy or sell anything, and the stock market might plummet due to a panic sellout. People will protect their assets under the pillow because, in a fascist regime, that's what they do; banks are no longer safe.
#2 PULLING OUT OF NATO
“You didn’t pay? You’re delinquent? No, I would not protect you. In fact, I would encourage them to do whatever the hell they want. You gotta pay. You gotta pay your bills.” (as if Trump ever paid his bills)
Trump said this at a campaign speech in South Carolina on Saturday to the cheers and accolades of a MAGA crowd. But of course, he will pull out of NATO if re-elected. And there will be no one there to advise him against. The second time around, he will be isolated by a wall of dumb pillows.
The My Pillow Guys' Advisory Committee. If the U.S. were to withdraw from NATO, it would likely result in the country not maintaining a presence in Europe, Africa, or the Middle East, potentially leading to many countries moving closer to Russia or China. The United States' level of credibility would plummet around the world. Possible decrease in demand for American arms in Europe if the US withdraws from NATO. This might lead to canceling potential orders for F-35s and land-based systems.
Poland, Japan, and South Korea are ramping up their arms production. The US could lose its position as the top arms supplier if it doesn't keep up with competitors like Germany, France, the UK, and Israel.
Defense contractors like Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Boeing, and General Dynamics rely on foreign sales to sustain hundreds of thousands of jobs at their companies and subcontractors despite the United States spending more on its military than any other country.
#3 IMMIGRATION
The salivating centerfold of Trump’s campaign, and the one that gets MAGAs a boner, is to launch an all-attack against immigrants. But, contrary to what Mr. Bone Spurs evangelizes, immigrants are one of our most valuable economic assets and the pillar of our diversified economy. A mass deportation effort would be one of the dumbest things ever done in history. They don’t come here to take our jobs; they come here to do the jobs for us. Jobs Americans suck at it and/or will not do.
Immigrants disproportionately work in the jobs that were labeled essential. As of 2020, there were 19.8 million foreign-born “essential” workers working in jobs arrayed across sectors and skill levels.Foreign-born workers make up more than 1-in-5 of all workers in the U.S. food supply chain, including physical jobs like farm laborers, graders and sorters, crop production, meat processing and commercial bakeries. In some states, the majority of workers in these jobs are immigrants. source: Joint Econnomic commeettee
Foreign-born workers significantly contribute to the US food supply chain, representing over 20% of all workers. They perform physically demanding jobs such as farm labor, crop production, meat processing, and commercial baking, making up more than 30% of the workforce in some areas.
Taking care of our immigrants is one of our best economic investments. Immigrants are not poisoning the blood of our nation. Someone else is poisoning the blood of our nation.
#4 TAX BRAKES FOR THE RICH
Margaret Thatcher, Ronald Reagan, and Donald Trump were elected on the promise of significant tax cuts for top earners. They argued that freeing up money for the wealthy would allow them to hire more workers, pay better wages, and invest more. But in reality, they have the opposite effect.
The rich became richer, and no significant impact was observed on unemployment or economic growth. This finding created a stir and gained widespread attention. It was featured in a press release by LSE, went viral on social media, and was referenced by prominent economists and politicians. As a result, it became the most downloaded paper in the 18-year history of LSE Research Online — the database of all research produced by LSE academics.
Tax breaks that benefit the wealthy only widen the social inequality gap. Since the beginning of 2020, almost two-thirds of all new wealth generated has gone to the top 1% of the population. To put things into perspective, the wealthiest individuals on the planet earn six times more than the entire bottom 90% of humanity combined, which amounts to a collective income of $2.7 billion daily. According to a report titled "Survival of the Richest," such extreme wealth gaps undermine the fight against poverty, gender inequality, and climate change.
#5 TARIFFS
Like every out-of-date and old-fashioned populist, Trump loves retaliatory tariffs. They love them because they are a political stunt, something farmers and industry workers see as a positive effort to protect them. Trump does not care if it works economically as long as it generates votes and voters.
A nonpartisan working paper found that Trump's tariffs on foreign metals, washing machines, and goods from China in 2018 did not affect the overall number of jobs in the targeted industries. Source: (The New York Times)
The US government's imposition of tariffs led to retaliatory tariffs on American products, making them more expensive for foreign buyers. This hit American jobs particularly hard in agriculture, where Chinese tariffs on soybeans, cotton, and sorghum negatively impacted farmers.
The Trump administration provided farmers $23 billion in financial support to make up for the losses caused by the tariffs. Still, the distribution of these funds was uneven, and economists argue that these subsidies only partially alleviated the damage.
Tariffs raise prices for American consumers and make U.S. products less competitive globally.
#6 INCOMPETENCE
The chaos and disorder Trump will install in the White House are also caused by an incompetent bunch of Dunces—unprepared, uneducated, unqualified workers who only know one thing: to serve the great leader. And God forbid, and that always happens because Murphy’s laws love confusion. There will be a crisis, most likely created by this extraordinary staff of 3 thousand dumbasses.
They will simply be unable to handle the crisis, and handling foreign affairs will be a disaster. It will be COVID all over again, and I pray we don’t have another pandemic as Americans become stressed and their immune systems begin to fail. Lord help us!
#7 WAR AND THE ENVIRONMENT
Trump is like adding insult to injury when it comes to wars and the environment. The seven-point mark here transcends the economy into the realm of all countries and the planet's heart.
Trump will, one day, cozy up to every fascist regime on the planet. He will most likely help Putin to take Ukraine in his immoral, hostile takeover. On many fronts, our credibility with our trading Western partners will be significantly affected, if not destroyed. It will destabilize the world economy, entering a dark period of uncertainty that could last decades.
As the world struggles to adopt green economies, Trump will stop all green initiatives in the United States. Subsidies will halt, making the US one of the last
places where green technology is developed. He will focus on drilling more oil and getting rid of the EPA once and for all. As new global economies turn to green, we make an about-face and reverse back to the 1950s. What could possibly go wrong?
It will be interesting to note how Americans react to this instant dictatorship crusade. Will Americans rebel when elections are decreed and taken away from all of us? Will his profound incompetence and that of his loyalists be their demise? And how long will it take until they collapse under their own weight? Would you fly or fight?
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