They've only endorsed three republicans: Nixon, Reagan, Bush.

I didn't hear i"we endorse" officially, but it was an interesting political moment.

I'm the furthest thing from a union guy. However, it's cool that the teamsters are hinting that they could work with trump.

Rank and file teamsters have been drifting towards the Republican Party for many years.

While the teamster's leadership has remained hardcore Democrats.

This speech was not an endorsement of Trump.

It was a warning to Democrats that they are in danger of a wholesale defection of the teamsters to Donald Trump in 2024.

Teamsters love tarrifs that try to force Americans to buy their overpriced inferior products.

My dad used to chide me for driving a foreign car. Then in the 70s he bought a mazda truck. He loved it. He said he supported America with his taxes but didn't feel a duty to support unions.

Limited IQ Redneck in PU said:

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Teamsters love tarrifs that try to force Americans to buy their overpriced inferior products.

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I hate to admit it, my friend, but I agree with you. Tariffs are paid by Americans, American companies, and ultimately the U.S. consumer. They are NOT paid by the exporting countries. They should only be used selectively and sparingly. Tariffs are kinda like beating the crap out of the cat when the dog takes a dump on the living room floor.

Not shocking. Trucking is SLOW right now and the tech movements in that arena have to be scaring them something fierce.

Most probably don't know but trucking is the largest "employer" of men without college degrees. For men 25-34 it's the largest by about 35% ahead of construction. There are almost 625k truck drivers that are men aged 25-34.

When trucking slows you're effecting a massive number of people.

You already saw T Force take over UPS Freight and I think it's possible you see XPO take over FEDEX Freight as their DCs are crawling compared to prior years.

You already saw Falcon and Transport America shut down in the last 2 years. Those two had something like 1,800 tractors and 3,500 trailers. That's just two large scale trucking places within 60 mins of me.

nein51 said:

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Not shocking. Trucking is SLOW right now and the tech movements in that arena have to be scaring them something fierce.

Most probably don't know but trucking is the largest "employer" of men without college degrees. For men 25-34 it's the largest by about 35% ahead of construction. There are almost 625k truck drivers that are men aged 25-34.

When trucking slows you're effecting a massive number of people.

You already saw T Force take over UPS Freight and I think it's possible you see XPO take over FEDEX Freight as their DCs are crawling compared to prior years.

You already saw Falcon and Transport America shut down in the last 2 years. Those two had something like 1,800 tractors and 3,500 trailers. That's just two large scale trucking places within 60 mins of me.

---

More good information this morning.

Thank you .

There's a very real concern that self driving/autonomous rigs will put a huge chunk of men out of work. Mostly non degreed "low skill" workers.

Then you add that lower volumes of freight equals higher cost of goods because it costs the same to run the rig full or empty (give or take some fuel).

Then down stream of that it means fewer guys working on trucks, fewer guys buying tools, fewer guys making enough to buy a house or a car, fewer guys to buy stuff at the store which then leads to lower freight shipments and it's a vicious cycle.

The teamsters very much need freight/trucking to pick up which only happens when the economy picks up.

Limited IQ Redneck in PU said:

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Teamsters love tarrifs that try to force Americans to buy their overpriced inferior products.

My dad used to chide me for driving a foreign car. Then in the 70s he bought a mazda truck. He loved it. He said he supported America with his taxes but didn't feel a duty to support unions.

---

a 70s Mazda truck was most likely a rebranded ford ranger

LIB,MR BEARS said:

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Limited IQ Redneck in PU said:

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Teamsters love tarrifs that try to force Americans to buy their overpriced inferior products.

My dad used to chide me for driving a foreign car. Then in the 70s he bought a mazda truck. He loved it. He said he supported America with his taxes but didn't feel a duty to support unions.

---

a 70s Mazda truck was most likely a rebranded ford ranger

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No. Not until 94. The Ranger in the 70s was an F100.

The B series and Rangers were the same after 94.

Biden bailed out Teamsters’ pension to the tune of $90 billion. Teamsters chief is praising Trump & Vance at GOP convention.

Would not have predicted that a couple of years ago.

