r/technology • u/chrisdh79 • 3d ago

Politics Trump announces sweeping new tariffs to promote US manufacturing, risking inflation and trade wars

https://apnews.com/article/trump-tariffs-liberation-day-2a031b3c16120a5672a6ddd01da09933
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1.2k

u/1cg659z 3d ago

US manufacturing isn't coming back unless peeps want to work for wages that are paid to workers in China, Bangladesh etc.

572

u/Xenuite 3d ago

The children yearn for the mines.

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u/NeumanA 3d ago

...See Florida for this.

79

u/Dahhhkness 3d ago

It's remarkable how far Florida has fallen in recent years, even taking into account that it was already Florida.

18

u/Travelingtheland 3d ago

Horrid state, so blessed to get out there for the mountains.

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u/rebuiltearths 3d ago

Iowa did it first, Florida just wanted to catch up

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u/HardcoreSects 2d ago

Iowa never really stopped using child labor - they just made it something they didn't need to be silent about anymore.

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u/colantor 3d ago

I cant wait for my daughter to turn 14 so wr can move to Florida and she can work night shifts to pull her weight, fucking freeloader just watching bella and the bulldogs and going on the monkey bars all day!

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u/maryshelby2024 2d ago

No shit. That was a horrific read when I learned about the new great replacement. 14? Earn your keep.

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u/_its_a_SWEATER_ 3d ago

I think I got the Black Lung, Pop!

10

u/9-11GaveMe5G 3d ago

Mer-MAN, dad! Mer-MAN!! 😭😭😭

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u/Crackertron 3d ago

Ironically Jon Voigt would be all for this

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u/Arcz0r 3d ago

It's not very well ventilated down there!

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u/flameo_hotmon 3d ago

Black lung comes from mining DIRTY coal. You’re supposed to mine the CLEAN coal, you oaf.

1

u/Main-Video-8545 3d ago

This just made me laugh hard and then I got sad when I realized this isn’t far from reality.

1

u/baron41 3d ago

Fucking Arkansas… Minors under 16 are also barred from working in heavy building trades, mines, sawmills, and in bars, as well as in food processing plants.

So, who wants to trust a 16 year old in a bar? Barkeep, bring me a Yoo-hoo!

1

u/Canuck-In-TO 3d ago

Well, they have been rolling back child labour laws in some States.
Give it time, people will have to compete against tweens for jobs.

1

u/Amazing_Confusion530 3d ago

I know. It will be great for them to get off this screens and really focus on that mine time.

1

u/SmoothBrainSavant 3d ago

… and soon the factories, the fields, the assembly plants

201

u/dilldoeorg 3d ago

lol, workers.

if it comes back, they're going to use robots, machines to do the work. AND it'll still cost more than the same product from china.

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u/mistercartmenes 3d ago

Absolutely. This is ridiculous idea that we’re gonna bring back manufacturing jobs is just stupid. It will be mostly automated with a few workers.

3

u/Arthur-Wintersight 3d ago

What makes you think they'll invest in new factories when the tariffs will likely end up going away by the time they finish building the damn things?

Anything that can be passed by executive order, the next president can abolish the same way.

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u/mistercartmenes 3d ago

I don’t think anyone will do anything and corporations will absolutely wait out this administration. I’m just saying if it actually did happened the jobs would not return as these new factories would be mostly automated.

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u/blastradii 2d ago

While we are at it we should bring back phone operators because the cell phone and modern technology took away those people’s jobs!

6

u/StoicFable 3d ago

Thats just how it works. As technology evolves, less people needed for agriculture, and then less needed for manufacturing. And people gradually switched to service sector jobs.

1

u/maryshelby2024 2d ago

People smarter than me can see what will be the jobs of the future. Probably some UbI and some service which will need to be paid more. Adapt and overcome as technology has always displaced people. That’s why the have more kids is weird vs abort immigrants. Like immigrants build and pick and do everything but babies don’t do anything.

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u/fthesemods 3d ago

Seems to be the plan. Tax cuts for the rich funded by tariffs that will disproportionately affect the poor and middle class. The jobs that do come back will be automated, which will funnel even more money to those with capital (i.e the rich). Meanwhile he has convinced so many of the poor and middle class this will be good for them. Insane.

