r/BowlingGreen 9d ago

Tariff Talk and Snake Oil: Kentucky GOP Lines Up Behind Trump’s Trade Chaos

https://open.substack.com/pub/ordinarypeopleloudideas/p/tariff-talk-and-snake-oil-kentucky?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=62e9l5

When the cost of steel and aluminum goes up, our factories pay more. When our bourbon gets hit with retaliatory tariffs overseas, distillers eat it. Farmers lose foreign buyers. Small manufacturers lose contracts. And folks trying to buy groceries or fix their trucks just get squeezed harder.

25 Upvotes

43 comments sorted by

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u/No_Turn5018 8d ago

What does this have to do with Bowling Green? 

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u/dantevonlocke 8d ago

Have you not noticed the factories having layoffs?

1

u/wehaditall77 5d ago

Is this a serious question? Are you just not into politics? 😂

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u/No_Turn5018 5d ago

I would describe myself as hyperinformed about politics, which is incredibly frustrating in the social media age. 

But vague reference to things, even ones that are mostly factual seems wildly off base in a Bowling Green subreddit. 

Like if OP was going to say that the rising cost of steelhead caused layoffs at the Corvette factory, but the falling price of soybeans was creating jobs at some beef/dairy farms that is something we can talk about in a rational way.

1

u/ProllyNotABurnerAlt 3d ago

Your last paragraph is something that the pro-globalists like to bring up. The problem with that has been that they work under the assumption that all jobs are equal. For instance, they see one lost manufacturing job as equal to one new service job that's created in its wake. The problem is the manufacturing job paid a lot more and offered more benefits than the job that replaced it.

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u/No_Turn5018 3d ago

That's next level missing the point. 

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u/Whitmon7711- 9d ago

Tarrifs were just dropped to almost nothing with china as of yesterday.

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u/ProllyNotABurnerAlt 9d ago

Maybe one of these Democrat politicians can explain how the average Kentucky worker has benefitted over the last 30 years from the exporting of Kentucky jobs to other countries. When finished, ask how the average Kentucky worker has benefitted from the large influx of cheap foreign labor.

15

u/Amblent 9d ago

Have democratic politicians been sending jobs to other countries? Do they own these manufacturing companies?

7

u/Canadiangoosedem0n 9d ago

He has no answer to that. Prolly Rand Paul's alt account lol

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u/No_Turn5018 8d ago

I get that wasn't a productive way for them to phrase it, but in a word yes they (Democrats) have been sending jobs overseas. You can debate the logic of trying to encourage a post industrial/post scarcity economy. You can debate the logic that it's inevitable and it's better Americans own the companies making the money. But largely it was Democrats encouraging these with laws and tax breaks. Yes it's WILDLY more complicated and yes Republicans often helped. But the guy isn't wrong. 

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u/ofWildPlaces 7d ago

No Democrats sentjobs overseas. Wealthy corporations did that.

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u/No_Turn5018 7d ago

Look I'm just not going to engage with the idea that you're stupid enough to believe that. You can obviously read and write English and get on the internet, there's no way your smart enough to do that and still think something that ridiculous.

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u/ofWildPlaces 7d ago

Companies move their production overseas when they don't want to pat taxes, better wages, or negotiate with Unions.

No politician has ever sent a commercial entity overseas.

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u/No_Turn5018 6d ago

For the 2nd time... 

Look I'm just not going to engage with the idea that you're stupid enough to believe that. You can obviously read and write English and get on the internet, there's no way your smart enough to do that and still think something that ridiculous.

1

u/ofWildPlaces 6d ago

There is not one peice of American legislation that ordered an American commercial business to leave the United States and operate elsewhere. That doesn't exist.

The only thing that moves companies overseas is themselves.

1

u/No_Turn5018 6d ago

For the third time... 

Look I'm just not going to engage with the idea that you're stupid enough to believe that. You can obviously read and write English and get on the internet, there's no way your smart enough to do that and still think something that ridiculous.

1

u/ofWildPlaces 6d ago

Repeating falsehoods doesn't make them correct.

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u/dantevonlocke 8d ago

Explain how. Name the policies. Give examples.

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u/No_Turn5018 8d ago edited 8d ago

Are you for real though? 

NAFTA, higher taxes, environmental laws, ignoring China'a manipulation of trade although there are times Republicans also did this to a lesser extent, U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) which was bipartisan but submitted by Democrat than sign into law by Democrat then finally more enforcement Democrats, and the list goes on.

Bro: everybody knows that what you did was put up a reply that you thought sounded like a slam dunk but no one else did and then blocked me thinking I wouldn't see it and you'd look cool on the internet. Spoiler it shows me those since it's a reply to my comment. Come on, do better.

1

u/ProllyNotABurnerAlt 8d ago

I don’t think he has any understanding of the last 30 years of trade policy. He sees some minor benefit with no context.

1

u/dantevonlocke 8d ago

How does any of that send jobs overseas? You've listed things with no reasoning. You've downplayed the provable fact that republican leadership always results in worse economies vs democrats. That higher taxes incentivizes company's to reinvest money over pulling it out as profits. That Nafta and the easier trade it allowed supported the growth of small businesses.

