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The Mousetraps podcast is about discussing social and political issues that affect communities. They aim to cover different topics and provide serious and comedic perspectives. The hosts, First Amendment Ed, Pedro Geist, and George, introduce themselves and explain that they want to address issues that impact everyone, not just the blind community. They also mention their stage names and emphasize that they are like anyone else, with various roles in society. The conversation then shifts to tariffs and the impact of Donald Trump's policies. They discuss how tariffs on washing machines led to higher prices for both imported and domestic products, affecting consumers. They highlight the job creation and revenue generated by tariffs, but also the increased costs for consumers. They question the effectiveness and rationale of tariffs, as well as the behavior of corporate America. They express the need for a better understanding of tariffs and their implications. Overall, they discuss the p Welcome to the Mousetraps featuring the Three Blind Mice, I'm First Amendment Ed. And I'm Pedro Geist. I'm George. All right. Well, we are starting a new podcast where we sit here and we're going to discuss social and political issues that may affect, you know, our communities within, you know, our everyday lives. And a little bit about us, a little bit about me. I'm Pedro, artist known as Daredevil. And with this podcast, you know, we want to talk about different social issues, touch up on politics, touch up on different things, you know, George, George, I'm more of a serious but comedic one. And my stage name is Sparkles. That's our in-house comedian guy. Just give him a hand. And I'm just, you know, an old guy that likes to talk about, you know, serious stuff, you know, and I'm trying to add my age and wisdom to the conversation. There you go. That's the main thing. So I think that when people are kind of interested, why is it Three Blind Mice? And just, you know, we're blind, but yeah, we want to talk about stuff that affects everyone, not just the blind community. You know, we are just like anyone else, taxpayers, homeowners, wives, husbands, you name it, right? So... I ain't nobody's wife, George. Get that right. Right. I don't know about you. I'm sorry. I just can't remember the whip and chain. But yeah. Husbands, uncles, cousins. Yeah. Brothers, sons. All of that. All that. All that. So we're the Three Blind Mice and welcome to the Mousetrap. All right. Well, how about we jump into it? Let everybody get a taste of what we plan to do. All right. Let's give it a go. Before we get into Tariff, the heart of the Donald Trump campaign, the heart of the Trump campaign. The heart of the Trump campaign. The heart of the Trump campaign. The heart of the Trump campaign. The heart of the Trump campaign. The heart of the Trump campaign. The heart of the Trump campaign. The heart of the Trump campaign. 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There are attempts to get countries to change their behavior. While they haven't been a large part of trade policy in decades, former President Donald Trump wants to change that. Some might say it's economic nationalism. I call it common sense. I call it America first. President Trump has really sort of brought a lot of people out to think that tariffs might be something that's useful in America's economic arsenal in a way that hasn't been used in the past. Here's how tariffs work and what Trump's proposals would do. Let's start in 2018 when President Trump put tariffs on washing machines. We're going to benefit our consumers and we're going to create a lot of jobs. Since then, whenever a washing machine is imported to the U.S., the company on the U.S. side doing the importing fees a tariff to the U.S. government. Their margins are pretty low. They've got to pass that price on to consumers who ultimately pay it. The whole point in some sense to reduce demand for those goods and create space for domestic producers. After the tariff, not only did the price of imported washing machines go up, so did the ones made in the U.S. There's this myth out there that if we tax imports, domestic producers won't change their prices and that's not the case. You're creating more demand for them. So naturally the price goes up. And it wasn't just washers, dryers went up in price too, even though they weren't part of the tariff. And usually it's the case, if you buy a washer, you buy a dryer. So even though dryers weren't directly affected by the tariff, they were indirectly affected by the shift in demand. Now it wasn't all bad. These tariffs did create a lot of jobs, about 1,800, mostly from those foreign companies like Samsung and LG opening plants in the U.S. And a study found the U.S. collected $82 million annually. But because of those price increases, they cost consumers $1.5 billion more. So we basically paid $815,000 per job. That is crazy, yo. I mean, when you think about it, Mr. Davis, and after I heard that, it kind of makes you think about areas, you know, anyone, anyone listening to this podcast, look around your home. And it kind of tells you a lot where, you know, for example, your refrigerator, your microwave, your TV, your Alexa, your, you know, anything really electronic, it's not domestic. Right? But at the same time, imposing tariffs, like, are we really going to pay $815,000 for one job? Well, not only that, it pointed out something else. You