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Tag: Tariffs

Billionaire JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon Tells Working Class People to “Get Over It”

get over it

Jamie Dimon, the billionaire CEO of JP Morgan, thinks that Trump’s tariffs will be good for our national security. If the tariffs are inflationary — and they will be — Dimon says, “So be it.” To the working class and poor people who will be hurt the worst by tariff-driven inflation, Dimon smugly replied, “Get over it.” Nothing like a filthy rich man telling poor people to shut the hell up and get on with their lives. Easy to say when you have billions of dollars at your disposal. Things look much different when you don’t have enough money to live from week to week.

Dimon, with a net worth of at least $2.7 billion, told CNBC’s Andrew Ross Sorkin during an interview at the World Economic Forum in Davos:

If it’s a little inflationary, but it’s good for national security, so be it. I mean, get over it. National security trumps a little bit more inflation.

As someone who has spent his entire life bouncing between, abject poverty, poverty, and working-class poor classifications, it angers me when people of vast wealth tell me how my life will be affected by government policies that reduce the amount of money my family and I have to live on. “A little inflation” for the Jamie Dimons of the world is no big deal, but to people living from paycheck to paycheck, inflation-driven price increases on everything from the cost of housing, utilities, food, gasoline, medical care, and taxes can and does cause harm. Such people turn to government programs for help to keep their heads above water, but what do Trump and his administration want to do? Cut the social safety net that provides food, utilities, housing, and medical care for poor people. Why? To pay for trillion-dollar tax cuts for the rich — especially billionaires.

President Trump has opened wide the henhouse door to the foxes, and slaughter is sure to follow. Oligarchs — very rich business leaders with a great deal of political influence — now sit at the helm of the U.S. government and will do everything in their power to maximize profits and enrich their wealth, even if it means stomping poor, working-class people underfoot. And sadly, the people who will most be hurt by tariffs and anti-immigrant policies, voted overwhelmingly for Donald Trump. They literally voted against their own self-interest. We can only hope that when these MAGA voters feel financial pain as a result of their ignorant support of Trump, they will repent and vow to undo — if possible — the harm currently being done to our republic. Ha! Who am I kidding? It is just as likely we have crossed a line of no return, and, if unchecked, Trump and his fellow libertarians will destroy our once great nation.

And to Jamie Dimon, I say, “Go fuck yourself.”

Bruce Gerencser, 67, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 46 years. He and his wife have six grown children and sixteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.

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Donald Trump Plans to Use “Socialism” to Ameliorate Effects of Tariffs on Farmers

trump tariffs and farmers
Cartoon by Rob Rogers

Local newspaper editorial pages frequently feature letters from right-wing Republican Christians attacking what they believe is the Devil’s economic policy — socialism.  Never mind the fact that few if any of these people could articulately and comprehensively define socialism and differentiate between the various types of socialism. Never mind the fact that the United States has always been to some degree or the other a socialist state. Never mind the fact that many of these letter writers participate in and benefit from socialist programs: Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, public roads, public infrastructure, veteran benefits, Food Stamps, vaccines and flu shots, public education, public parks, etc. These letter writers clamor for a libertarian world where government has little to no role to play outside of national defense.  Envision, if you dare, such a world; a world where the moment you pull out of your driveway onto the road, you are required to pay a toll because all roads are privately owned. Imagine a world without laws and regulations; a world without the EPA and FDA; a world governed by one rule: “let the buyer beware.”

Donald Trump, the buffoon currently inhabiting the White House, is waging a trade war, mainly against China. Using punitive, excessive, and unnecessary tariffs, Trump is causing all sorts of economic and social harm. No one has suffered more under Trump’s delusions than American farmers. Grain prices are plummeting, and will only get worse, especially if China punitively cuts off farm imports from the United States and turns to other countries to meet their needs. Farm bankruptcies are on the rise, leading to further agricultural operation consolidation.

Local TV news programs have been featuring local farmers whining about what Trump’s tariffs are doing to their bottom lines. Farmers already operate on razor-thin margins, so I understand them not wanting to face continued financial loss. The irony here is that most local farmers are registered Republicans and voted for Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election. It’s their chosen one who is saying to them, “bend over and take it like a man.” Trump and his on crack economic advisors, of course, know that rural white Midwestern voters are key to their hope of winning in 2020. Lose farm country and one of 2,022 Democratic candidates running for office will be the next president of Christian America. That’s why Trump has been spending billions of dollars subsidizing American farmers. Not that this is anything new. Farmers have always been on the government teat, suckling price guarantees and other programs meant to stabilize prices and ensure profitability. Farmers benefit from commodity buybacks, government-sponsored insurance programs, land set-aside payments, etc. You know, s-o-c-i-a-l-i-s-m.

Last week, Trump asked for an additional $15 billion in socialist funding for farmers. This is in addition to the $12 billion already allocated for socialist relief checks currently being sent to “suffering” farmers, including large, multi-million-dollar agricultural operations. Why should farmers alone get welfare checks from the U.S. Treasury? Trump’s tariffs are causing all sorts of harm to local manufacturing concerns, including the company that employs my wife and several of our children. Shouldn’t these companies also benefit from Trump’s socialist largesse?

Come November 2020 — as sure as corn, soy beans, and wheat spring forth from Ohio farmland — local farmers will line up at polling stations to vote for Donald Trump. No matter what the man does — and war with Iran is looming on the horizon — he will get their vote. Why? He’s their great white hope, the only man who can stave off atheistic socialism from taking over the world. Cognitive dissonance abounds in America’s heartland, and Trump and his fellow Republicans count on this so they can continue their pillage and destruction. Their goal remains what it has always been: to continue to accumulate vast sums of wealth at the expense of working-class, poor Americans.

Duping Americans into believing that socialism is some sort of evil that will destroy all that is holy and good is key to Republicans holding on to power, both at the state and federal level. One of my objectives as a writer is to help people see that Republican economic policies are harmful to the American people and actually impede social and economic progress. Laissez-faire capitalism has miserably failed, and it’s time for a new economic system to take root and flourish.

About Bruce Gerencser

Bruce Gerencser, 62, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 41 years. He and his wife have six grown children and twelve grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist. For more information about Bruce, please read the About page.

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