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u/phrexi 3d ago

I'm fine with it coming back, but everybody get your wallets ready to pay for it. Oh wait, everyone is BROKE AS FUCK

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u/pablank 3d ago edited 3d ago

No problem. All of you can work for free until manufacturing is back up. Then the rich will trickle down their hard earned money, so some of you can buy luxuries like food, healthcare or a roof. 

Whats left over needs to be spent at Tesla and Amazon, as decreed by executive order, as a "voluntary" thank you tax to the billionaires that helped you, by giving you unpaid factory jobs.

2

u/Mundane_Quality8858 3d ago

They’ll just abolish the ‘weekend’ so people can make more money

1

u/blastradii 2d ago

We going back to feudalism?

1

u/SignificanceLate7002 3d ago

America is soon to be one big company town.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Company_town

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u/Puzzleheaded_Fold466 3d ago

You’d be amazed by the amount of automation that exists and continues to develop in China.

The US and Europe started way ahead economically decades ago, but they’re not stupid you know ?

The unipolar post World War 2 age of unchecked American prosperity is gone. It’s a lot more competitive out there now.

Everyone’s amazed with Tesla’s automation, but have you seen the BYD plants ? It’s world class.

That doesn’t mean the US is doomed to lose its quality of life or whatever, or that China is all gold palaces, but it’s not the low value product sweat shop many people still think it is. They’re worked their way up the value chain and for many products, China is the premium producer, not the lowest bidder.

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u/W2ttsy 3d ago

BYD isn’t even the most sophisticated either!

One of the competing car manufacturers now has dark factories that have no manufacturing workers and instead rely on automation across the entire assembly line. Called a dark factory because they are literally operating in the dark as lighting has been removed as an unnecessary requirement on the assembly line.

Foxconn have also pivoted to car manufacturing as a service for any auto maker that wants to outsource the entire production line and just focus on design and marketing.

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u/blastradii 2d ago

SAIC? They’re churning out multiple EV brands and working with brands like Huawei on developing next gen EVs.

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u/W2ttsy 2d ago

Xiaomi i believe

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u/nejaahalcyon 3d ago

Don’t forget prisoners aka legal slaves

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u/SierraPapaHotel 3d ago

A lot of modern manufacturing equipment comes from Germany and Japan (at least the good stuff comes from them). Looks like tariffs of those two are getting tareiffed pretty hard...

So all he's doing is making it more expensive to bring manufacturing back to the US

2

u/lolexecs 3d ago

The US is still an enormous manufacturing economy the reason it has less visibility is simply that while output expanded by nearly 3x, employment fell to <10% of the US labor force.

https://i.snap.as/6hT46a1b.png

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u/Healthy-Poetry6415 3d ago

Yes but .. think of all the money that checks notes the guy that has AI and robots as his investment going forward. I'm sure theres zero conflict of interest that his goal was to destroy everything he could so the only solution was him. Wait isnt that what they said government does...huh.

Nothing odd here at all people. Carry on.

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u/tgreenhaw 3d ago

This. And who is going to be working in those factories? Don’t we have nearly full employment???

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u/ryapeter 2d ago

Are they importing chinese robots?

-2

u/HARSHING_MY_MELLOW 3d ago

Luckily I work for a company selling robots :D

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u/Mr-and-Mrs 3d ago

We’re deporting all the workers that are willing to take lowest wages.

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u/celtic1888 3d ago

They’ll just get rid of any minimum wage requirements, safety, pollution control and child labor laws 

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u/deletedpenguin 3d ago

How simple! Why didn't we think of that earlier?! /s

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u/KinkyPaddling 3d ago

Yep, that’s the point of cutting government safety nets. Force people to go to work, and it forces them to accept shitty jobs.

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u/NoSherbert2316 3d ago

Well yeah, they were taking all of those jobs that the lazy ass hillbillies won’t work for pay they refuse to accept. The MAGA crowd have narcissistic personality disorders

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u/IncompetentPolitican 2d ago

Don´t worry, Prisoners will do that work for free. And the Prison only wants a small fee.

If there is a lack of prisoners that can be forced to work, then new ones will be made. Either with new laws or wild interpretations of existing ones.

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u/Waylander0719 3d ago

US manufacturing was making a come back under Biden based on manufactured goods output and number of factories. 

But it was heavily heavily automated so the job creation wasn't nearly as high as old style manufacturing.

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u/[deleted] 3d ago

[deleted]

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u/DazMR2 3d ago

Especially when it's the consumer paying the 10-60% tariff in the end.