know, like they said, where they originally thought that American producers would keep their prices low. Corporate America is too greedy for all that. If the price is going up, they're going up too. They're going to make every money, every dime they can make. And I think that's what the uneducated voter of this past election, a few days ago, they don't realize that. You know, they hear tariff, all right, I mean, yeah, but if we're going to pay more in the long term, does that really make sense to do a tariff? Right? You know, we'll hear more about the tariffs, you know, what the past administration did to Biden. But the thing is, for me, I just think that we just need to understand the real concept of the tariff. So I'm glad we had this story. What do you think, Pedro, so far about what you've been hearing? Well, yeah, some things go hand in hand, like a washer and a dryer. And I guess, like, us believing that the corporate business people are going to be like, oh, okay, let's just keep it low. Come on. It's the mighty dollar, the mighty dollar, guys. And, you know, it going higher, it hits our pockets. The funny thing about it, Pedro, is all the, what do you call it, exit polls, a lot of the people supposedly were saying, you know, why did you vote for this particular person or that one? And they're saying the economics, economics, you know, everybody. But yet, they don't know that they voted for that candidate, which is Trump, that said, you know, he's going to do a tariff. And now it's going to make the economics worse or the inflation worse. And I'm like, you know, people, you have to educate yourself. Yeah, you might not like the candidates, but, you know, pick your poison, I guess, if that's the way to say it. Well, and now all the data shows that bottom line, we're in a much better economic position than we were when Trump left office or at any time during his presidency. Yeah. Yeah. Also, if you want to base what he, what Donald Trump used to base his things on, the stock market, it is at the all time high right now. All the time. And he always used to coordinate the market with the economics, with how everything's going in the country. Even though, in my opinion, I believe they're separate, you know. And I think, you know, I don't mean to interrupt you, but I think a lot of people realize that inflation right now, it could be a residual from what happened with the pandemic when everybody had to stay home and a lot of business lost money or even clothes, like real small restaurants. So I think, you know, we're still getting a stench from that. What I mean by stench is not, you know. Well, let's go here. If we're going in, that's what we're trying to do with this thing. If it was not for his mishandling of the pandemic, we would not have been forced to lock down, shut in, until we get this thing under control. And we would have been out there. We would have still been working. We would have still been buying. We would have still been spending. We would have still been traveling, all of those things. But because of his massive mishandling of the pandemic, he forced our economic downfall by everybody having to stay home. And that was kind of weird, right? I remember back in the day, we were going to the freeway and I asked my wife about, you know, how it looks. She's like, there ain't nobody else. And I saw a post on Facebook. I guess it's like a meme. A meme or something like that. And it said, it was kind of saying that the mosquitoes were coming out. Like, hey, where did everybody go? No, George, let me tell you, when that happened, the smog levels, they said you could see, man, in L.A. the smog levels were low. Yeah, that's right. And it was severe. Just by those weeks that people didn't go out. And they had those studies. You're right. They had those studies where some cities had the smog emissions dropped. It was clear. You could see that back. One lady said, I can see the mountains now. I'm like, wow, that's how bad your smog is? Dang. Right, it is, George. I mean, it's bad out here just because of the way our region's terrain is, you know, with all the various mountain ranges. It boxes all of the bad air in. Maybe the ocean plays part of that, do you think, or not? I'm not sure. Well, yeah, because we've always got a constant onshore breeze. True. So it's constantly pushing the smog back toward the land instead of out to sea. And think about this. I just thought about something you said, Mr. Davis, because I didn't realize it. I mean, I don't know why. You guys have a – or L.A. has a harbor, has a port. I didn't realize until somebody told me. I'm like, oh, that's right, they do. Are you looking at the impact of that? Yeah, we actually have one of the largest ports. I mean, I know it's the largest on the West Coast, but I think it's one of the largest in the world. Oh, wow. Long Beach, yeah. Actually, it's more than just Long Beach, Pedro. It's Long Beach, Terminal Island, Wilmington, and San Pedro. San Pedro, yeah, correct. Well, that's because everything's coming in from that part of the world, which is China or the Philippines or whatever. That makes sense. And like I said, you're paying an extra $600 for your computer next time, remember. What the heck? Yeah, when you was asking, I think it's going to affect it just from, you know, working down there when I was younger. What I see happening is they're going to need more and more space to stack containers that people were not – that imported stuff now