Will Malignant Stupidity Kill the World Economy? - title of Krugman's April 3 article on tariffs
There is no sin except stupidity. - Oscar Wilde
In a closed society where everybody's guilty, the only crime is getting caught. In a world of thieves, the only final sin is stupidity. - Hunter S. Thompson
Stupidity is a more dangerous enemy of the good than malice. - Dietrich Bonhöffer
Who is more foolish? The fool or the fool who follows him? - Obi Wan Kenobi
These guys are untrustworthy liars. I assume there are thousands, possibly tens of thousands of carve outs for the tariffs, based on bribing the POTUS or approved affiliates. - Me, 10 days ago. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43561464
There will be reprisals lasting a generation. These stupid fucks will insist calling them stupid is unfair. I expect some of them will become violent. We've seen it before. The long live the Confederacy, and Lost Cause Myth assholes are really no different. They come out of the woodwork when we coddle stupidity, the constant bigotry of low expectations.
How does this help? China can still create all the parts, and as long as the final assembly happens in a different country (which notably can be virtually anywhere except the US) the tariffs can be bypassed. Huh?
A better educated citizenry would never have fallen for the con that huge new tariffs are anything but a huge new tax increase on themselves.
A better educated citizenry would realize that no country has ever taxed it way to prosperity and "greatness".
The natural enemy of democracy is ignorance --- and Trump is the proof.