— Jonathan Allen (@jonallendc) July 16, 2024

nein51 said:

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LIB,MR BEARS said:

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Limited IQ Redneck in PU said:

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Teamsters love tarrifs that try to force Americans to buy their overpriced inferior products.

My dad used to chide me for driving a foreign car. Then in the 70s he bought a mazda truck. He loved it. He said he supported America with his taxes but didn't feel a duty to support unions.

---

a 70s Mazda truck was most likely a rebranded ford ranger

---

No. Not until 94. The Ranger in the 70s was an F100.

The B series and Rangers were the same after 94.

---

Sure'nuff. 94-09. I was way off.

LIB,MR BEARS said:

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nein51 said:

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LIB,MR BEARS said:

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Limited IQ Redneck in PU said:

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Teamsters love tarrifs that try to force Americans to buy their overpriced inferior products.

My dad used to chide me for driving a foreign car. Then in the 70s he bought a mazda truck. He loved it. He said he supported America with his taxes but didn't feel a duty to support unions.

---

a 70s Mazda truck was most likely a rebranded ford ranger

---

No. Not until 94. The Ranger in the 70s was an F100.

The B series and Rangers were the same after 94.

---

Sure'nuff. 94-09. I was way off.

---

I worked on approximately a billion of them back then. Navajo/Explorers and B series/Rangers.

70s Mazda could have even been the ultra cool REPU - Rotary.

nein51 said:

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LIB,MR BEARS said:

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nein51 said:

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LIB,MR BEARS said:

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Limited IQ Redneck in PU said:

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Teamsters love tarrifs that try to force Americans to buy their overpriced inferior products.

My dad used to chide me for driving a foreign car. Then in the 70s he bought a mazda truck. He loved it. He said he supported America with his taxes but didn't feel a duty to support unions.

---

a 70s Mazda truck was most likely a rebranded ford ranger

---

No. Not until 94. The Ranger in the 70s was an F100.

The B series and Rangers were the same after 94.

---

Sure'nuff. 94-09. I was way off.

---

I worked on approximately a billion of them back then. Navajo/Explorers and B series/Rangers.

70s Mazda could have even been the ultra cool REPU - Rotary.

---

B2200 I had was a very solid truck.

RD2WINAGNBEAR86 said:

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Limited IQ Redneck in PU said:

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Teamsters love tarrifs that try to force Americans to buy their overpriced inferior products.

---

I hate to admit it, my friend, but I agree with you. Tariffs are paid by Americans, American companies, and ultimately the U.S. consumer. They are NOT paid by the exporting countries. They should only be used selectively and sparingly. Tariffs are kinda like beating the crap out of the cat when the dog takes a dump on the living room floor.

---

The cat deserved it. The cat always deserves it.

boognish_bear said:

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Biden bailed out Teamsters’ pension to the tune of $90 billion. Teamsters chief is praising Trump & Vance at GOP convention.

Would not have predicted that a couple of years ago.

— Jonathan Allen (@jonallendc) July 16, 2024

---

Ouch!

boognish_bear said:

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Biden bailed out Teamsters’ pension to the tune of $90 billion. Teamsters chief is praising Trump & Vance at GOP convention.

Would not have predicted that a couple of years ago.

— Jonathan Allen (@jonallendc) July 16, 2024

---

Well, Democrats used to be the party of the blue collar worker. Since Billary, the party has morphed into the party of the Globalists. Maybe they've figured out that the Dems have created an environment that is a race to the bottom for the average American. Blue collar workers were sold out by both Democrat and Republican establishment politicians, but the Democrats was a knife in the back. Of course it was as clear as day to anyone willing to pay attention.

There's a balance that has to be made between giving workers of countries that compete unfairly an advantage over the American worker. American worker should never have had to compete against child labor or slave labore.

Should it be our governments goal to protect and support companies that produce inferior products? 150 years ago there were 100's of farriers in central texas. Now there are only 3 competent ones on Waco. Did they all die ? Or did the they adjust to the market and find a useful trade. Should we all go back to riding horses?

So if you want to buy american made products only it's your right to do so. If you want to support truckers etc go down to the truck stop and pass out cash. It should be a choice. Tarrifs are a form of welfare. It moves wealth fron those thzt earned it and passes it out to those that dont deserve it.