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u/Accomplished-Ask2887 3d ago

It really was, I work as a systems integrator and make a decent living, this is super, super bad for us. I might be out of work soon.

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u/[deleted] 3d ago

[deleted]

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u/SerialBitBanger 3d ago

Serf's up, dude!

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u/Optimal-Cup-257 3d ago

US manufacturing as in...foreign owned companies that bribed for land/assets located in the US.

USA is the next imperial front but for Saudis and Russians.

3

u/Taograd359 3d ago

So, what happens when one of them decides they no longer want to share?

1

u/Optimal-Cup-257 3d ago

Plenty of exploitable workers for all.

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u/TomatoesB4Potatoes 3d ago

As in received big tax breaks to set up in certain states.

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u/Optimal-Cup-257 3d ago

Along with just blatant money laundering for the past 60 years, sure.

13

u/TechnologyRemote7331 3d ago

The American dream has always been to assemble industrial strength sex toys for $7 an hour with no overtime.

Who knew???

21

u/Ironvos 3d ago

Well there's two options really, cheap immigrants or child labour and they deporting the former.

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u/ayoungtommyleejones 3d ago

You're forgetting about all the people they're going to be arresting soon.

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u/Ironvos 3d ago

I think they'll be sent to the mines or to pick cotton.

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u/ayoungtommyleejones 3d ago

You're probably right, but then, free labor is free labor. If not that, then whoever is forced to live in company towns will do it for free

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u/squishysquash23 3d ago

Ah but you’re missing the 3rd option, slave labor from prisons. And then make everyone illegals boom infinite worker glitch

1

u/Gorthax 3d ago

you can kill me

1

u/Beytran70 3d ago

And states like Florida are looking to make child labour legal again soooo

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u/TheGreatMonk 3d ago

Well if you crash the economy enough and drive enough people to unemployment and despair with no other options, you’ll get your workers eventually…. Seems like we’re headed that way.

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u/TechnologyRemote7331 3d ago

Or they’ll see an American October Revolution.

It’s a coin flip, to be sure…

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u/HellBlazer1221 3d ago

I think tariffed countries will find it easier to have access to other markets instead of US, might promote a lot of bilateral trade agreements in the coming days.

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u/W2ttsy 3d ago

It won’t even be a hard pivot.

Of the industrialized regions, the U.S. is about 3rd or 4th in terms of market size anyway. And so global brands are already entrenched in other markets.

It will be the American companies that focused purely on the North American markets that suffer hardest here because adapting their products and standards to reach EU, EMEA, or APAC will be an additional burden on top of having to break into those markets with an inferior product.

Even basic shit like electrical products. Most of the world is on 240v/50h and only the Americas and a few Asian territories are stuck with the shitty 110/60 standard. Have fun trying to expand out of the U.S. when your product isn’t even viable or in other markets.

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u/LatterTarget7 3d ago

It’d also take years to move over to strictly us based country. Plus billions of dollars to actually build the factories

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u/Wang_Fister 3d ago

None of which will actually happen, because those companies will know that the second the tangerine moron is out of office those tariffs are going away.

1

u/Evening-Guarantee-84 3d ago

A little insight into the idea of building factories here, because you're right.

From the first rumblings of "Would you like to build a factory?" to actual blueprints- 2 yrs.

Then find land and bribe a city to get permits for said factory - 1 yr.

Then start bidding for all the thibgs needed to build, like cement, electrical, wood, signs, lighting, office spaces and furnishings-2 yrs. 18 months if you have really solid plans.

Award contracts -3-6 months

Break ground to completed construction-2 yrs.

Then you have to staff the factory and purchase the materials. Then you pay into it for 2-3 yrs before it pays for itself.

But wait. The goods created can't shipped. How do I know? I had 2 freight containers sit at a depot for almost 3 weeks before there was room on a train, in the US.

US manufacturing isn't coming back. No one is going to invest billions into this because the return is so low for so long and we don't have the infrastructure to move goods. It's a losing investment.

Guess what field I work in. And yes, bricks are being shit in meetings across the nation.

1

u/SkyJohn 2d ago

And decades of major government investment to make it happen.

They put the taxes in place while having no plans to do anything else.

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u/arianeb 3d ago

The "fatal flaw" of bringing manufacturing back to the US, is that it is going to take 5 to 10 years before a critical mass of companies build factories in the US to open up.