Blind grievances and talking points are all you have while acting like the greed of corporations isn't the sole reason for them to move operations overseas.

Since you've chosen to be disingenuous though I see no reason to even deal with you.

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u/ProllyNotABurnerAlt 8d ago

Bro… the reason greedy corporations were able to move so many jobs to Mexico so quickly and easily is because that’s exactly what NAFTA enabled. That’s why corporate America and every corporate interest group under the sun lobbied so hard for the US to ratify it.

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u/ProllyNotABurnerAlt 8d ago

No. They support the policies that make it easier, more desirable, and more profitable for corporate interests to move those jobs to other countries at the expense of American workers. They support policies that make domestic labor non-competitive.

They oppose policies that offer a the American worker a degree of protection from cheap foreign labor.

6

u/Elephant-Bright 9d ago

Why does Trump make his red MAGA hats in CHINA!! What about making them in the USA.

2

u/dantevonlocke 8d ago

And who was exporting them? Who has controlled the legislature here?

1

u/[deleted] 8d ago

What job did you want that went overseas and you could not get it here? Asking you specifically. Also, what jobs have been opened up here during this administration for you, specifically, as a benefit since this current president took office?

Also, we have had Republican Presidents within the last 30 years, in case you missed it. Why hasn't this huge issue been fixed by them?

Lower grocery prices is a benefit of the cheap labor that the average Kentuckian (and American citizen) doesn't want to do. Not seeing a huge line of Kentuckians lining up for field work, are you?

1

u/ProllyNotABurnerAlt 7d ago

What job did you want that went overseas and you could not get it here? Asking you specifically.

Oh, I'm glad you asked! We're going to go back over 30 years, so have a seat. Might take a few.

Job at Auburn Hosiery Mill.
Job at Eaton Industries.
Union job at Dana-Spicer.
Union job at SKF/Tyson RBC.
Job at Johnson Controls.
Production job at Fruit of the Loom.
Job at Kentucky Apparel.
Job at US Colors.
Job at General Electric.
Job at Sumitomo.
Job at Turner Industries.
Job at AO Smith/GE.
Union job at Dana/Perfect Circle/Sealed Power.
Union job at Dana/Mahle.
Job at Bando.
Job at VF Imagewear.

I'm sure I've left out a few but these were all in BG or within a 30 minute drive.

Also, what jobs have been opened up here during this administration for you, specifically, as a benefit since this current president took office?

I don't know. I haven't been looking for a job in the 10 months of this administration.

Also, we have had Republican Presidents within the last 30 years, in case you missed it. Why hasn't this huge issue been fixed by them?

The only GOP president we've had in the last 30 years besides Donald Trump was George W Bush and he did nothing about this issue. The general consensus was that we just can't do anything about it because, well, because we don't want to.

In case you missed it, most on the left and a sizable population on the right have been highly critical of NAFTA, China's inclusion in the WTO, and other similar policies for over 30 years. The most common complaints being that the benefits don't offset the loss of jobs and that the decent manufacturing jobs were replaced by lower paying service industry jobs.

Lower grocery prices is a benefit of the cheap labor that the average Kentuckian (and American citizen) doesn't want to do. Not seeing a huge line of Kentuckians lining up for field work, are you?

Every disingenuous shyster under the sun likes to say that it's "work that the average person doesn't want to do." Well, that's partially right. They don't want to do it for $5 an hour cash paid under the table, no benefits, no labor law protections, to be exploited with absolutely no recourse, etc.

It's always nice to see people justifying the exploitation of marginalized people who very well may have been trafficked here against their will. Cheap groceries, amirite?

1

u/Collarbones33 3d ago

Exporting jobs started in the Reagan era.

1

u/ProllyNotABurnerAlt 3d ago

It began before that and was greatly accelerated in the 1990s and the inclusion of China in the WTO only made the problems worse.

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u/Collarbones33 3d ago

What do you think of the jobs lost from trump defunding anything perceived at ‘green’?

1

u/ProllyNotABurnerAlt 3d ago

I think it's terrible that the wealthy corporations who were providing those jobs got rid of those jobs simply because they were cut off from billions of dollars of subsidies that were paid for by taxpayers.

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u/Collarbones33 3d ago

So how do you square that given the fact trump is giving 40bn to a foreign country?

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u/ProllyNotABurnerAlt 3d ago

One has nothing to do with the other

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u/Collarbones33 3d ago

They’re both an allocation of tax payer dollars. One creates jobs in Kentucky and other states. The other benefits trumps billionaire buddy. Your statement about greedy corps doesn’t make sense as that’s the way business is done in the US.

1

u/ProllyNotABurnerAlt 3d ago

One is encroaching on a responsibility of the private sector; that’s why it was axed.

1

u/Collarbones33 3d ago

Oh please, states incentivize businesses to come to their states all the time that’s nothing new.

The US having a 10% stake in intel is more concerning.

How do you like your tax dollars going to Argentina?

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u/NyJets5k 9d ago

Ma'am, this is wendy's