• Krauerking@lemy.lol
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      18 hours ago

      The workforce is unionizing even if their union is pretty terrible.

      Definitely just a toss up of where this is going.

      • Liz@midwest.social
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        18 hours ago

        Which workforce? The Chinese? There’s only one union and it’s run by the government. Any non-government unions are illegal.

        The US is gaining a new interest in unions, but we have our own anti-union laws to deal with. Not as bad China’s obviously.

        • OmegaLemmy@discuss.online
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          16 hours ago

          such a socialist country where union protests lead you to being disappeared

          Oh sorry, did I say socialist? China lines up better as a fascist economy.

        • Krauerking@lemy.lol
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          17 hours ago

          Yeah in a global environment essentially China is the workforce/factory workers of the previous gilded age.

          And it’s pretty much exactly my point that their union (the government) is finally pushing back against the management while being not exactly kind to their workers.

          We are essentially reliving through a new worker rebellion but from the governments of the global south with their own layers of local nuance underneath that.
          Weird times.

          • frezik@midwest.social
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            16 hours ago

            We need a vanguard party because the proles are too dumb to save themselves. We’ll prove it by banning unions that aren’t under our thumb.

  • Bytemeister@lemmy.world
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    20 hours ago

    Big flex from China. I’m waiting for a country to call trump’s bluff by putting an export tax on their own goods sent to the USA.

    • xzot746@sh.itjust.works
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      20 hours ago

      Canada should have done this on everything. If the Americans can afford the tariff then there is room for us to charge more. Not really but yeah should do it.

    • shawn1122@lemm.ee
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      17 hours ago

      If only… America holds 20% of global purchasing power so an export tax like that would result in needing to lower local interest rates to boost domestic productivity, which would decrease foreign investment, eventually weakening the local currency.

      It would be hilarious if a country that exports very little to nothing to the US did it to make a point though. Totally on board with that.

      • Tja@programming.dev
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        15 hours ago

        China is already weakening their currency to keep their exports (worldwide) more attractive.

      • Bytemeister@lemmy.world
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        16 hours ago

        America holds held 20% of global purchasing power…

        Truth be told, I think the only thing we really produced in the US was the US dollar. Sounds like it’s the number 1 export for the US, and trump just toppled demand for it.

    • Back_it_up@lemmy.ca
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      19 hours ago

      Or, they just pay the tariff themselves. Could you imagine China going, “Cool bro, we’ll just absorb the cost ourselves. Now what?”

        • parody@lemmings.world
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          17 hours ago

          a s̵͎̣̫̼͙̄͂̀̇̚ṱ̵̨͓̹̮̪̖͈̐̏̓̅̈́͗͂̓̕͘a̶̢͉̦͈̬͛̐̎̉b̶̭̝̈́͒̆̓̇̀͛͛͠͝͝l̶̬̥͙̗̪͈͖̜̗̮̆̀̅̓̍͑̍́̓̈e̶̡̛̦͓̰̭̘͆̏̊̉͘one

      • JcbAzPx@lemmy.world
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        19 hours ago

        That wouldn’t really do much for China. The reason the tariffs hurt us is that we sent all our manufacturing to them (along with a few other countries). So the tariffs only make our stuff cost more. Footing the bill like that would just weaken China’s position.

      • Snowclone@lemmy.world
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        17 hours ago

        What would happen is the US dollar would be weaker, profits selling to the US weakened. It would still harm us primarily.

  • HighFructoseLowStand@lemm.ee
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    21 hours ago

    Didn’t this happen last time? Less dramatically, but still.

    He puts in a bunch of tariffs. China reciprocates. The market is thrown into chaos. He shouts and screams. China ignores him. He backtracks. China ends the tariffs but doesn’t do anything to try and appease him. He claims it’s a victory. His fluffers say the tariffs were just to bring China to the table, which justifies the hit to the market, despite the fact China didn’t come to the table and President Pigshit didn’t articulate what China could actually give him to end the tariffs.

  • CalipherJones@lemmy.world
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    20 hours ago

    Despite that, Fox News will continue stacking his invisible laurels. Doesn’t matter if his policy does anything. All that matters is that his followers are convinced that the policies are doing something.

