Economics Thread

[acesfull86]

That's the danger. But there are certain things we do want self sufficiency in. Rare earth metals, which China has a large market share in, is one. I believe we already have a strategic stockpile. Advanced microprocessor development and production is another. Some medical products, including vaccines, obviously. Probably a few others. But it shouldn't be a gravy train for the politically well-connected. There is some risk that happens.

There’s also the risk that today’s sports car is tomorrow’s horse and buggy…a protected company/industry is less likely to innovate and come up with the product we’ll want to be sufficient in tomorrow. That might be the bigger danger, IMO.

We should tread carefully, and I personally don’t have faith in our elected officials.

[Jaw]

Who gets to decide which supply chains deserve the protection of nationalism? Sounds to me like a recipe for out of control rent seeking, as every widget maker and its upstream suppliers descend on Washington for their handout.

Emperor Jaw would not have a which. I would start with a baseline 200% import tariff on everything but raw materials. Strategic exemptions with UK, Canada and Mexico to start, eventually expanded to include Central and South America. I can't think of anything we get from the Aussies but I would toss them in with the UK too, just to keep them from being dependent on the EU and China.

I would have fairly lofty goals.
Return the manufacturing industry to the US and increase geostrategic security by establishing an updated, US dominated, version of the Iron Curtain that the Soviets controlled. And devestate China's manufacturing industry, obviously.

Both American continents can provide every raw material needed, some jobs would return to the US and others could strengthen Central and South America.

The environment benefiting from transporting billions of tons of cargo fewer around the world, removing a massive amount of manufacturing from countries in Asia with the lowest environmental standards, and from a stronger bargaining position to demand better stewardship of the rainforests.

Hopefully the combination of stronger economies in, and closer ties with, Latin America, along with a stronger middle class in the US, would lead to greater portability to and from the US. American money going south to poorer countries where it's needed. Motivated and culturally conservative immigrants going north from poorer and overpopulated countries to where they're needed.

Oh, I almost forgot about returning top tax levels to 91%, just like the last time we realized we were in a Cold War. If it worked through the golden era of the 50s and 60s it should work again.

That's the outline anyway.

[acesfull86]

200% tariffs and 91% top tax rates. Yikes. We’re not even close.

Emperor Aces would declare a policy of unilateral free trade and abolish the income tax in his first week.

[Jaw]

Yeah I'm on the extreme end. The tariffs basically stop being tariffs at that point and just become bans. The tax rate...I think of it as a manual version of trickle down, since the automatic version stopped working. It would also have to be restricted to something like the top .05% of earners. Not the rich, the egregiously rich. Tens of millions of annual income rich, like high level athletes, actors, large corporation CEOs. I think it's bad for the stability of the country for such a small group to bank such a large portion of the pie. That Bezos chart I shared earlier shows why.

[thethe]

Emperor Jaw would not have a which. I would start with a baseline 200% import tariff on everything but raw materials. Strategic exemptions with UK, Canada and Mexico to start, eventually expanded to include Central and South America. I can't think of anything we get from the Aussies but I would toss them in with the UK too, just to keep them from being dependent on the EU and China.

I would have fairly lofty goals.
Return the manufacturing industry to the US and increase geostrategic security by establishing an updated, US dominated, version of the Iron Curtain that the Soviets controlled. And devestate China's manufacturing industry, obviously.

Both American continents can provide every raw material needed, some jobs would return to the US and others could strengthen Central and South America.

The environment benefiting from transporting billions of tons of cargo fewer around the world, removing a massive amount of manufacturing from countries in Asia with the lowest environmental standards, and from a stronger bargaining position to demand better stewardship of the rainforests.

Hopefully the combination of stronger economies in, and closer ties with, Latin America, along with a stronger middle class in the US, would lead to greater portability to and from the US. American money going south to poorer countries where it's needed. Motivated and culturally conservative immigrants going north from poorer and overpopulated countries to where they're needed.

Oh, I almost forgot about returning top tax levels to 91%, just like the last time we realized we were in a Cold War. If it worked through the golden era of the 50s and 60s it should work again.

That's the outline anyway.

Bravo. I’ve been a proponent of reinvesting all foreign expenditure towards cleaning up Mexico. So many of our ills would be solved if we could get that great nation back on its feet.

This is the future. Completely reconfiguring the supply chain to the Western Hemisphere. Something Banon has promoted for a long time.

