So, immediately after I give out my sage advice to "resist" by buying less stuff, the Trump organization comes up with this theory about Americans being "too materialistic," and that Susie doesn't need thirty dolls, so maybe Americans should just suck it up and GET the idea that they are not going not be able to buy so much stuff due to Trump's bonkers tariffs. Because, 'Murrica.
The part about Americans being too materialistic, and addicted to buying stuff, is not wrong. We can and should try to start reining in our buying habits.
But the problem with Trump's argument is twofold.
First, we are currently a consumer economy. And it took decades to send our ability to make our own stuff overseas to cheaper labor markets. All very well to say we should stop buying imported stuff, but factories aren't going to magically re-appear on these shores overnight. It will take decades to rebuild our manufacturing infrastructure, and people with money willing to invest in it. And I don't see the likes of the monied class we have now, the ones mostly responsible for selling away our manufacturing capability to begin with, queuing up to rescue the American middle class. We are here to serve them. They don't waste dollars or energy thinking about the way we live.
Secondly, Trump isn't suggesting that the rich do anything, or pay their fair share, or that, god forbid, he lead by example and cut out some of the ostentatious demonstrations of wealth that are his stock in trade. No. While he's admonishing ordinary Americans to tighten their belts, he's redecorating the Oval Office with enough gold bling to rival the priciest Las Vegas bordello, and planning multi-million dollar military parades to celebrate his birthday.
You can't make this stuff up.
When, oh when, will his willfully stupid, blind sheep wise up to the sheer blatant Trump-serving hypocrisy?
Government of the people, by Trump and for Trump, leaving "the people" completely out of the rest of the quote.
Yeah. We're a nation of consumers. And unfortunately, this appears to have made a significant portion of the American electorate predisposed to buy into Trump's crap.