Limited IQ Redneck in PU said:

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Should it be our governments goal to protect and support companies that produce inferior products? 150 years ago there were 100's of farriers in central texas. Now there are only 3 competent ones on Waco. Did they all die ? Or did the they adjust to the market and find a useful trade. Should we all go back to riding horses?

So if you want to buy american made products only it's your right to do so. If you want to support truckers etc go down to the truck stop and pass out cash. It should be a choice. Tarrifs are a form of welfare. It moves wealth fron those thzt earned it and passes it out to those that dont deserve it.

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Nah, keeping money in our economy and making 3rd world produced goods cost American consumers more than buying American products is a good thing. Your gaslighting about poorly made products is reminiscent of the 1980s when foreign interests ramped up the sales of cheap foreign cars. Times have changed while you were napping, Gulliver.

Gaslightting?

Using tarrifs to try to force Americans to buy poorly made more expensive cars to support over paid union workers is gaslighting? OK daddio.

Limited IQ Redneck in PU said:

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Gaslightting?

Using tarrifs to try to force Americans to buy poorly made more expensive cars to support over paid union workers is gaslighting? OK daddio.

---

The larger problem with tariffs is that they shift the burden to the consumer and off the corporation. They drive up prices of everything, especially when they are in manufacturing, as the downstream is almost impossible to measure.

RD2WINAGNBEAR86 said:

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Limited IQ Redneck in PU said:

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Teamsters love tarrifs that try to force Americans to buy their overpriced inferior products.

---

I hate to admit it, my friend, but I agree with you. Tariffs are paid by Americans, American companies, and ultimately the U.S. consumer. They are NOT paid by the exporting countries. They should only be used selectively and sparingly. Tariffs are kinda like beating the crap out of the cat when the dog takes a dump on the living room floor.

---

Tariffs should be used to EVEN the playing field for American Companies. Places like China, Viet Nam, etc have much less labor costs and flooding our market with their products is not in our interest. So, in that case I have no problem with tariffs.

If they are being used to give US Companies a competitive advantage without having to improve quality or keep prices reasonable just because they are American, than I agree. That is not how the free market should work.

FLBear5630 said:

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RD2WINAGNBEAR86 said:

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Limited IQ Redneck in PU said:

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Teamsters love tarrifs that try to force Americans to buy their overpriced inferior products.

---

I hate to admit it, my friend, but I agree with you. Tariffs are paid by Americans, American companies, and ultimately the U.S. consumer. They are NOT paid by the exporting countries. They should only be used selectively and sparingly. Tariffs are kinda like beating the crap out of the cat when the dog takes a dump on the living room floor.

---

Tariffs should be used to EVEN the playing field for American Companies. Places like China, Viet Nam, etc have much less labor costs and flooding our market with their products is not in our interest. So, in that case I have no problem with tariffs.

If they are being used to give US Companies a competitive advantage without having to improve quality or keep prices reasonable just because they are American, than I agree. That is not how the free market should work.

---

Real world example. I was in the tire and auto world for 20 years. We used to buy 225/60R16s for $29 and retail them for $50. Installed for 4 with tax was $296.

We announce tariffs on tires. The next week those same $29 tires cost me $58 and we retailed them for $100. A set of 4 was now $496. They went up $200 in a week.

That didn't improve quality. It didn't improve sales of US manufacturers. It DID lead to lower sales volume, people waiting longer to purchase, and a decrease in U.S. deliveries from around 4% per year to -1.3%. Ie instead of the tire market growing it shrank the entire market almost 6% which is massive. For reference dominant tire brands (Bridgestone/Firestone and Gruppe Michelin) only capture about 3-4% of the USDM each. The goal was always to get to 7% and in 20 years we never came close.

It was designed to level the playing field. What it did was shrink the economy, lead to job losses and inflated prices that have only gone up even more in the time since.

Simply put they just don't work. There is a much larger "bottom" portion of the economy than people who can afford $12/mo to argue on the internet can understand. Those people just end up priced out of the market at the expense of the rest of us.

Tariffs protected American jobs, companies and our standard of living for many decades.

Only after the end of WW2 did we lose our common sense in this regard.

