Yes, keep making enemies of the billionaires that got this administration into office and spent millions of dollars to do so. I’d very much love that for you.
Good thing this isn’t a country that came about because a bunch of rich white dudes got tired of being taxed and started a revolution.
That’s possibly reframing “no taxation without representation” a bit but I don’t entirely disagree with the sentiment.
They thought funding Trump would get them representation. They were wrong. Trump cares about no one but himself.
In the most literal sense we have representation, but it sure as hell doesn’t seem like it in practice… :(
How are billionaires being taxed unfairly, and without “Representation,” when they own our politicians?
The billionaires have thus far been too cheap to amass private armies to directly enforce their own will. Why, when you can lobby Congress for the price of a used Hyundai Sonata to get the Army to do what you want?
The government holds the power of violence and Trump holds the power of the government. The billionaires will be reminded of that if they get out of line. Coincidentally, this is the arrangement of modern Russia.
they have been too cheap thus far.
I’m pretty sure that Bezos had enough money to bribe moderate chunks of the army.
Personnel is one thing.
Modern warfighting is outrageously expensive. Guided munitions can cost hundreds of thousands each. Armored vehicles cost millions. Combat aircraft, tens of millions. And it continues to cost tons of money just to keep them in a bunker ready to go.
They will balk at the cost of owning/operating even a single Arleigh-Burke destroyer.
There is a reason they’re all too happy to keep letting you and me indirectly fund their military aspirations through taxes.
That’s the crazy part, unless they’re “outlawed” billionaires should try and improve people’s lives since it means they would have more money to spend on the crap those billionaires are selling! It’s hard to sell stuff on Amazon if everyone is struggling to afford housing and food.
Better to rule in Hell than serve in Heaven.
They could work to remove the destitution and desperation of working people. But if their workers weren’t in such dire straits, then they wouldn’t have so much power over them. Workers with good pay and a healthy work-life balance also have more time to pursue unionization and other political activities. Even if improving the lives of the people would objectively increase the wealth of the ultra-rich, it would still decrease their power. And ultimately, the only reason people ever obtain that level of wealth is because they desire power more than anything else. People who aren’t power-hungry monsters cash out and retire early long before they reach billionaire status.
They truly believe in the Social Darwinist belief that no one is truly compassionate, empathetic, or altruistic. It’s just an act to gain attention, or an advantage.
They literally can’t understand it, and think it’s a stupid delusion. Their narcissism can’t comprehend that anyone would do anything without wanting something in return. And those who don’t believe that are stupid, and deserve to be exploited.
Because winners are winners, and losers and losers. It’s the natural order. EVERYONE is looking to take what’s yours, and will abuse, rob, and kill you if they can. Because that’s what they would do.
And then there’s the competition with other psychopaths in their peer group…
He’s brought down Tesla (bankrupt in 2 years, MMW), and now Amazon. We shpuld start a betting pool for who-s next. META? Google? Microsoft?
That’ll get the people grumbling.
Walmart should also do this.
Grocery stores too.
Thoughts on how to make this happen:
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Whenever a shopowner is already critical of Trump, call them and suggest it directly.
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Ask your local cashiers and other store clerks how come the prices rose, and whether that really is all tariffs. Again and again. And ideally so that other shoppers overhear it.
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Make angry social media posts explicitly asking the same, explicitly tagging your local store and/or the chain to which they belong, and muse about looking into their competitors.
I get that you want to aggrieve the owners but that last • tactic feeds into Reichwingers absolving Trump. Asking in person, where they have a chance to say, “yes, see this here is the tariffs amount” puts the blame where it belongs (and can also bring price-gouging into the light, because for sure some will happen).
Gouging will happen in every industry, by every corporation. The only ones that might not are locally owned, which has been dwindling since at least the 90s.
It happened with covid, it happened with bird flu, and it’s about to happen the biggest ever with tariffs as the excuse.
Well, it’s never going to happen in the first place
«Amazon moved to distance itself from the report, saying the idea had been considered by Amazon Haul, the company’s recently launched low-cost shopping hub, but had been rejected.
“The team that runs our ultra-low-cost Amazon Haul store considered the idea of listing import charges on certain products. This was never approved and is not going to happen,” said Tim Doyle, Amazon spokesperson."
Trump: “We’re increasing foreign prices because we want consumers to prefer buying American.”
Retailers: “These foreign goods are more expensive than American-made ones.”
Trump: “How dare you tell them that!”
Telling people how much the Trump Tax costs them is now considered “hostility”. Got it.
would be a great add-on for firefox, though
Incredibly hard to source that data from the outside. Even if you can identify the suppliers, different parts of an assembly may be classified differently, even between different importers who may have partial exemptions.
