Trump announces 25% tariff on all imported vehicles!

[IG Pop]

Lynn was also on BBC News this morning and there was quite some footage of IGs

 

[Baron von Teuchter]

Lynn was also on BBC News this morning and there was quite some footage of IGs

Ahhh I saw she was going to be interviewed, I’ll try to find it on YouTube

 

[LabRat]

Well, we can agree that there are boats getting missed.

You'll get used to it when we add a star to our flag.

Just kidding, just kidding.

 

[CrazyOldMan]

Its actually not cute. It's infantile. When faced with a comment they don't like, rather than engage in substance there is a knee jerk reaction to respond "Libtard" or "TDS" or "Snowflake". It reeks of locker room bravado. Its a symptom of how divided the US has become. Two sides spending all their free time reinforcing their own biases by watching slanted news sources. The massive mind washing going on will be studies for generations, "How did the US get suckered so completely by one selfish narcissist?" The only part of the constitution that remains sacred is the second amendment, all else is worth trading for the benefit of his royal highness.

It’s all in Aristotle and de Tocqueville- there should be zero surprises. This is not an anomaly and it’s not about one person or party. We are losing our moral, social and intellectual capacity for self governance - as does (eventually) every democracy. There - I fully stepped in it. Now I’m going fly fishing in my Grenadier. Well - not actually fly fishing IN my Grenadier - that would be unwieldy and I don’t think I would find any trout there - but you know what I mean. I know for sure I’ve lost my intellectual capacity to outsmart the trout, but “hope springs eternal.”

 

[255/85]

Again, if you think the electoral college is the problem then you are in fact the real problem. The electoral college prevents "tyranny of the majority" where in the entire country would be run by the coastal elites and the preferences of a handful of large cities.

So we get tyranny by a minority instead? How is that fair and equal representation? Look, I understand why congress was set up this way back when the populations of the original colonies was somewhat equal and mostly pastoral/agrarian. Now it results in under-represented "elites" who supply the vast majority of the country's wealth and get little in return.

I don't have a solution. I'm just pointing out that self interest skews perspective.

Damn, I wish I was swingin' a fly on my favorite stream.

 

[Tom D]

On the general concept of tariffs there can be a short term gain as foreign goods become more expensive and people inevitably buy local. However in the long term you lose your competitive edge and so innovation and product development suffers. Then one day when tariffs end your manufacturers are lazy and inefficient and their products are less advanced and of a lower quality.

Plus if your competitors prices go up 25%, you’re going to up your margin too, why wouldn’t you? So the consumer loses out too.

 

[Commodore]

So we get tyranny by a minority instead? How is that fair and equal representation? Look, I understand why congress was set up this way back when the populations of the original colonies was somewhat equal and mostly pastoral/agrarian. Now it results in under-represented "elites" who supply the vast majority of the country's wealth and get little in return.

I don't have a solution. I'm just pointing out that self interest skews perspective.

Damn, I wish I was swingin' a fly on my favorite stream.

No we get a balance between the two. States have a certain amount of autonomy to outline their own laws within the constructs of the federal constitution and ranchers in Wyoming don't get told what they are allowed to do on their large acreage by an apartment dweller in New York. It certainly isn't a perfect system but it has proven the best option for governing such a large and diverse piece of land.

 

[255/85]

No we get a balance between the two. States have a certain amount of autonomy to outline their own laws within the constructs of the federal constitution and ranchers in Wyoming don't get told what they are allowed to do on their large acreage by an apartment dweller in New York. It certainly isn't a perfect system but it has proven the best option for governing such a large and diverse piece of land.

To join the union required obeisance to Federal Law; not just the Constitution. The whole country decides what laws to adopt - not each state as it chooses (though implementation protocols are often left to the states). That's where the unequal federal representation via the Senate has failed.

You bring up land rights. I know a good deal about the intermountain West and some about ranching. I was recently on the former family homestead now owned by a single rancher and part of his several hundred thousand acre spread (still quite small by many standards). He can grow wheat and corn and soybeans, etc and graze cattle or sheep but he can't introduce an invasive species or strip mine it as the (supposedly) wiser federal legislature has determined what is safe, advisable, and in the national interest. The state can augment those constraints further. Federal law is the backstop.

That "certain amount of autonomy" is usually used as subterfuge much like "states rights" is to violate some of our country's bylaws like separation of church and state, etc. We'll just have to disagree on the roll of government it seems. Thanks for the exchange.

 

[mcdoogs]

I guess one must consider, in their defense, that it is better to respond to such stupidity with a simple remark of TDS than the really intelligent, childish legally upstanding response made by burning/ attacking Tesla Owners, by throwing bricks and coordinated looting. Oh my, that would be the Liberal Peace Loving folks wouldn't it.

 

[IG Pop]

Lynn was also on BBC News this morning and there was quite some footage of IGs

Business Today : BBCNEWS : March 28, 2025 5:30am-6:01am GMT : Free Borrow & Streaming : Internet Archive

Bringing the latest business news and up-to-date informed analysis from London and around the world.

archive.org

 

[CrazyOldMan]

This thread is getting way too heavy and deep for a dingbat like me. It’s General Chat and on this topic, all I want is the ability to buy another Grenadier without having to pay 25% extra, and I don’t want IA going out of business and turning my Grenadier into an unsupportable lump.