    • parody@lemmings.world
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      17 hours ago

      Everyone turn on your ad blocker and go look at that website, it’s (2024-)incredible it’s legal to be so disingenuous

      I made the mistake of visiting yesterday and I will never not be dumber because I read their first seven headlines plus at least a dozen comments

      That’s right, those headlines are the dumbest things you’ve ever seen on the planet… but then you scroll to the bottom of an article

      Pray for me

      • Wren@lemmy.world
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        17 hours ago

        There’s no way in hell I’m going to any conservative propaganda site.

        • parody@lemmings.world
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          17 hours ago

          tl;dr it’s worse than I thought

          I’m not strong enough to admit that I hoped there would be one story where they weren’t jamming it down their throat and begging for more

  • ryannathans@aussie.zone
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    1 day ago

    Everyone is somehow missing China cutting off rare earth metals the US relies on for technology and defense

    • DoubleSpace@lemm.ee
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      1 day ago

      It wasn’t just stopping exports to the US, they’ve stopped exporting rare earth elements worldwide starting yesterday. Plus, they are starting to unload billion of debt we owe them. It’s almost as if Trump is intentionally trying to destroy our country in the morning, and then later in the day he wants to be the bully negotiator without understanding his precarious position.

      • Aqarius@lemmy.world
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        1 day ago

        You remember r/shitamericanssay? Last time he won, there were a lot of people talking about stuff Europe has but America doesn’t, and, if you browse the posts there, a lot of Americans responding how Europe is backwards, in the stone age, and what they do have is paid for by America, out of benevolence.

        Well, those folks are in charge now.

        • Bloomcole@lemmy.world
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          1 day ago

          Our EU ‘leaders’ are US bootlickers.
          They’re a bit upset now that master is angry.

          • Aqarius@lemmy.world
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            24 hours ago

            The master isn’t angry, the master croaked, and his idiot son with anger issues is in charge now. The only question is if the EU will have the foresight to see the writing on the wall and bail before they’re caught in the undertow.

            • Bloomcole@lemmy.world
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              21 hours ago

              Like I said, our EU leaders are puppets, they don’t have our interests in mind.
              They were perfectly fine with the slow death of seeing the economy and people suffer after the Nordstream US terrorist act.
              Not a peep from them.
              And even now they’re doing exactly what Trump wanted, spending more on useless killing toys.
              And it’s a whole lot more.
              Every country’s going to spend billions of money they don’t have and you know where they’re going to get it from.
              The already unhappy lowest layer of the population.
              Probably the last drop to push the extreme right in power. We’re almost in the 30’s again.

              • CalipherJones@lemmy.world
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                20 hours ago

                “And even now they’re doing exactly what Trump wanted, spending more on useless killing toys.”

                Useless? Russia invaded Ukraine. Putin won’t stop there.

              • Aqarius@lemmy.world
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                20 hours ago

                At least they seem to be buying domestic this time around. I mean, I fully expect them to Hillary it, despite everything, but it’s not impossible to pull out of the tailspin yet.

      • null_dot@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        1 day ago

        There wouldn’t be much point merely stopping export to the US because some other country could just on-sell to the US.

        He really doesn’t understand his precarious position and the harm he has done and is doing.

    • CalipherJones@lemmy.world
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      20 hours ago

      I’m realizing the structure of our supply chains is not common knowledge at all. Basically everything has a part from China. That and plastic.

      • ssillyssadass@lemmy.world
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        1 day ago

        I think the story here will go very differently now that the US army can’t ensure it’s exclusively pro-US.

    • Mossheart@lemmy.ca
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      17 hours ago

      Canada didn’t. It’d be a primary reason for the US to go stupid and try invading us, we’re a much closer source of rare earths.

      • ryannathans@aussie.zone
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        5 hours ago

        Australia is the only other major exporter, apart from China, at 15% of global supply. I have never heard of Canada producing significant quantites?

  • humanspiral@lemmy.ca
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    23 hours ago

    … Trump keeps begging for China deal while bragging about phone calls kissing his ass. No foreign meetings. No envoy sent to China.
    China limits US studio film releases
    Bessent says Tariffs are no joke. China must make a deal.
    Chinese airlines refuse Boeing+parts deliveries (reported as “China orders”, but leopards were not going to make US aerospace affordable at 125% tariffs.