realize they don't have the money to pay the tariffs. Oh, okay. And now those containers are just sitting in storage. Wow. Also, with the prices being hyped up, most of these corporations, they know that there was nothing to stop them from raising the prices and blaming it on inflation. I was reading an article. I think, what, 40% to 50% of inflation was due to corporations knowing they could hype up the price. Of course, of course. The story that we're listening to kind of goes more into that. But you're right. I mean, at the end of the day, guys, here we are complaining about economics and economy and whatever, whatever, but we still voted for the candidate that can impose more tariffs. Well, a whole lot of people voted for him. I didn't, but there was definitely a whole lot of people voting for him. I voted for Bill Clinton, by the way. All right. Let's get back into it, guys. The very expensive job creation program, and so that's another reason why economists don't like tariffs. They're much more cost effective, more efficient ways of increasing employment in those industries. These weren't the only tariffs Trump created in 2018. The big ones were on steel and aluminum. Those were really designed to punish China for its transgressions of international trade rules. Also for national security. They're used to make a lot of military equipment, but also everyday things like cars. All the industries that use steel and have to pay the higher price, that squeezes their profit margins, and also puts them at a competitive disadvantage against foreign producers of those same goods who don't have to pay those inflated costs for their inputs. And so a lot of studies have shown that you lose jobs, as many if not more jobs in those downstream industries, as you gain in the upstream industries that are being protected by the tariffs. Let me tell you something there. By the time, of course, long before he did that, a lot of people don't realize, all of our steel industry is no longer here. I mean, you think about all the great big steel producers we used to have, like Kaiser Steel. A lot of people, when they hear the word Kaiser, they think, you know, Kaiser Medical Insurance. Kaiser started off as a steel plant. I remember back in the day, back in the, what, 30s and 40s, the U.S.? Man, there were major players in the steel industry. I mean, Bethlehem Steel. I mean, all up in the northeast, you know, Philly. I mean, why do you think they call it Pittsburgh? Steelers. But bottom line, I mean, again, you're going to create a tariff when we no longer produce that material. Yep. That don't make sense to me. I'm sorry. One of the biggest distributors of steel now, too, is Canada. And we're still thinking of importing, I'm sorry, of imposing tariffs on Canada. So, you know, this is what the problem is with this tariff. It might be to one specific item, but going back to what happened with the washer and dryer, yeah. If it is a steel, then obviously what is steel made of? Or it goes into, what, the buildings or concrete or construction? It's not a good idea. I know it's meant to punish, but it's really going to punish us at the end of the day. It really is. Right. Because it's going to cost us more money to either create or repair our infrastructure. Like you said, everything we do has got steel in it, whether it's the concrete roads or whether we're building airports. You know, we need thin beams, airplanes, cars, manufacturing. Again, you know, all that stuff. We have to buy all that material from these people where he's imposing these tariffs. I think what his philosophy is or his utopia is, is that everything's done here in the U.S. No external product. For example, the TV, everything you buy is going to be done here. But it can't. Well, the reason I say it can't is because of technology, the chips and the conductors and all this stuff, the wiring. Sometimes it is easier to get them from China or from wherever we get them from. But theoretically it can't be done. Well, on that note, Jordan, wouldn't it make more sense to reinvest into manufacturing here before you impose tariffs on other countries where we're importing the things we actually need? Yes. Like they did with the chips act. Right, right, right. Exactly. He invested in that. Now we produce chips for the world. Is it like free-release chips or is it kind of like? No, it's semiconductors. I know. Yeah, and those are important, very important. If we ever go into another pandemic or, let's say, something goes haywire or whatever, right, we need to be distributed. We need to be making these chips at home. Even not just those chips, I believe we should start having that infrastructure. But imposing tariffs before you have the infrastructure built so it could come in and then the companies can't feel like, okay, we could drop prices, you know? And the signal visual, the chips. Now, you're a tech expert. You might want to educate me. What happened? Like I said, sign up, guys. What happened in Lebanon, the Israelis, they had those pagers that went off and those cell phones that went off that killed X amount of people. That was spooky. That's scary. It had to be a chip or something embedded within those devices that caused those explosions to kill those people. And I think that's one of the things you heard earlier about the national security. Did that be a part of the tariff? I mean, why mention national security? That's kind of weird. Well, in national security, when we're talking