So, after performing all of my chores and watching another installment of “Lonesome Dove” with Camera Girl, I checked on my feed on X. And Iowahawk was going on an anti-tariff rant.
About six rants down he posted:
David Burge (@iowahawkblog):
Sioux City used to have a Zenith TV assembly plant. Even if our patriotic trade war kills grain exports the farmers can get new jobs soldering Quasar circuits there after the revitalization of the American Console TV industry.
This was an ironical jab at our lost electronics manufacturing industry.
So, I replied:
Orionscoldfire:
You want to know something? I’d trade the circa 1955 economy, technology and culture for what we’ve got now any day. At least you could tell a man or a woman by sight. I could do without the 80” television.
So, he replied:
David Burge @iowahawkblog:
If only I had the power to grant your wish I would give a personal time machine trip immediately
I thanked him for this wish.
Then there were several other opinions and replies by me. See below:
Robert Longo @RobertL37046977
- a) Adjusted for inflation average household income in 1955 was $50,000, today it’s $80,000
- b) We live 10 years longer than in 1955.
- c) It’s easy to tell when a man is pretending to be a lady. A man has an Adam’s apple and a deep voice.
Orionscoldfire:
I’ve seen what those ten years look like. A massive heart attack at eighty is my exit plan.
Econymous @EHPlimsoll1
You can do that already. No need to force everyone else to live your chosen lifestyle. Cut you income by 2/3, halve the size of your house, buy a crappy car, watch classic TV and movies, refuse any healthcare developed after 1960, and live in a conservative town.
Orionscoldfire:
Sounds promising.
RobustFeedback @FeedbackRobust
Wait until your kid was diagnosed with leukemia, and instead of a 90% chance of survival, your child had a 4% chance. Or you had no ac when it was 98 degeees, with 70% humidity.Or until you had to work substantially more hours to feed and clothe your kids.
Nostalgia is stupid.
Orionscoldfire:
“Nostalgia is stupid.” Interesting statement. I could think of some counterexamples but then we’d just argue. I’ll just enjoy the thought of that console tv playing Bonanza on a Sunday evening with the family all watching together and roast beef sandwiches and pastries and coffee to come.
Alboalt @albo_alt
The post-war American economic dominance isn’t coming back unless you want to put huge chunks of the world back into communism and hoeing yam fields all day.
Orionscoldfire:
I don’t want us to dominate anyone. I’ll settle for an economy that keeps men employed and families living comfortably. I don’t need to drive a Mercedes I can drive a Ford. It’s not as good but it gets you there.
Manny O’Kelly @harshm1stress:
ok so you’re a white male and you’re looking to die around 65 am I hearing you correctly?
Orionscoldfire:
Well, then I missed my mark!
Manny O’Kelly @harshm1stress
there’s a lot you missed
orionscoldfire
Nothing too important. The important things keep you busy. Everything else is just background.
sum_dude44 @sum_dude44
ah yes polio, nuclear annihilation, 10 hr flights to go 1000 miles, lead everywhere
orionscoldfire:
Ah, those were the days.
Totally_not_a_Bot:
sorry i used to be able to afford a time machine.. but these new tarrifs put it out of range
orionscoldfire:
I’m rooting for you.
WCB @Si3rraDrive:
That’s a pipe dream. Tariffs don’t get you there, nothing gets you there. You can choose to make that life for yourself, but society won’t be structured thusly.
orionscoldfire
Okay.
A @2006ImageMacro
You’ve posted 4000 times in 3 years. You literally could not live in an environment that doesn’t support your internet addiction
orionscoldfire
Mercy sakes! What can I do?
A @2006ImageMacro
Hey I’m sorry for some reason I thought you were being snide to Dave but looking now I see that I was shitty to you for no reason, my bad!
Orionscoldfire:
I was just putting in my two cents. No problems. Dave’s got definite opinions. If I get on his nerves, he can tell me to butt out. Or ban me or something.
So, this is all very silly. David Burge (@iowahawkblog) is a favorite of mine. Back during the Iraq war, he was a humorist that poked fun at our enemies and even into the Obama years his satirical posts always made me laugh. Now he likes to identify antique cars from old family album photos and he talks a bit about Iowa basketball. He definitely isn’t a fan of tariffs.
But it was just the sight of this 1955 television set that made me react. I was just thinking that if tariffs had kept American industry in this country, we’d be 1000% better off than we are now. Apparently, most of Mr. Burge’s readers disagree with me but apparently, I couldn’t resist the urge to put in my two cents.
Well, it was kind of fun.
Update:
Neil Dunn commented:
I want the USA to be as totally self sufficient production wise as possible. No more of China producing most of our antibiotics is my #1 example = some Pharma corporate
executive(s) looking to increase profits, America be damned. Google “how many American car dealerships are in Japan?”. My Google answer = zero. And not one word about tariffs, but lots of other reasons. I say raise the tariffs on Japanese imports until Japan lets US cars into their market. And no more of the 80 year freebee Marshall Plan that taxes the US to make things easy for Europe and the UK. I think Trump was too kind with his Tariff plan.
All barriers to entry from one country toward another country should be equal both ways.
I think you’re right on the money. Letting our manufacturing industry move overseas was a BIG mistake. The idea that it is cheaper to import steel than to manufacture our own is outrageous. And that is just one example. That is where tariffs are definitely needed, to counter the slave-labor-level wages paid to Chinese and other Asian workers, and get our own workers back to being productive.
I think so. The people in charge of the global economy care not at all for the people in this country. It’s time to shake up their little zoo.
What makes America great is Americans, not some global economic think tank idea about “Cosmopolitanism.” We’re not a group of backwoods rubes crouching in fear of the outside world. What we are, and should always be, are people who care more about the well-being of each other and not the stock portfolio of a multinational corporation that will pull the rug at the first chance of increasing profit shares. This nation’s initials are USA not GDP. The overly misused phrase of collectivism when describing Marxist-style ideologies has woefully made it a dirty word for those of us on the Right-wing… Read more »
I want the USA to be as totally self sufficient production wise as possible. No more of China producing most of our antibiotics is my #1 example = some Pharma corporate executive(s) looking to increase profits, America be damned. Google “how many American car dealerships are in Japan?”. My Google answer = zero. And not one word about tariffs, but lots of other reasons. I say raise the tariffs on Japanese imports until Japan lets US cars into their market. And no more of the 80 year freebee Marshall Plan that taxes the US to make things easy for Europe… Read more »
While the media and the Democrats carp about Wall Street and giant price rises I think I’ll just let the man we hired to negotiate the trade relations for America do just that. Negotiate without me jiggling his elbow.