r/technology • u/DontFearTheCreaper • 20h ago

Social Media Tech CEOs who grinned behind Trump at inauguration lose billions in wake of tariffs

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-tariff-bezos-musk-zuckerberg-b2727147.html
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u/a-base 20h ago

Much like the 2008 housing crisis in the US, these things tend to work out very well for billionaires - at a cost to the poor, lower- and middle- class.

  • Their losses are just theoretical, it's not like they have to cash out their stocks or sell assets and take any real loss.
  • Even with these 'losses' they are still billionaires and can access cash in numerous ways. They can quite comfortably ride out any period of instability.
  • More likely than riding it out, they'll use it to their advantage. With markets crashing they are perfectly positioned to swoop in, scoop up anything they like, and make out like bandits.

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u/clueless_as_fuck 20h ago

It's pretty obvious at this point that this is the plan.

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u/FaultElectrical4075 19h ago

The plan for who? This is gonna hurt lots of very rich people too. The only people who aren’t going to be severely hurt by these tariffs are crypto people and people directly involved in the Trump administration.

You guys have to realize that oligarchs/the ruling class are not a monolith. They are united against the ruling class, but besides that they are constantly in competition with each other. It’s a bunch of sociopaths trying to one up each other in a desperate quest for power. Unifying behind Trump is mostly them trying to protect themselves from his line of attack.

These things only seem like they were planned after the fact, because no matter what happens there are going to be winners and losers. But society is too chaotic with too many conflicting interests for a ‘plan’ of this scale to work out except by sheer luck.

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u/TraditionalSpirit636 19h ago

It’s not sheer luck though.. it’s a fucking plan. And it’s been laid out and done before. 2008 happened. We’ve seen this.

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u/FaultElectrical4075 19h ago edited 19h ago

2008 was just opportunism. It looked like a plan in hindsight, these things often do.

People saw Trump’s desperation leading up to the 2024 election as an opportunity and they took it. Now they are reaping the rewards. But calling it a plan is giving them way more credit than they actually deserve. These people aren’t visionary geniuses, they’re sadistic, incompetent morons who were in the right place at the right time.

The most powerful people on earth prior to Trump’s election are losing out immensely from this. Do you know how much manufacturing Apple does in China, for example? These tariffs are a disaster for them. It turns out power just isn’t that stable a thing.

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u/_my_troll_account 18h ago

Speaking my language here. I'm so tired of people, both on the right and on the left, speculating on Trump's "plan" or "strategy." There is no plan. There is no strategy. He is just stupid. It isn't more complicated than that.

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u/TraditionalSpirit636 17h ago

This was literally written down as a plan though…

You guys are dumb to deny reality. But feel free to be dumb.

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u/_my_troll_account 15h ago

They wrote down that they were going to intentionally tank the economy in order to buy everything cheap? Where’d they write that?