Hope Trump gets elected and restores most tariffs.

The price increases are worth it.

KaiBear said:

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Tariffs protected American jobs, companies and our standard of living for many decades.

Only after the end of WW2 did we lose our common sense in this regard.

Hope Trump gets elected and restores most tariffs.

The price increases are worth it.

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The world is completely different than it was in 1945. The economy is much more global than local.

Further, someone is going to have to raise taxes even if they massively cut spending (which neither party will do). Higher taxes and higher prices for goods is a great way to have stagflation.

The higher price of goods may be worth it to you, again, you have enough disposable income to spend it arguing here, that's just not the reality for a large portion of the country.

If you simply want to punish China I can get behind that, as long as you understand that you're really punishing your neighbors and grandma just as much if not more in real terms.

KaiBear said:

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Tariffs protected American jobs, companies and our standard of living for many decades.

Only after the end of WW2 did we lose our common sense in this regard.

Hope Trump gets elected and restores most tariffs.

The price increases are worth it.

---

I don't believe you. When you buy a house do you pay more than it is worth? Of course not. How much did you donate to the teamsters last year? Is the rent you charge based on market value or how much renter can afford?

I prefer capitalism and free market. If you want to subsidize incompetence go ahead.

Wrecks Quan Dough said:

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RD2WINAGNBEAR86 said:

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Limited IQ Redneck in PU said:

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Teamsters love tarrifs that try to force Americans to buy their overpriced inferior products.

---

I hate to admit it, my friend, but I agree with you. Tariffs are paid by Americans, American companies, and ultimately the U.S. consumer. They are NOT paid by the exporting countries. They should only be used selectively and sparingly. Tariffs are kinda like beating the crap out of the cat when the dog takes a dump on the living room floor.

---

The cat deserved it. The cat always deserves it.

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Hey, don't be hating on the feline!!!

I choose capitalism and free market. If you don't. go ahead and pay extra. I bet you domt.

J.R. said:

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Wrecks Quan Dough said:

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RD2WINAGNBEAR86 said:

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Limited IQ Redneck in PU said:

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Teamsters love tarrifs that try to force Americans to buy their overpriced inferior products.

---

I hate to admit it, my friend, but I agree with you. Tariffs are paid by Americans, American companies, and ultimately the U.S. consumer. They are NOT paid by the exporting countries. They should only be used selectively and sparingly. Tariffs are kinda like beating the crap out of the cat when the dog takes a dump on the living room floor.

---

The cat deserved it. The cat always deserves it.

---

Hey, don't be hating on the feline!!!

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Don't hate me!

Limited IQ Redneck in PU said:

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KaiBear said:

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Tariffs protected American jobs, companies and our standard of living for many decades.

Only after the end of WW2 did we lose our common sense in this regard.

Hope Trump gets elected and restores most tariffs.

The price increases are worth it.

---

I don't believe you. When you buy a house do you pay more than it is worth? Of course not. How much did you donate to the teamsters last year? Is the rent you charge based on market value or how much renter can afford?

---

For over a 150 years tariffs protected American industries and increased American jobs.

We are learning the hard way that without tariff protections many American companies are going overseas or simply have to close.

We either pay a little more or continue losing jobs to Asia , India and Central America.

KaiBear said:

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Limited IQ Redneck in PU said:

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KaiBear said:

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Tariffs protected American jobs, companies and our standard of living for many decades.

Only after the end of WW2 did we lose our common sense in this regard.

Hope Trump gets elected and restores most tariffs.

The price increases are worth it.

---

I don't believe you. When you buy a house do you pay more than it is worth? Of course not. How much did you donate to the teamsters last year? Is the rent you charge based on market value or how much renter can afford?

---

For over a 150 years tariffs protected American industries and increased American jobs.

We are learning the hard way that without tariff protections many American companies are going overseas or simply have to close.

We either pay a little more or continue losing jobs to Asia , India and Central America.

---

if we get rid of child labor laws and OSHA, we want need those tariffs.

It just dawned on me that children can be used for more than sex slaves. They can be slave labor as well. Maybe the dems are onto something after all.