national security, we've got to be aware of the devices you use. I know they use iPhones and other things like that, and then they're monitored. But think about this. They might look into the devices, but what about us as the public? Once the device is imported, it's not inspected inside or anything. It's going to add something while manufacturing at the plant. And once it's encased, it's encased. Let me ask you this, Pedro, and I want to ask you specifically because you're into tech and you read all these articles. And, you know, when it comes to the tariff, do you think this is a security question for people that are listening that have iPhones, that depend on iPhones? Do you think the prices will go up? I mean, because right now they're expensive as it is. You don't apply the tariff. I mean, they're coming in from China. He's imposing tariffs on everything coming in from China. Yeah, so I believe iPhones are going to get infected. It's going to get infected. They're going to probably double in price. Maybe not even double but 50% in price. I was hearing even gamers for PlayStation, something that could cost you $500 and it costs you almost $1,000 to $1,200. Wow. And I think about it right now, Pedro, when you said that, about the Samsung and then, you know, most of the cell phones are foreign, right? They're not domestic, are they? Yes, LG is foreign. Samsung is Korea. Sony. Japanese, I believe. Japanese, yeah, you're right. Yeah, yeah, but they're going to not only China. He said across the whole board. Right, anybody importing into America. And he doesn't realize that a lot of these factories are overseas. We don't have nothing built here to start up. You know, the plan would have been let's work in our home, build these factories up, let's start grabbing people from over there, bringing over here, train these people, and then the tariffs could have came in. But that would be planning and to have our two-party system to plan something and they're throwing back manure at each other all the time. I don't know. How about this one, George? I'm sorry. We ain't got time for the rebuild of the infrastructure. We only got four years. That's his thing. He's going to do what he wants to do for the next four years. But do you think that the – I think you said it, or you, Pignol, about the elitist that we elected elitist. I think you said it, Pignol. And what I mean by that is the mindset. If you're a billionaire or a millionaire, you don't really think about the long-term, for example, the impact to factories, the impact to employees. For example, let's say LG or Samsung or even iPhone, which I seriously doubt Apple, decides to, oh, we're going to build a factory here. Okay. How long is that going to take, right? Do we have, you know, like we're talking about infrastructure. Do you have the land? Do you have the building? Do you have this? Do you have that? It's just the distributors. Okay. So let's say you move people from China or from wherever to the U.S. to build. Are you going to pay them the same? No, of course not. So guess what? Their price might even go up more. And now you have to pay, instead of paying $1.50 where they pay wherever, now they have to pay $20, especially if you're a union, right? Is it true, Mr. David? I've been wanting to ask you for a while. I saw in an article here in Texas, because I'm here from Texas, that they pay the harbor or the port, I guess the handlers, whatever. Longshoremen. Longshoremen. Okay, longshoremen. They pay like $300,000, $400,000 a year? I mean, when they get close to retirement, yeah, they can get up to that high. Really? Yeah. And then because also, I mean, there's a lot of crazy stuff. I wish I had my buddy on there. He actually just retired from the Longshoremen's Union. But, I mean, again, they have crazy jobs. Like, for instance, he goes in, he has seniority, he can go into the union hall, and all the jobs for the day are listed on the wall. And the more seniority you have, you can pick your job, right? Okay. And then he has his own crew. So, like, he would pick a job where maybe a ship was coming in, and all they had to do was meet the ship at the dock, you know, and how they throw the small rope out, and then he'd grab the small rope and pull the big rope and tie it to the dock. You understand what I'm saying? Yeah, yeah. Okay. So, he'll do that, right? It takes him maybe 30, 45 minutes, but he gets paid for eight hours, and then he comes back, and when they're ready to send the ship back out, and they reverse their process, he gets another eight hours. Oh, wow. But it only takes him, you know, less than an hour to do that, him and his team. Hey, I want that kind of job. Yeah. But talking back to the elite, the mentality for some of these folks that they vote, you know, however they're going to vote, they're going to vote. But in my opinion, it's like you voted to the person that has a silver spoon born in his mouth since birth. Somebody that's never, never, ever went to bed hungry unless they were just too lazy to go get something to eat. Yeah. Look, he might not even know the price of milk and a dozen of eggs. And in my opinion, who has more relatable to us? Ms. Harris, she was more relatable. Bernie Sanders, there's more people more relatable, you know, but him, he's made with a silver spoon. So when Ed says earlier, he's going to go in and do what he wants. He don't got no time for infrastructure. I have a question. Which makes a lot of sense. When's the last time