Maybe @Stu_Barnes could start another thread called “Monetary Policy, the Napoleonic Code and Metaphysics” for the heavy stuff. That thread should be a real party.

‘Murika

 

[LabRat]

A few things missing in this discussion for the US is that the administration wants to make loan interest tax deductible and an ultimate goal to end income tax in favor of funding the government through tariffs, like we used to before the 16th amendment. Any increases in product costs would be offset by lower income taxes and economic growth by enticing production moving to the US to avoid the tariffs.

 

[mcdoogs]

A few things missing in this discussion for the US is that the administration wants to make loan interest tax deductible and an ultimate goal to end income tax in favor of funding the government through tariffs, like we used to before the 16th amendment. Any increases in product costs would be offset by lower income taxes and economic growth by enticing production moving to the US to avoid the tariffs.

You do know tariffs are a flat tax paid by consumers right? Also how do you expect to grow a consumer based economy by directly (and heavily) taxing consumer spending? The math dont math on replacing income and corporate taxes with any flat tax, let alone consumer demand-killing tariffs.

 

[LabRat]

You do know tariffs are a flat tax paid by consumers right? Also how do you expect to grow a consumer based economy by directly (and heavily) taxing consumer spending?

Of course I do. It’s a consumption tax that you choose to pay.

 

[mcdoogs]

Of course I do. It’s a consumption tax that you choose to pay.

Oh so you know it's a dumb idea. Great!

 

[LabRat]

Oh so you know it's a dumb idea. Great!

How so?

 

[DaveB]

It has always intrigued me that the world is full of US brands. Amazon, Google, Apple, Mondelez, McDonalds, Coca Cola, Microsoft, Visa etc, products and services we all use, often daily.

These companies are far more profitable than the car companies and have revenues 50 to 60% outside of the US.

Yet somehow the US is supposedly being badly treated.

Stop trying to bring logic and facts into the argument.

 

[mcdoogs]

How so?

Uh, do you want me to explain what you could easily google? Start by searching 'regressive taxation, who does it help, who does it hurt', then google 'what percentage of the US economy is driven by consumer spending', then 'what is the annual budget of the US government', then probably 'how has the world changed in the century+ since the 16th amendment, particularly with regards to globalization'. By this point you should be getting a decent picture that the kind of massive, widespread tariffs that could potentially fund the government will negatively affect consumer demand for those items, lowering the incentives to export them to the US in the first place not to mention lead to equivalent reciprocal tariffs on US exports leading to an economic death spiral during which the poor are being taxed disproportionately hard. And then they eventually wise up and start eating smug assholes driving niche foreign made 4x4s

Its not the 1800s. The US accounts for 29% of the entire worlds consumer spending. We cannot possibly mine, harvest, and manufacture enough raw materials, build enough factories, or staff all of these things to come even close to fulfilling that demand. Nor should we, it's a feature not a bug that we import more than we export. What we do export is tech, design, arms, etc and it's freaking glorious. American companies are printing money, look at that trend line. You'd have to insane, evil, compromised by external rivals, and/or dumb to want to completely upend the system

 

[LabRat]

No, not everything can be manufactured here nor do I expect it to, but you want access to our market, there is a price to be paid. If a country puts barriers to gain access to their markets, we will put the equivalent barriers to our market. We have offshored much of our manufacturing capability only to bring those products back into the US. That has hollowed out our working class. Basic pharmaceuticals are not manufactured here and disruption in supply chains could be deadly. The Covid chip shortage showed people how much of our economy is dependent on external forces. It's long past time to incentivize companies to bring manufacturing home in many cases.

I'm a free market person but our "free market" has been taken advantage of and block our exports either through regulation, insistence on sharing IP or through tariffs. Remove the barriers, lower the tariffs or they become reciprocal.

I won't even touch the government spending side because we are $36T in debt, not including the unfunded liabilities at all levels of government. It is pretty clear people voted to upend the system.

 

[Shopkeep]

No, not everything can be manufactured here nor do I expect it to, but you want access to our market, there is a price to be paid. If a country puts barriers to gain access to their markets, we will put the equivalent barriers to our market. We have offshored much of our manufacturing capability only to bring those products back into the US. That has hollowed out our working class. Basic pharmaceuticals are not manufactured here and disruption in supply chains could be deadly. The Covid chip shortage showed people how much of our economy is dependent on external forces. It's long past time to incentivize companies to bring manufacturing home in many cases.

I'm a free market person but our "free market" has been taken advantage of and block our exports either through regulation, insistence on sharing IP or through tariffs. Remove the barriers, lower the tariffs or they become reciprocal.

I won't even touch the government spending side because we are $36T in debt, not including the unfunded liabilities at all levels of government. It is pretty clear people voted to upend the system.

Australia wants access to your market, we impose no tariffs on any goods imported from the US, we buy much more from you than we sell to you, we follow the US without question into flights of fancy military campaigns spending our blood and treasure on pointless wars, and you still shaft us by breaking free trade agreements and imposing tariffs on our relatively small volume of exports of goods your country needs?