LIB,MR BEARS said:

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KaiBear said:

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Limited IQ Redneck in PU said:

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KaiBear said:

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Tariffs protected American jobs, companies and our standard of living for many decades.

Only after the end of WW2 did we lose our common sense in this regard.

Hope Trump gets elected and restores most tariffs.

The price increases are worth it.

---

I don't believe you. When you buy a house do you pay more than it is worth? Of course not. How much did you donate to the teamsters last year? Is the rent you charge based on market value or how much renter can afford?

---

For over a 150 years tariffs protected American industries and increased American jobs.

We are learning the hard way that without tariff protections many American companies are going overseas or simply have to close.

We either pay a little more or continue losing jobs to Asia , India and Central America.

---

if we get rid of child labor laws and OSHA, we want need those tariffs.

It just dawned on me that children can be used for more than sex slaves. They can be slave labor as well. Maybe the dems are onto something after all.

---

Without tariffs American companies are competing with companies overseas that utilize child labor….that pay their employees as little as 12 dollars a day .

Without tariffs American companies either have to reduce their labor costs or go overseas.

This is not complicated.

The Founding Fathers new what they were doing establishing tariffs to protect fledgling American industries.

nein51 said:

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Limited IQ Redneck in PU said:

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Gaslightting?

Using tarrifs to try to force Americans to buy poorly made more expensive cars to support over paid union workers is gaslighting? OK daddio.

---

The larger problem with tariffs is that they shift the burden to the consumer and off the corporation. They drive up prices of everything, especially when they are in manufacturing, as the downstream is almost impossible to measure.

---

That's certainly part of the problem, but it is not the problem.

In today's day and age, Free Trade is not the standard for a Capitalist society founded on principles. Fair Trade is the standard. American corporations cannot use child labor here in the states, but they can procure from countries that do use child labor. American corporations have pollution standards here in the states, but yet they can buy from countries that have no standards. Currently the American worker is competing against slave labor, child labor, dirty labor, etc. By law, they have no chance to even build something at a similar cost. Nor should they. American companies can compete against anyone on a civilized basis, but it can't easily compete against child labor or dirty labor for obvious reasons.

Passing laws that promote fair trade practices is difficult. Tariffs are difficult as well because the masses have been taught that protectionary tariffs are inherently bad. This of course seems true, but it's not necessarily true in the long term. Globalism has raped (strong word) our communities by moving wealth out or up (out of the country/communities and up to the wealthy global corporations). That's been the true transfer of wealth in this country. So we've exchanged our communities and schools for cheap China goods over the long term. Had the civilized world practiced fair trade over pursuing unabated predatory trade, our communities standard of living would be much greater. But people continue to believe that we'd go broke otherwise. that's Just not true.

I know free trade is a religion, and as a conservative I'll be in the minority here preaching the virtues of fair trade. Standard of living is one measurement, but we have no way to know where we'd be today if we'd practiced moderated tariffs that protected American workers from predatory countries. But I think if we're honest, the difficult to measure "quality of life", even with all our cheap stuff, is less than what we imagined it should be or even less than what people experienced in the 80s or even 90s.

Good post. Here are my thoughts on the matter, FWIW:

When I was earning my MBA, the big shiny thing was Globalism, or 'Everyone Will Be Pro-American When We All Trade Everything With Each Other, Plus We'll Be Richer'.

Pretty much no one was warning of any potential downside to it. Of course, not every country plays by the same rules, we already saw how Japan set up selected companies to have government protection and support while others did not, or how Russia killed off its experiment in Capitalism and instead became an Oligarchy. And then there is China, which has not been clean in any of its trade deals since I was born.

By now, it's slowly dawning on people that a robust economy needs Agriculture, Heavy Industry, Manufacturing including Tech components, and of course an Information Economy with Creators and Inventors. We need some way to address tech theft by China, India and other actors, protect against Information theft from all around the globe, and take business infrastructure seriously in terms of education, resource planning and trade agreements.

The problem is that Establishment politicians still think it's OK to sell our products and skills to other countries for the price of personal bank accounts. An honest debate about how tariffs could work might open eyes to the threat and possible solutions.

Or we can just keep outsourcing jobs and tell our kids that a degree in Social Justice will lead to a good career.