or when are you going to ever see, let's say, the president, let's say, after he retires. Or even before he was, when he was younger. Let's go back to Trump when he was younger. Or even Eli Musk. Or even all these young, these rich people. These young elitists. Young elitists. Let's say, are you ever going to see them, for example, going to the grocery store or putting their own gas? Never. No way. Never. Never. So I see what you're saying about being, how that, you know, that relatable. Like, oh, okay. Yeah. Like Ms. Harris. I worked at McDonald's. She knows how to flip a burger and take an order of fries. Trump or any kind of elitist or, like, what? You bring it to me. I don't bring it to you. What are you talking about? You know? Mm-hmm. She's a mom. She most likely runs the household, the bills and all that stuff. You know how all moms were. All moms took care of a lot. Like, you know, come on. You know? It's like. I hear you get humbled, Pedro, when you don't have a nanny to wipe your baby's butt. When you have to do your stuff, you get real humbled. Like, God, things are smelling. I hear that. I mean, especially when you come from, you know, and I, you know, I mean, I know she was middle class, but, you know, I'm going to say, you know, anything from upper and lower class to middle class. You know what I'm saying? When you had to live that life, right? And you know what it is to do without. You know what it is to go to the store with your mom and, you know, all your friends got Jordans and you got to get some, you know, some, some smileys. You know what I'm saying? A British knife from Kmart, yeah. Yeah, you get your shoe pay less, right? Mm-hmm. That kind of thing. Hey, hey, wait a minute. Don't think he's laughing, man. I've got some pay less shoes that, man, don't think he's laughing over. When pay less first came out, my brother, they used to sell shoes, two pair for $5. What? Really? Yes, sir. What year were you born? I was born in 1957. Oh, wow, guys. Wow. Yeah, but, yeah, they used to be a lot cheaper. You know, Mr. Davis, real quick, because that's funny you mention that, because my mom, when she dressed herself, she would tell me that. Like, went to the movies. Oh, yeah, we went to the movies, bought popcorn for $0.50. Yeah. I'll bring some videos on that later, but that'd be an interesting topic to cover. Why does money buy less now? And you have to spend more money to buy less. Yes, sir. Well, stay tuned, folks. We'll bring you that one in a different episode. But back to the elitists and thinking about these businessmen, just like how that businessman from California, what's his name? He went from California somewhere over here, I don't know if it's Pennsylvania or Missouri over there, and ran a whole campaign and got millions and millions of dollars. The diamond character, his last name is Diamond. I think so. And he's a banker or something like that? Yeah, yeah, yeah, he's a banker. Yeah. He's an elite, guys. I don't know his upbringing since he's been small. Maybe he's been well-off or born well-off like the president-to-be. But the everyday struggle, guys, everyday struggle to get up, go to work, get your clock in and get to work. Even if you're manufacturing things, you're doing blue-collar jobs that are hard. And we have somebody come in and pretend to turn on a fryer, a French fryer, and it was not even on. And the Secret Service told the people at McDonald's, don't let him get close to the air fryer because he might burn himself. And then to line up everybody in the drive-thru. Hold on, Pedro. And they coach everybody. Uh-huh. Pedro, you know, I have to make it clear, the reason why they wanted him to get this to the air fryer because sometimes it might catch on fire. Oh, wow. I need a noise for when you make joy. So, oh, my God. Now, I'm done twisting. But, yes, they had to press the people in the drive-thru and see what questions they had. And they realized they were all Trump supporters. But, hold on, hold on. That whole thing was staged. Well, that's what I'm saying. Well, I'm glad you didn't let me speak because that's exactly what I was going to say. Because you know why, guys? That little pony and show I call it, or pony and horse show I call it, is to play to people's anger. And somebody could actually think, Trump was actually making French fries? And he was actually, come on, man. It's just, and what really is insulting is that they actually think that we believe it. So, that anger, not really dumb, but anger to say, wow, wow. Mira, vieja. The Trump was actually making French fries. Come on, man. Plus, look, to me, it's like, why are you doing this? You know you're rich. You didn't have to struggle like this. And for you to come and think that this is funny, for you to, oh, let me relate to them and fake all this. No, no. You're just a jerk. You're just being a jerk. You're being a jerk. You're being a self-centered. You're being careless. You're not caring for no one else but yourself. But, Pedro, maybe it worked. Maybe it worked. Yeah. Maybe it worked. Maybe it worked. I mean, you know. But I feel like some of our mainstream media kind of like didn't push like how the right media pushes, like Fox News, how they push. I believe our, like, well, I hate to say our media, but like the. The mainstream. The mainstream media. The mainstream. You know what I think of this, Pedro? They don't want to get into the controversy. They don't want to get into the, you know, like Fox News sometimes, like