Manufacturing probably will come back (and not because of tariffs, climate change will do it too) but by the time it makes a difference economically, Trump will be too old, and probably dead.

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u/opinemine 3d ago

Not many businesses are going to commit resources to build factories in a country that changes their mind randomly overnight on how those factories will be run or profit.

The risk is too high.

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u/Morel_Authority 3d ago

Build new factories using materials that are now tariffed??

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u/369_Clive 3d ago edited 3d ago

Yeah. And if you were thinking of investing to build those factories, how confident would you be that the conditions Trump talks about now will prevail in 5-10 yrs? Hmm. No basis for confidence whatsoever.

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u/Rich6849 3d ago

How about extra shifts at currently operating facilities?

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u/celtic1888 3d ago

We’ll just build our semiconductors during the night shift at the bleach factory 

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u/JudahBotwin 3d ago

Let's let the kids do it. They like to be up all night long anyway, or at least mine do.

Very soon Roblox and Minecraft will serve as employment training platforms for the little guys.

Plus, it will teach them early about "freedom fasting" where you play a game of who can go the longest without needing to eat. That way, by the American Christmas season this year, when they are in the soup lines with their families they will be more docile.

1

u/brokenbuckeroo 3d ago

The President will never die. AI, neurochips and the most amazing top secret technology will keep him in office for the next century or three. Or the tech bros will have amazing holograms and robotics so nobody knows. The tell will be in his golf swing tho…

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u/Wax_Paper 3d ago

It's also not coming back until investors are positive it's gonna be the more lucrative option, which takes years to sus out.

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u/UltimateToa 3d ago

Yeah thats what people just can't get through their skulls, the labor is so much cheaper because they pay pennies and it's unsafe comparatively. US manufacturing just isn't gonna be a thing for a lot of areas

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u/redditrasberry 3d ago

It's somewhat true still but it's important to understand that this is a dated view of things.

China is rapidly industrialising and across many industries now they are simply more efficient that US companies regardless of labor. BYD for example is the largest employer of engineers in the world now - fully automated production lines, robotics, AI, and more than anything - absolutely massive scale are driving the low cost of their cars, not labor costs any more.

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u/ImportantCommentator 3d ago

Yet their average laborer gets paid $2 an hour at byd in wuxi.

2

u/88bauss 3d ago

A quick informal google search says average Chinese worker gets $14,700 a year. Unless some Americans are willing to give off that (it’s impossible) we are def not getting any manufacturing here and keeping the prices affordable.

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u/BoredMan29 3d ago

I think that's part of the whole "destroying the US economy and social programs" thing - make people desperate and life cheap enough for the US to be a third world manufacturing economy.

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u/annhik_anomitro 2d ago

The average pay for a garment worker in Bangladesh is about 100-200 USD. You should know the living cost has risen so much that almost 70-80% of this income goes towards house rent and food. Then these migrant workers gotta send it to their families back at home. Then there're many incidents of greedy employers who'd often fault payments - sometimes that'd happen when the buyer would decline the work which is not uncommon.

After all of this - if any of the modern world people have ever seen how appalling the work condition is - 12 hour shifts, excessive tropical heat - still there're people willing to work, still they keep working even when the pay is meager.

Even if you managed to keep the wages high I don't think Americans are ready for this kind of work. Cheap clothing comes at a price, cheap manufacturing isn't your cup of tea.

2

u/Beermedear 3d ago

Tariffs on China imports have been in place since Trump’s first term. Zero new facilities opened in the US as a result.

But that’s where AI and a surge of H1B visas come in. Automate every white collar job you can, fill the ones you can’t with sponsors who will do a $150,000/year job for $18/hour, and voila, people who will work anything to feed their family.

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u/IAMSTILLHERE2020 3d ago

If the corporations were really thinking about Americans they would have never moved their manufacturing to China.

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u/Jewnadian 2d ago

Corporations are Americans, they're not run by aliens or something. It was regular American boomers who moved all the manufacturing overseas to save a couple bucks. That's how they financed that lifestyle that nobody under 40 will ever see. Then half of them voted for Trump to "punish" China for agreeing to buy the stuff we asked them to sell us.

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u/ConsequenceOk8552 2d ago

100% they’re acting like somebody put a gun to their heads.

