Actually, trade wars are bad and impossible to win
It’s always dangerous to say that Donald Trump has set a new low for presidential discourse, because he sets new lows with dreary regularity. Nonetheless, his heedless declaration that “trade wars are good, and easy to win” deserves special recognition. No president should need to be told that trade wars are, in fact, bad and impossible to win. By imposing new tariffs on steel and aluminum, Trump has embarked on a policy that is a clear and present danger to U.S. jobs and living standards.
The tariffs are indefensible on their face. They’ll raise prices for U.S. consumers and put U.S. companies at a serious disadvantage in export markets. There’s no need to go over this ground again: None of the rationales that have been offered in their defense makes sense.
Yet boasting about how easy it is to win a trade war tops almost everything. It adds an element of historical and strategic obliviousness to the administration’s economic incompetence.
America’s allies and trading partners — including Japan, Canada, Australia, and the European Union — are dismayed. If they aren’t exempted, they’ll feel compelled to retaliate against the U.S. action, just as the U.S. would retaliate against a unilateral rule-bending act of outright protection against its own producers. The administration will then feel pressure to retaliate against the retaliation. After all, it now has to show that trade wars are “easy to win.” A self-defeating spiral of this kind is actually the definition of “trade war.”
One of the biggest risks of the Trump presidency has always been the harm it might do to the U.S. and global economies through a reckless approach to trade. Norms and institutions have been built over decades to support international cooperation through commerce. The U.S., far from being disadvantaged by this system of liberal trade, has profited enormously. The new tariffs, and the preposterous comments offered in their defense, suggest that Trump wasn’t bluffing: He really does want to tear this system down.
The last time this happened was during the 1930s. The SmootHawley tariffs and the retaliation they provoked contributed to the Great Depression and the collapse of the world economy. Mr. President, what exactly was good about that trade war?
Pardon me if I’m late to the game on this one, but I just recently learned of a local Facebook page that’s got a lot of folks in Rome and Floyd County talking.
The page is called “City of Rome, GA & Floyd County” but it’s not at all affiliated with the city or county government. It uses an image of the county’s seal as its profile picture so it LOOKS legit, but whoever manages the page has added two red horns to the image. It’s a satire page. Its intent is to entertain and to use humor to spoof and make light of local issues and current events. Many other cities, including Atlanta, have similar pages that spoof local life or local government. But it’s got some folks up in arms. One of the reasons for that is because some people don’t bother to stop and consider its content and take it at face value as something coming directly from the city or county government. If they’d bother to click the “ABOUT” link on the page, they’d see that it clearly states:
“Not affiliated with any Government agency. This page is completely satirical. If you believe this page to be real, your a moran.” outside. Stay warm and snuggle. Don’t forget to send us pictures of your new babies this October !!!! ”
Unfortunately, there are many people who upon first glance believe it’s the city or county’s official Facebook page and with that in mind, are either offended by the content or appalled by all the misspellings and poor grammar.
The page has more than a hundred reviews. Some think it’s misleading and stupid, but many others recognize immediately that it’s meant to be funny.
Some of the reviews rail against the page’s administrator and call him or her all sorts of names.
Here’s my two cents. I think most of the content is pretty funny. To me, it’s CLEARLY satirical in nature and nothing I’ve seen on there makes me think that whoever runs it has any malicious intent whatsoever. He or she is using local people, places, headlines, issues and current events to entertain but also to shed a light on some of the things that Rome and Floyd County residents are talking about.
And especially today, don’t we all appreciate a little levity and humor? Whoever runs the page does not discriminate. He or she pokes fun at local government, local media, local communities, local law enforcement, local businesses, area schools and local life in general.
Just like all of us who produce content with the goal to entertain, this page doesn’t always hit the mark with everyone. Every post has people who love it and people who either don’t get it or don’t think it’s funny at all. And that’s ok.
I want to remind readers that just because you don’t find something funny doesn’t mean everyone shares your opinion. Just because you’re outraged, doesn’t mean you’re right.
The page has more than 7,000 followers. That’s 7,000 people who want to see that content. I haven’t seen anything on the page that seems like it’s meant to hurt an individual’s feelings.
In fact, because of the tone and language of the posts, it seems like the page’s owner(s) is making fun of him or herself more than anyone else.
And for those who say the page is misleading or dangerous, I grant you that the county seal as a profile picture AT FIRST GLANCE can be tricky. But like I said, this page uses the two red horns on that photo. And as I mentioned previously, the ABOUT section of the page clearly states it’s a satire page and not affiliated with any government body. The bigger issue isn’t this one page with its intentionally misspelled words and obviously satirical posts. It’s that there are some folk out there who take a Facebook post as Gospel and share and comment on it without doing any research to see if it’s true or not.
If you’d like to check out the page, you’re free to read the posts, follow the page or you may see it pop up on a friend’s page since many people have been sharing its content.
But if you don’t want to, then simply ignore it.