Re: Trump's latest lunacy

On 21/03/2025 5:15 pm, bitrex wrote:

On 3/20/2025 10:33 AM, Bill Sloman wrote:

I may be being unfair here, but the latest claim amongst American who like Trump's tariffs is that the Australian Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme is a non-tariff barrier to trade. They may be the lunatics involved here rather than Trump himself.

 "Free trade" as practiced in the US for the past ~40 years was largely only one kind of free trade, outsourcing of manufacturing and low-skilled labor. There's been little free trade in white collar services like doctors (who get paid 2 to 3x what their counterparts in Western Europe get paid) or medicines, and copyright terms and patent protections only got more stringent.
 That is to say the white collar world made out and there was a side benefit that blue collar ire at wage stagnation and high prices has been politically useful. As it is of course the fault of transgender athletes, DEI, and too much woke messaging in movies and TV.

There's a book about it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Spirit_Level_(book)
It's just a demonstration that grossly high levels of income inequality are socially damaging. The authors compare American states with one another, and advanced industrial countries (including America). Levels of income inequality are lower in European countries.
The differences between American states show the same pattern as the (bigger) differences between countries.
Trump does exploit the differences and has done well out of them. He's the last person who would try to reduce them.
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Bill Sloman, Sydney