If you don't think Trump is responsible for inflation....

 

If you don't believe that Trump's actions are causing inflation, look at the sale price of this dress.  Normally, it has been selling at Target for $50.99.  Today, it is listed for $76.49.  What has changed in the past week?  Not much.  But what has likely happened that Target's warehouses (or those of an intermediary who sells on Target's website) has just received a new shipment of these dresses, and has marked them to their current profitable price.

Let's assume that it is Trump's tariffs that account for the price hike.  Do we have a domestic industry large enough to maintain a price-competitive supply chain?  I doubt it.  Opening up our market to cheap Chinese goods 35 years ago destroyed much of American industry, its logistics and supply chain.  And we don't have what it takes to bring it back.  

Sadly, we never had a transition for those workers being displaced by cheap overseas labor.  Our capitalists acted as, if by magic, their consumers/workers would find other work so that they could afford to buy goods produced by cheaper labor.  For a while, this happened, as displaced labor was limited to a few rural towns.  But more and more people were affected over time, and both blue and white collar workers have been affected by these misguided policies.

No, I am not arguing against competition.  Instead, I am arguing against opening the doors to competition without a clear path for labor to have its needs taken care of.  European nations would never allow this to happen to its labor force, as they do not want social unrest and alienation.  They believe in a well educated people, with regular access to a relatively under biased news media still focusing on presenting objective truth to its consumers.

Trump has taken advantage of the 1st Amendment to the Constitution in ways our founding fathers couldn't conceive.  Political lies have been protected by the courts, and Trump has never been anywhere close to telling truth to his followers.  He lies, knowing that his cult will ingest anything he says.  In short, he is Orwell's "Big Brother" to his followers, and can do no wrong.  To the rest of us, he is an autocrat who has broken all social conventions, and has few checks and balances to stop him from destroying America.

So, why are tariffs so important?  In short, they are sales taxes on the economy.  They only serve to slow things down.Is this dress worth 50% more than it was a week ago?  No.  Could the price hike have been caused by the recent Iran war?  I doubt it.  There is no clothing industry of note in the Middle-East. But there is one in Southeast Asia and China. And their industries are being affected by Trump's tariffs and his war.

The prosperity of nations depend on constancy and predictability.  For generations, farmers knew that they'd plant crops in the spring, tend to them in the summer, and harvest them in the fall.  To increase yields, farmers have added fertilizer to their land for ages, much of it now being derived from Middle-East oil products.  Now, much of the fertilizer supplies we'd use are no longer available because of the war.  Many of the markets for American farm products no longer exist due to Trump's trade wars.  And yet, many in the rural states have yet to signal that they want this buffoon to be removed from office.  The infallibility of their cult leader overrides objective truth.  People are afraid of reality.

For those not part of Trump's cult, we see his cruelty destroying the friendships between America and its friends.  Canadians are largely avoiding the US, as well as tourists from many other nations.  Trump's Gestapo (read: ICE) rounds up people solely based on skin color and puts them into prison camps without due process.  Trump's CBP agents at our borders often harass travelers with proper documentation, and have put them into prisons as well.  Why should any nation want to be friends to America, much less help it in an illegal war?   Losing tourists from these nations is causing economic problems for many tourist areas in the US, and I don't see this happening soon.

This leaves us with a declining American workforce that has to suffer with increasing inflation.  It will take a generation or two to undo what Trump has damaged - it it can be undone at all.  If I were young, I'd have already left the US for countries which protect labor better than we do, inform and educate its people better than we do, and protect freedom better than we do.  But I am old, and stuck on America's roller-coaster.  For the rest of us, it will take come time for America to collapse.  And it is time for those with marketable skills to leave America.  Just be careful choosing where to go to.... 

 

We're now programmed to fail.

 

Years ago, when I started my career in technology, I had faith in a system that provided opportunity for all.  It didn't matter whether a person was black or white.  There was a relative meritocracy in this country, with an elite that cared somewhat for the conditions that the masses lived under.  I learned to analyze a situation, find the cause of a problem, and resolve it.  Over the years, I learned to look at larger systems and perform root cause analyses for problems in these systems.  Today, what I'm seeing frightens me.

We're seeing, in real time, the gradual destruction of American society.  A bandit class has gained control, a class which has no ability to care for the welfare of the masses.  The leader that we elected has exposed his toxic nature, and many of his followers are finally seeing the man for what he is - a man who only cares for himself, someone who has no ability to care for the little people who put him back in power.

People like me are under attack because we don't cleanly fit into the gender binary that his core supporters use to define their world. But we are not the only people under attack.  People who believe in science and the scientific method are under attack too.  We've seeing the destruction of the CDC, due to a crackpot in charge of the Department of Health and Human Services.  I can only wonder what epidemics will affect our nation, given the outflow of qualified, talented professionals from our government.  We're seeing a government ready to debase our currency, institute questionable tariffs, and do everything possible to create another great depression.  What's going to happen when people lose hope?

What is the root cause of society's current problems?  As I see it, it was a big mistake made by the elites 50-60 years ago.  America's business elites decided to globalize manufacturing without providing a safety net, a transition plan for those workers who would be displaced from their jobs as work migrated overseas.  Educated people in large metropolitan areas would still be able to find work.  But few jobs were being created in areas being hollowed out by globalization.  People in these areas lost hope in the system, and became ready to follow a populist leader who'd make idle promises.  They needed to show their anger towards the elites, and became more radicalized. 

Once people become marginalized and lose hope, they are willing to gamble on anything that would improve their lots in life.  They will often feel that restoring the oppressive social norms of the past will fix things.  But they only make things worse.  Instead of looking for ways to grow the economic pie, they look to keep others from getting their share the pie.  This only serves the bandit capitalist, as alienated people will blindly support leaders that make speeches that give lip service to the supposed needs of those people.

Right now, our president has set America on a course to fail.  As a result, he will likely collapse the world economy.  I shudder to think of what will happen if he succeeds in his plans.  What he will gain from this, I'm not sure.  I think he's a Nero who will fiddle while Rome burns - and enjoy the flames.  As for me, I want to be as far away from Rome as possible....