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/FeelsGoodMan2 19h ago

Yeah, I think people dont realize that the tech bro billionaires are kind of stupid, they've huffed their farts so long they think they can do literally anything and just win. I think they thought they'd just easily grift and wrangle this idiot in and it'd all work out, they kind of forgot that status quo was actually really fucking good for their bottom line.