And today it’s Elon Musk. We’re back to wealthy white men brazenly gripping the reins of power. Everyone reported what’s on Twitter like it was important until it became important. And now a Tweet … an X … whatever, from the owner of the platform brings Congress to a halt like a scolded dog and BREAKS things.
Elon Musk has been quoted as saying that in order to make things work again, there’s got to be a period of “hardship”. I frankly agree. It angers me that that “hardship” isn’t going to be shared by those who are going to bring it about, or by those who truly caused it, all because the people at the top can’t come up with better ideas.
A slow period of intelligent budgeting and careful cuts of government programs could probably make a huge difference over a decade or two, but democracy, especially in a for-profit-media world and a corporate-bought America, can’t have an attention span that long.
Instead we’re sold the idea that the only way to change the world is to break it. And Musk’s right. That could lead to a period of “hardship”.
I agree – it’d be great to bring good-paying jobs back home. But how expensive does a tariff have to make a t-shirt or a microchip or a whisk or a toaster before an American company sees the benefit in building a factory, sourcing materials, sourcing workers, training workers, and finally creating a t-shirt or a microchip or a whisk or a toaster… or a new car… entirely here in America. How long does all of that take?
Well, just doing the math on the average wage of a manufacturing job in China vs here in America you’ve got to at LEAST triple the cost just in wages (or automate it) before any of those other factors come into it. (x6 for Malaysia).
That’s fucking OBVIOUS math. And then there’s so much more to it. There’s your “hardship”. Triple or quadruple the price of a manufactured item until someone decides to make it in America.
Of course, the main argument is that Trump’s not actually trying to bring jobs home, the tariffs are a bargaining chip in some other deal… but deal for what? Slightly cheaper prices on Temu? Or is it just about raising taxes (tariffs) from a different angle to pay for his tax CUTS.
Elon, Donald, lesser-known-rich-white-men eager to lead us into “hardship”, tell me about YOUR sacrifice and hard work? Because so far it seems like when guys who’ve had privelege all their Lives and then experience “hardship” they pick up… no… print out a gun and go shoot someone. Trump has worked hard to try to get those frustrated people to point their ire and violence at minorities and immigrants… Trump developed a (n even bigger) messiah complex when they came gunning for him.
This shit’s terrifying.