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Half of Americans say they live paycheck to paycheck, so no - the majority of households will not be able to survive for long if they have to spend an extra few

Half of Americans say they live paycheck to paycheck, so no - the majority of households will not be able to survive for long if they have to spend an extra few thousand to stay where they are today. Those that can will be cutting spending, which will ripple across the rest of the economy. There's no sign that negotiation is even possible, never mind likely. One tell is that tariffs have been applied to the Heard and McDonald Islands, which are inhabited by penguins and produce no imports or exports. These are not the actions of a rational administration.

alephnerd 2y ago
> the majority of households will not be able to survive for long if they have to spend an extra few thousand to stay where they are today. The median American household has an income of around $78,000 [0]. They can survive the blowback. The Trump admin on the other hand will not. As a Sullivan, Raimondo, and IRA supporting Dem, it's a win-win for me. Harsher policies against China have been enacted which will not be rolled back (just like how the Biden admin let Trump 1 era tariffs remain) and it will cause a severe blow as midterm fundraising season has started. The NY by-election for Stefanik's seat itself proved that the tariffs and DOGE have made plenty of purple to light red seats vulnerabile. I wrote some thoughts about this recently [1] [0] - https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/US/SEX255223 https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/US/SEX255223 [1] - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43574128 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43574128
- amarcheschi 2y ago
  The whole trump thing went from prospects of economic boom to "the median household is enough wealthy to tolerate the price increase" really, really quick
  - gadflyinyoureye 2y ago
    It was both. Musk said there would be pain for the short term. Trump promised the long game.
    - dr-smooth 2y ago
      I like how you talk about them like there is any "game" involved. Neither individual knows what the hell he's doing. Just greedy self-serving bulls in a china shop.
- sgc 2y ago
  You do understand that means half of all American households make less than 78k? If your reasoning is based on the upper half of wealthiest Americans, it ignores virtually all the most vulnerable. Income distribution: https://www.statista.com/statistics/203183/percentage-distribution-of-household-income-in-the-us/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/203183/percentage-distri...
  - _DeadFred_ 2y ago
    They call it blowback because 'increased homelessness, suicides, kids not getting new shoes as they grow, people having teeth pulled instead of dental work' and 'you will have nothing and be happy' make their policy look bad. Then later they will make fun of the people that have missing teeth because they chose food for their kids over dental work and call those people trash.
- tzs 2y ago
  > The median American household has an income of around $78,000 What are the expenses of the median American household?
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
- tonyedgecombe 2y ago
  You can't trust those penguins, they will do anything for a few fish.
ty6853 2y ago
Mexican cartels just got handed the biggest payday of their wildest dreams. 30% profit on the entire global economy if only they can get it past the border.
- yannis 2y ago
  Strangely, I was thinking about this yesterday, that smuggling now became profitable :) It used to be and still is very profitable in some countries with goods that attract big tariffs like cigarettes. Gray markets will boom.
s1artibartfast 2y ago
>Half of Americans say they live paycheck to paycheck, so no - the majority of households will not be able to survive for long if they have to spend an extra few thousand to stay where they are today What do you think the death toll will be? A majority of households not surviving would put it over 160 million. $4k per capita (not household) loss would put the US in 2022 territory [1]. https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/A939RX0Q048SBEA https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/A939RX0Q048SBEA
- _DeadFred_ 2y ago
  Holy bad faith bs from someone who pretends they're a straight shooter. “...the death toll.” What a trash response to Americans suffering. So kind of you to volunteer that the poorest among us have nothing and should be happy about it. You admit this is a $4k hit that Congress didn’t pass. Guess after all your talk here, you don’t actually believe in the Constitution or separation of powers just “I should be able to do what I want with power.” $4k no biggie, right? From my experience, it just means when things wear out, they don’t get replaced. So shoes for kids get stretched to last longer. Car maintenance gets skipped. (You can judge a bad president by the number of broken-down cars on the side of the road.). It’s food not bought, medical/dental care skipped, rent coming up short. The real death toll won’t be a one-time body count. It’ll be slow and quiet: worse health, more homelessness, more suicides. And for what? So we can LARP like we’re rebuilding American industry without giving businesses the capital, labor, or time to do it? This isn’t strategy. It’s cruelty pretending to be policy.
  - s1artibartfast 2y ago
    Im not the one making the hyperbolic claim that a majority of households wont survive long.
    - _DeadFred_ 2y ago
      Nah, you're just the one OK with Trump unilaterally imposing tariffs, something that the Constitution says only Congress can do. And like your failure to address that point in your response, caring about the Constitution isn't a thing to you.