[Krgrecw]

Bravo. I’ve been a proponent of reinvesting all foreign expenditure towards cleaning up Mexico. So many of our ills would be solved if we could get that great nation back on its feet.

This is the future. Completely reconfiguring the supply chain to the Western Hemisphere. Something Banon has promoted for a long time.

That’s assuming you can clean up Mexico, which you can’t do without American troops cleaning it up. The drug traffickers have more power in Mexico than the government.

[sturg33]

200% tariffs and 91% top tax rates. Yikes. We’re not even close.

Emperor Aces would declare a policy of unilateral free trade and abolish the income tax in his first week.

I'd like to add abolishing all corporate welfare and international aid.

Every penny of it

[thethe]

That’s assuming you can clean up Mexico, which you can’t do without American troops cleaning it up. The drug traffickers have more power in Mexico than the government.

I’m 100% in support of troops on the ground in Mexico. That’s where we have an actual national security interest.

[Jaw]

I’m 100% in support of troops on the ground in Mexico. That’s where we have an actual national security interest.

Flying a few drones armed with napalm or Roundup over the cash crops would be as effective, you would just have to make it worth the Mexican government's time with a promise of replacement revenue through legitimate jobs. Might need to promise a couple of Predator drone strikes on the cartel leaders too.

[thethe]

Flying a few drones armed with napalm or Roundup over the cash crops would be as effective, you would just have to make it worth the Mexican government's time with a promise of replacement revenue through legitimate jobs. Might need to promise a couple of Predator drone strikes on the cartel leaders too.

That would hurt them for sure but I think they are so entrenched in all levels of society in Mexico and south/Latin America that it will take a decade long excursion with a physical presence on the ground.

This would be a deadly war with more losses than we had in Iraq.

[McCann'sCans]

Are we advocating starting a war in Mexico right now? I'm confused.

[thethe]

I am absolutely proposing an all out assault against criminal organizations that are responsible for deaths of hundreds of thousands of innocents a year.

You aren’t?

[acesfull86]

How much power would drug traffickers have if drugs were legal?

[nsacpi]

This has been a very enlightening few days from thethe

I have learned that

1) Kemp and Raffensperger were part of a conspiracy to steal the election in Georgia

2) China manufactured and released covid to remove his boy from office

3) The FBI organized the events of January 6

4) We need to invade Mexico

[Jaw]

Are we advocating starting a war in Mexico right now? I'm confused.

Just providing a less invasive answer to a hypothetical question than boots on the ground.

[Krgrecw]

How much power would drug traffickers have if drugs were legal?

You think the million plus people in Mexico involved in the drug trade will get 9-5 jobs tomorrow if all drugs were legal? They’d make more potent drugs, kidnappings will rise along with the coyote business. The criminal organizations will still be there

[Tapate50]

You think the million plus people in Mexico involved in the drug trade will get 9-5 jobs tomorrow if all drugs were legal? They’d make more potent drugs, kidnappings will rise along with the coyote business. The criminal organizations will still be there

They are still here too except we elect them to Congress for it

[Krgrecw]

It took the American boots and guns to clean up Colombia, just like it would to clean up Mexico

[acesfull86]

You think the million plus people in Mexico involved in the drug trade will get 9-5 jobs tomorrow if all drugs were legal? They’d make more potent drugs, kidnappings will rise along with the coyote business. The criminal organizations will still be there

Not overnight, but as long as there’s a black market, they aren’t going anywhere.

The mafia still exists (in some form), but people generally aren’t going to a mob run speakeasy for their alcohol fix anymore.

[Jaw]

You think the million plus people in Mexico involved in the drug trade will get 9-5 jobs tomorrow if all drugs were legal? They’d make more potent drugs, kidnappings will rise along with the coyote business. The criminal organizations will still be there

There is no reason Mexico can't solve it's own cartel problem if other employment and government revenue opportunities exist. The people there aren't less able, the culture seems to value hard work more than that of their northern neighbor. I've been in migrant agricultural worker housing and promise you those people could have lived an easier lifestyle in the drug trade.

Foreign investment in one area at a time can change that by providing employment alternatives and compelling the government to police that area to protect the industry. The more that happens, the more the government is able to expand the safe area to draw more investment. The cure to the drug war, border security, and illegal immigration has always been improving things on the southern bank of the Rio Grande.