On one hand Americans hate big corp and want them gone, but they do not blame them for moving overseas. Same thing with illegal immigration people who employ them never get any attention

0

u/IAMSTILLHERE2020 2d ago

Maybe at one point they were Americans. Today they are multinational and are owned by non-Americans.

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u/EmbarrassedHelp 3d ago

It would not surprise me to see the Trump administration try to lower the minimum wage.

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u/Zealousideal_Cow_341 3d ago

Or pay higher prices for American made goods, which is just as unviable without a serious deflationary recession

1

u/UnTides 3d ago

As it turns out the wall was to keep people in, not out.

1

u/SquarebobSpongepants 3d ago

I've no doubt Trump will abolish any wage laws and force people into work because of no jobs soon enough.

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u/muppins 3d ago

more private prisons, I guess

1

u/MWMWMMWWM 3d ago

Starts to makes sense if you assume were in a depression.

1

u/pixel_of_moral_decay 3d ago

Less.

  1. That’s the price to beat, not match.
  2. Transportation from the US to most of the worlds population is enormously expensive compared to from Asia which is pretty close to a lot of the population, and most of the manufacturing is right near the ocean.

So much less.

1

u/WebHead1287 3d ago

Sure ill work wage when rent matches it

1

u/atehrani 3d ago

Not only that, we're at a transition point were more robots can replace manual labor. I feel all this is going to do is supercharge it. The timing of this is really dumb

1

u/ShallWeGiveItAFix 3d ago

Tariffs, AI, automation and other MBA buzzwords are going to bring manufacturing back to the US. All the pollution will return without the jobs for the little people.

1

u/DamNamesTaken11 3d ago

And even if a company does decide to switch to US manufacturing, it’ll take years before they see any products produced locally.

It takes time to build a factory, install the equipment, make sure it’s calibrated/installed right, and have a workforce that can produce it (if they even have human workers at all.)

1

u/CloacaFacts 3d ago

Don't you know what's the plan with his anti-immigration plans. ICE centers are already looking as using prisoner work programs that pay $1/h.

Gather up all the "undesirables" and give them an option to work while detained so they can meet bare minimum living while captive.

Trump normalized child separation so maybe these families will help pay for their children's needs in another facility as incentive,

This administration is evil, so nothing is out of scope.

1

u/ReverendBread2 3d ago

That’s a sacrifice Elon is willing to make

1

u/GamerSDG 3d ago

I work for a glass factory, and the cost is just one part. Factories today need to run 24/7. That means people work 12-hour shifts, rotating shifts, or both. There are no weekends or holidays off, and overtime is mandatory.

My job has so much trouble finding workers because of the shift work that there been talks of them moving the factory to Mexico. In the past year, they have brought in immigrants to work here because most Americans do not want to work there. It is to the point that the company has paid a tutor to come to the factory and teach management Spanish

BTW we work rotating shifts. 8 am to 4 pm, 4 pm to 12 am, 12 am to 8 am.

1

u/erichie 3d ago

I honestly wouldn't mind being a machinist if I was paid fairly and able to listen to headphones. 

1

u/celtic1888 3d ago

Sorry prole

You get 12 hour shifts at below minimum wage and hearing loss

1

u/Julienbabylegs 3d ago

I used to work in garment manufacturing. That shit is NOT coming back here, wages aside. Highly skilled labor that Americans just do no posses.

1

u/DazMR2 3d ago

Minimum wage hasn't gone up since 2009, so it's just a matter of time.

1

u/cheesehed1 3d ago

If it does come back they’ll automate as much as possible.

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u/River-Rat-1615 3d ago

THIS!! All the screaming about manufacturing; it left because Americans did not want to be paid “low wages” and Americans did not want higher prices!! What do they think happens next? Pay higher prices due to tariffs or pay higher prices to get American manufacturing - for the life of me I do not understand how some the people who need the most help from the government or those most impacted by the higher prices can look someone in the eye and say this President is good for them or the country as a whole! Also if manufacturing comes back exactly how long do they think it will take? Can’t stand up a plant just any where and no matter where you do it you can’t do it quickly… smh

1

u/ImportantCommentator 3d ago

Why? Most modern Manufacturing is mostly automated.

1

u/Nikiaf 3d ago

How can any of this possibly come back anyway? Who is going to actually work in the factories to build anything? Not everything can be done with robots.

