Capitalism has no more solutions because it is only concerned with one thing: maximum profits for owners and investors. The capitalist theorists swear up and down that exclusively focusing on profit maximization will inevitably lead to better lives for everyone, albeit indirectly or incidentally, but that is clearly not true. Maybe it was true enough at various points in the past, but it is absolutely not true anymore. Under capitalism today, the exclusive focus on profit maximization is REDUCING access to a better life for many people, not increasing it.

Everyone in here saying, “why don’t you stand up to him, Dems?”

Guys, the Democrats don’t do that. I don’t think they even know how to do that. The whole concept is so alien to them you might as well be asking them to surf the rings of Saturn. No, no, the Democrats don’t stand up to rich and powerful people, they gargle their balls. They can get those things so deep in their donor holes that they can tickle the scrot with their uvulas.

If you’re looking for the Dems to stand up to Trump, you’re barking up the wrong tree, friends.

Billionaires become billionaires because they want all of the power and privileges that come along with it. If having the total freedom and liberty to do whatever you want is your goal, there doesn’t seem to be any better way to accomplish that than to become obscenely rich. And I think that’s why so many people tolerate this cultural, social arrangement: because their goals are aligned with the super wealthy. The difference between the rich and the poor isn’t their values, it’s their net worth. That’s why everyone is hustling so hard every day to try and get as rich as possible, so that one day, maybe, they might be the one laying out on the deck of a yacht, drinking expensive champagne, snorting coke and getting a hand job from a beautiful, young girl.

The plug they came up with, that eventually became the NAC standard. Technology Connections did a video about it, and he is no Tesla fan, I assure you of that.

This is why Tesla has been a mixed bag. They have made some smart choices and they have made some not so smart choices. Unfortunately, because they essentially are the EV market in America, all other companies looking to bring EVs to the market have copied Tesla in many ways, both the good and the bad. I think that’s at least part of the reason why the EV market is suffering right now.

It’s almost like capitalism is failing.

Yeah, and it’s taking forever. It’s like watching an ultra show motion train wreck. It’s maddening.

Then if the US is serious about preventing the supposedly “artificially cheap” Chinese imports from coming in they need to crack down on those importers circumventing the tariffs. If we can’t or won’t, I don’t see another option other than to just accept cheap Chinese imports. And that goes for any economy angry about China’s supposed unwillingness to “play fair.”

I assume that what articles like these are advocating for is that importing countries come together and somehow bully China into raising their prices. But whether it’s that or tariffs with better enforcement, the result is the same: no more cheap Chinese goods, meaning higher prices for customers who have gotten used to the lower priced imports from China.

Ok, well, if tariffs on Chinese imports won’t work because China will just find ways to circumvent them, then you just have to accept “artificially” cheap Chinese goods being imported into your country, unless you can convince consumers to stop buying them. That likely won’t work either, but I don’t see any other option. You can ask China to raise their prices but I imagine that’s already been tried and likely also failed.

China’s overbearing exports are changing minds about the benefits of open trade well beyond the United States.

If China is so “overbearing,” don’t trade with them. Don’t buy their products. Follow the US’s lead and tariff the hell out of Chinese imports. You don’t have to import Chinese products. You can choose to not buy Chinese stuff. No one is forcing you to buy Chinese products.

I’m thinking it’s more about how much of the abuse you can tolerate. It’s not like the US has been all that hesitant to abuse our allies in the past. It’s more like our allies have previously been able to convince themselves that the benefits outweighed the costs.

I think you’re right. The world has accepted, or at least tolerated US hegemonic dominance because it worked well enough, but that doesn’t mean it was ideal. Far from it, for many countries. It’s not like the world was given a choice, really. Or, more accurately, the world’s choices were severely limited. Perhaps a majority of the world’s countries just saw US hegemony as the least bad option. But even those countries that didn’t agree that it was the least bad option, what were they supposed to do about it?

“You cannot put the genie back into the bottle,” Schelde said. “Things might get better and more calm a few months down the road, and Trump, he can’t be reelected, and the next president might be somewhat different,” Schelde said. “But what comes then in five, six, 10 years? I think there’s a strong realization across Europe that we need to be able to stand on our own feet.”

This is truly the silver lining in all of this. The world, especially Europe, has been far too complacent about continued US hegemonic dominance. They figured that the world was fine under US control, because US leadership was generally capable and trustworthy enough. But the thing about that kind of concentration of power is it’s not a matter of if that power will be abused, it’s only a matter of when.

The US has proven that we can no longer be counted on to rule competently and ethically enough. That doesn’t mean it’s time to replace US hegemony with another hegemonic order, it’s time for true, international democracy. It’s time for a democratic, rules based order.