      • AdrianTheFrog@lemmy.world
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        20 hours ago

        As much as I don’t like the Chinese government for all the censorship and etc, they do really know what they’re doing in terms of managing the economy and the infrastructure it relies on, as far as I can tell. Including their education system, it’s fairly shocking how many of the top engineering and CS colleges are in China.

        • MellowYellow13@lemmy.world
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          20 hours ago

          Censorship? Its rich talking censorship in China when America is one of the most propagandized nations in existence. If I was China I would also censor the fuck out of America.

                • hark@lemmy.world
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                  17 hours ago

                  There different forms of censorship. Flooding the dominant platforms with the official message to obscure opposition opinions, shadowbanning posts, etc are softer forms of censorship but are still censorship. The rulership class is fine with people voicing their opinions if they feel it doesn’t threaten their power. They will crack down harder when that feeling changes.

          • Bronzie@sh.itjust.works
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            19 hours ago

            How does the US being full of propaganda change the fact that China has a lot of censorship?

            Both can be true at the same time, you know…

            • MellowYellow13@lemmy.world
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              9 hours ago

              How does the US having propaganda mean they dont have censorship? America literally has a fuckton of both.

            • Sanctus@lemmy.world
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              14 hours ago

              Its almost like hegemonies and individual freedoms can be at odds with each other no matter what country it is.

      • ShinkanTrain@lemmy.ml
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        22 hours ago

        I was gonna post that one but “What is this business strategy called” gets me every time

    • buddascrayon@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      I love how everyone just sort of glazes over how astoundingly unpopular Steam was when it was first introduced.

      • cynar@lemmy.world
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        1 day ago

        I was one of them. They proved my fears unfounded (so far). They’ve also managed to convert me to a fanboy at some point. I realised I was playing a co-op game brought off steam, on my steam deck, via a steam link to the TV, and the wife using a steam controller.

        • notarobot@lemm.ee
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          22 hours ago

          I think steam is my favorite monopoly.

          ^Not saying it’s perfect. Just my favorite. I understand this might change at any time^

          • Bassman1805@lemmy.world
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            18 hours ago

            Valve is Augustus Caesar: a benevolent dictator doing great things for their people. I’m afraid of what will happen when Gaben retires, how long will it take before we find gaming’s Nero?

          • cynar@lemmy.world
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            22 hours ago

            At least it’s only a monopoly because everyone else is apparently idiots when it comes to long term planning. I’m dreading the day when they turn to the dark side. Long away may it be.

      • Pennomi@lemmy.world
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        23 hours ago

        It turns out that maximizing for shareholder profit isn’t a sustainable way to run a business, and it actually burns your company to the ground after a few short years.

  • N0body@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    1 day ago

    I think Xi might have figured out Trump’s secret. He has no fucking clue what he’s doing. He scares people into reacting by being reckless, then claims a win for getting a reaction.

    Ignoring trolls takes their power away.

      • ☂️-@lemmy.ml
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        11 hours ago

        never interrupt your enemy while he is fumbling his shit. or something.

    • adarza@lemmy.ca
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      1 day ago

      “Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.”

      (“Quand l’ennemi fait un faux mouvement, il faut se garder de l’interrompre” --Napoleon)

    • null_dot@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      1 day ago

      They’re not really ignoring him though. They’ve discontinued exports of rare earth and are dumping debt. It’s a calculated strategic response to capitalise on an epic mistake.

    • morrowind@lemmy.ml
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      1 day ago

      This only works if you’re China. Most other countries would just be ignored

      • bravesirthomas@lemm.ee
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        1 day ago

        Not really, he backed down on tariffs last week thanks to Canada and Japan. The truth is, Trump has put the US into a very, very precarious position. They have a lot of debt to refinance soon, and if the rest of the world wanted to, they could dramatically increase the interest rates paid on that by coordinating a sell-off of US debt.

    • PhilipTheBucket@ponder.cat
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      1 day ago

      https://snyder.substack.com/p/the-weak-strongman

      Basically, this strategy Trump and Putin and their ilk do never works outside of their little bubble. Their whole game is to tear everyone else in their sphere of influence down to their level, so that they can compete effectively and dominate, but there are always significant threats outside of the sphere. Against which we are now more or less powerless.