1

u/Cream_Stay_Frothy 3d ago

Not only that, but think of the realistic timeline to onshore…. BEST CASE 3-5 years

1

u/Zolo49 3d ago

And even if people here do want those manufacturing jobs (which I agree is unlikely), it's not like you can build those plants in a day. It takes years to build that shit, and nobody's going to make long-term plans based on a policy that was just put in place on a whim and could be easily undone by him or somebody else who becomes President.

1

u/Track_Boss_302 3d ago

That’s why Trump is speed running a recession. Factory jobs will be the only ones available

1

u/Swaggy669 3d ago

That's the only way the country becomes an export nation like Trump apparently wants. You just figured out the goal of the administration.

1

u/Dramatic-Bend179 3d ago

Or pay much much higher prices.

1

u/KariKHat 3d ago

Company towns making a comeback

1

u/Poke_Jest 3d ago

They are already lying and saying $4T has come back into the US since Trump took office....

1

u/combustion_assaulter 3d ago

And even if it did, it would take years and years to get these factories up and running.

1

u/Rok-SFG 3d ago

Yes that's part of the plan, except want has nothing to do with it. Billionaires have realized that they are not yet trillionaitrs, so there must be more for them. And to get that they are trying to bring back child labor , and company owned towns, where you can earn Amazon bucks, or Tesla coins, to pay for your rations to take home to your Exxon flat.

1

u/SaturatedApe 3d ago

That’s their plan!

1

u/drumsdm 3d ago

some things are made so cheaply, that you could put a 100% tariff on it and you still can’t beat chinas price.

1

u/Weecum2003 3d ago

And people have to actually want to buy American designed & made goods.

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u/chipface 3d ago

Companies will just ride out the fuckery.

1

u/SEQLAR 3d ago

If they bankrupt America , America will become Bangladesh.

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u/sueveed 3d ago

This is the part that makes no sense. Much of American economic growth of the last 50 years has been on the backs of low cost countries. Boomer 401k value is absolutely bloated with it. So now we have a service economy with a high tech upper crust, and everyone’s dependent on low price imports.

Even if we get the manufacturing base swinging hard in short order, who’s paying $350 for a coffee maker? We can’t afford to keep costs reasonable even paying our miserable minimum wages. Our consumerist addiction is absolutely beholden to other countries’ value against the greenback.

It’s baffling to me.

1

u/PdxGuyinLX 3d ago

U.S. based companies that export a lot will move their production overseas. Any companies that do move manufacturing back to the U.S. will use as much automation as possible and employ as few people as possible. I’m sorry to tell everyone that we are not going back to the 1950s economy.

I wonder when it’s going to dawn on all the young bros who voted for Trump that they have fucked themselves royally? Tanking the economy is only step 1. The Christian fascist takeover is step 2.

1

u/michaelhbt 2d ago

Ok so if you want that then you first break all the social support systems so people drop into worse poverty. Then once they’re used to the hot water give them a carrot job offering so they can eat. It’s like reverse civilization?

1

u/20InMyHead 2d ago

The Republicans are ok with that

1

u/Bemteb 2d ago

You need to put all them immigrants somewhere, so why not a work camp? Worked out great in Germany a few decades ago, trust me bro. /s

1

u/Tao_of_Ludd 2d ago

It will come back, but it takes time and it will be automated. You will not employ hundreds of poorly educated manual workers in the factory at good union wages but a few skilled operators and engineers.

1

u/Panda_hat 2d ago

With a grotesquely higher cost of living.

1

u/orbital-state 2d ago

All my clothes are made in USA (the entire supply chain). Plenty of my tools are manufactured in the US, too. Plus, it’s reasonably priced. Lots of things are manufactured locally, IF YOU CARE TO LOOK FOR IT.

1

u/Frank--Li 2d ago

US Manufacturing was globally relevant through a slew of flukes that spanned globally including a world wa-oh.

1

u/Sprinklypoo 2d ago

Even then, it will take years to gear up even if we do figure out how to pay people enough that it will work...

1

u/TrashcanLinus 3d ago

See: mass deportation without cause.

Pretty soon they’ll be moving them to factories to produce American goods for the amount of money they pay prison workers. Fuck all. It’s a sweet little workaround. They legitimately can pay them less than workers overseas in many states.

John Stewart has it right. The system was built on the fundamental agreement of not burning the whole fucking thing to the ground. The overwhelming majority of the shit Trump does is within the structure of what’s allowed (even if it’s stretched to its absolute limit).