alephnerd 2y ago

> the majority of households will not be able to survive for long if they have to spend an extra few thousand to stay where they are today. The median American household has an income of around $78,000 [0]. They can survive the blowback. The Trump admin on the other hand will not. As a Sullivan, Raimondo, and IRA supporting Dem, it's a win-win for me. Harsher policies against China have been enacted which will not be rolled back (just like how the Biden admin let Trump 1 era tariffs remain) and it will cause a severe blow as midterm fundraising season has started. The NY by-election for Stefanik's seat itself proved that the tariffs and DOGE have made plenty of purple to light red seats vulnerabile. I wrote some thoughts about this recently [1] [0] - https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/US/SEX255223 https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/US/SEX255223 [1] - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43574128 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43574128

amarcheschi 2y ago
The whole trump thing went from prospects of economic boom to "the median household is enough wealthy to tolerate the price increase" really, really quick
- gadflyinyoureye 2y ago
  It was both. Musk said there would be pain for the short term. Trump promised the long game.
  - dr-smooth 2y ago
    I like how you talk about them like there is any "game" involved. Neither individual knows what the hell he's doing. Just greedy self-serving bulls in a china shop.
sgc 2y ago
You do understand that means half of all American households make less than 78k? If your reasoning is based on the upper half of wealthiest Americans, it ignores virtually all the most vulnerable. Income distribution: https://www.statista.com/statistics/203183/percentage-distribution-of-household-income-in-the-us/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/203183/percentage-distri...
- _DeadFred_ 2y ago
  They call it blowback because 'increased homelessness, suicides, kids not getting new shoes as they grow, people having teeth pulled instead of dental work' and 'you will have nothing and be happy' make their policy look bad. Then later they will make fun of the people that have missing teeth because they chose food for their kids over dental work and call those people trash.
tzs 2y ago
> The median American household has an income of around $78,000 What are the expenses of the median American household?

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

tonyedgecombe 2y ago
You can't trust those penguins, they will do anything for a few fish.

ty6853 2y ago

Mexican cartels just got handed the biggest payday of their wildest dreams. 30% profit on the entire global economy if only they can get it past the border.

yannis 2y ago
Strangely, I was thinking about this yesterday, that smuggling now became profitable :) It used to be and still is very profitable in some countries with goods that attract big tariffs like cigarettes. Gray markets will boom.

s1artibartfast 2y ago

>Half of Americans say they live paycheck to paycheck, so no - the majority of households will not be able to survive for long if they have to spend an extra few thousand to stay where they are today What do you think the death toll will be? A majority of households not surviving would put it over 160 million. $4k per capita (not household) loss would put the US in 2022 territory [1]. https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/A939RX0Q048SBEA https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/A939RX0Q048SBEA

_DeadFred_ 2y ago
Holy bad faith bs from someone who pretends they're a straight shooter. “...the death toll.” What a trash response to Americans suffering. So kind of you to volunteer that the poorest among us have nothing and should be happy about it. You admit this is a $4k hit that Congress didn’t pass. Guess after all your talk here, you don’t actually believe in the Constitution or separation of powers just “I should be able to do what I want with power.” $4k no biggie, right? From my experience, it just means when things wear out, they don’t get replaced. So shoes for kids get stretched to last longer. Car maintenance gets skipped. (You can judge a bad president by the number of broken-down cars on the side of the road.). It’s food not bought, medical/dental care skipped, rent coming up short. The real death toll won’t be a one-time body count. It’ll be slow and quiet: worse health, more homelessness, more suicides. And for what? So we can LARP like we’re rebuilding American industry without giving businesses the capital, labor, or time to do it? This isn’t strategy. It’s cruelty pretending to be policy.
- s1artibartfast 2y ago
  Im not the one making the hyperbolic claim that a majority of households wont survive long.
  - _DeadFred_ 2y ago
    Nah, you're just the one OK with Trump unilaterally imposing tariffs, something that the Constitution says only Congress can do. And like your failure to address that point in your response, caring about the Constitution isn't a thing to you.