How does making products, and Americans buying them, somehow add up to America being taken advantage of? What are Americans supposed to do if the only current source of what they want or need to buy, is costing them a lot more from abroad, and there isn’t yet the infrastructure to make them in the USA? How many of them actually realise that they are the ones who will be paying the tariffs, not the country selling them the goods? And what are Trump and his cronies doing with all the extra money he is raking in? Tax cuts for the billionaires.
It isn’t other countries that have taken advantage of the US. It is the wealthy who have taken advantage of workers. For 70% of working Americans, wages have not increased since the 1970s, if you discount inflation. Families have more stuff, but only because they have been encouraged to take on debt. In those 50 yrs, the economy has grown consistently and the wealthy have increased their wealth exponentially. It is not foreign workers, who often endure appalling conditions and subsistence wages, that have held the average American back. It is greed at the top and a system devised by the wealthy for the wealthy. The solution is not tariffs or trade wars. It is narrowing the gap between richest and poorest within the US, and ensuring labour earns more than accumulated wealth can. Money made by money needs to be taxed at a vastly higher rate than money made from labour.
No it's more like the school playground when the biggest kid and his gang extract sweeties from the younger and smaller kids.
@pete I buy EU because it has fewer miles on it as well as supporting EU jobs. The EU has been moving towards a ban on glyphosate for some time but does not yet have unanimity but has imposed restrictions. After seeing how crops were fed and sprayed in the fields behind my home in Belgium I stopped buying potatoes and was already buying organic flour. I do my best for my family and my community. What @ViewAhead says about removing som eof the dreadful disparity between rich business owners and an exploited work force is true but unlikely to happen in the USA till they learn that socialism is not a swear word but a positive force for society with its members helping and supporting each other for the better but they still believe Socialism (capital S) is just a teeny step down from Communism and an anathema. I don't want a trade war either but I do think a sense of unity in the face of a bully will be good for other countries and their trade.
The truth is that Trump is a bully, and thinks that he has enough clout as POTUS to throw his weight around. What he doesn’t seem to have realised is that he has ruined the reputation of the USA. He has destroyed the trust of any past allies, and alienated any old and new trading partners, for his own personal gain. He and his mates will profit from any tariffs, and the unscrupulous will seek to benefit by juggling with their stocks and shares, and take advantage of the chaos he has created. Meanwhile, the poorer farmers and factory workers, the backbone of America, will go bankrupt or lose their jobs, and Putin will sit back and enjoy the disaster. As far as countries looking to negotiate, I’m sure there is absolutely no chance that they ‘sort of know they were in the wrong’! Ludicrous idea. Two possible ways to deal with a bully, don’t give in, it only encourages him. Or roll your eyes, realise that you are dealing with someone incapable of logical reasoning, and look as if you are placating him. Whatever the outcome, his ego is so inflated that he will think he has won, even when he hasn’t. And while that is going on, the rest of the world will explore other and safer avenues of trade with countries where their leaders can’t be bought.
There's already talk, especially in London, of charging more for SUV's to park as they are too big for a lot of parking spaces.
With the announcement of the new 104% tariffs on China the American stock market plunged another 2%. It's very close to becoming a bear market which is not good - except to people who have plenty of cash to buy whilst it is low. A lot of rich people don't necessarily make a profit out of it as they would already have a considerable portion of their funds in the stock market which would have lost a lot of value - unless they knew what was going to happen and sold their shares before before the current crash The FTSE here has just risen by over 2% after its fall.
With the trend towards the larger style camper van/ mobile homes then the narrow roads of the South West become more fun every year.
Are modern American cars really that much bigger than ours these days? I'm not sure they are, true some are still pretty big but I think ours have got bigger and theirs have got smaller in general. How often do I park my little old focus in a parking space with only about a foot either side from the white lines, then someone parks a range rover, or pickup, next to me and then I can hardly get in the door. The real problem is most parking spaces are still the same size as they were in the 1950s. Makes more money.
The nearest large Sainbury's to us changed the car space markings when they resurface a few years ago and made them wider. The spaces themselves were about the same width but then they put a second, lined, gap between each space which I guess is about 18" wide. The manager told me that it had increased the amount of customers by about 3%. It's a very large car park - at a guess, about 1,000 spaces. It is only just across a dual carriageway from the town centre so I use it even when just going to the town centre as it is free. The manager said that he doesn't mind because they usually pop in to the store to pick up something they hadn't gone out intending to buy. Same problem for me but my car is wider than yours. I tend to avoid car parks that have spaces that are too narrow as my car is fairly wide (still only a saloon) and nowadays I'm not as agile as I used to be.
Yeah my problem is bending my knees enough to get in a door only through about an 8ins gap, another thing that makes the problem worse is the actual thickness of the doors these days, even on small cars. Maybe I should borrow a child then perhaps I could have enough room, might buy a second hand child seat.