right after the first assassination attempt on Trump. I was just curious. You know, people always give Fox News a hard time. Maybe they don't listen, right? You sure? Because of the other party rhetoric. Just when that happens, I'm like, wow. Really? You know, when they have the panels, that one Democratic correspondent they got, man, she always catches the blues. But she stands her ground, man. I got to give her credit. You know what I'm saying? I forget her name. Yeah, but she's the only Democratic person on the channel. I guess we have to be fair to make sure that people understand that. You know, we're going to try to be 100. Both parties do it. You know, they do. They have their both sides. They have the bad side. They both do this. They both do that. But when you have a candidate talking about immigrants, about Arrasa, me and Pedro, that we come from Southern Africa, South America, and we're all rapists. And what happens with that quote is that our color, it kind of goes into the violence. And what I mean by that here in El Paso, folks. It makes you a target. Yeah, here in El Paso, just so you know, August 19th, or August 3rd, 2019, an animal, I won't call him a guy, or an animal went into a Walmart here, a local Walmart, and killed 23 people with an AK-47. And yet, people were like, oh, no, that wasn't because, yes, he wrote it in the manifest. Because of all these immigrants coming in. And where do you get that rhetoric from? Hmm, I wonder who. Well, not only that, you know, let's go here. You're listening to a news channel that was fined $750 billion. I forgot about that. For continuing the lie. Well, look, what's his name? Talk about rhetoric and getting, well, it's not the same thing. Oh, boy, it's the same. Well, you're adding to the rhetoric by continuing to repeat the lie. Well, I was going to say about, what's his name, the guy from, I don't have mercy, Infowars. What's his name? Alex Jones. Yes. Alex Jones, you know, about the Sandy Hook. Oh, no, those were actors. And then when he got sued, well, I didn't mean that. I didn't say that. Come on, man. I think once they get punished, they should get punished, right? They should be. To clarify, he said that and his listeners harass those families while they're mourning their young kids' lives or their wife or their husband that lost their lives. Let me ask both of you gentlemen, because I don't have kids. What would happen in your mindset if you just lost a child because of gun violence and people are harassing you? Oh, you're lying. You're lying. Your kid wasn't born. You're an actor. What would come on? Would that push you to suicide or would that? I mean, I can't even imagine that. So cynical. Well, I mean, I lost a child. Of course, it wasn't, you know, school shootings or whatever. But my mindset is this, no, man, you're going to make me rather than kill myself, I'm going to be trying to take it out on somebody else. True. I didn't think about that. You're right. So I just want to continue with the article we listened to, because I think there's some really interesting information coming down the road about this tariff stuff. Yeah, yeah, it's going to be interesting. Let's get into that. Jobs, which were on the decline, didn't increase, but they did level out. The overall economy lost jobs, mostly in those downstream industries. And the cost of the tariffs were passed on to U.S. companies and consumers. So not great for the economy, but it did motivate U.S. companies to move out of China and need supply chains more resilient. But it didn't change much of China's behavior. And in many ways, they became more aggressive. But here's the thing. Even with all the economic downsides, a review by the Biden administration suggested Trump's tariffs should remain and the administration should add or increase them, which they did. Once tariffs get in place, there are two factors that sort of keep them in place for some time. First of all, there are going to be domestic interest groups that have a stake in those tariffs maintained, like the extra market share that they've gained as a result of those tariffs. And second of all, tariffs are a bargaining chip. So why would we sort of unilaterally get rid of these, even if there are some economic benefits, when we might use it in some negotiations down the road? Tariffs are really hard to remove. It's why 60 years later, there's still a 25 percent tariff on trucks, even though U.S. chicken farmers no longer care about selling in Europe. So we're still living with the legacy of the chicken war. So that's sort of another lesson of history is you have to be careful about imposing these tariffs because you think you're doing it for short term strategic reasons. You're just helping out this industry temporarily. But they can last for decade upon decade upon decade. I mean, that just goes back to what I was saying earlier again. You know, it all started with a simple tariff on chicken. You know, then it went in. And like they're saying, look at these tariffs. They're still there. And there's different types of tariff, folks. And then I went blank earlier. I was trying to off air. So there's basically, let's say, per unit. So let's say a computer. All right. So they'll put a tariff per unit on an item. Or they could put 50 percent on the value of the trucks. Right. So that's the thing. But either way, either way, it doesn't matter. It's still going to impact us. I don't care if it's a dollar a year, five dollars a year, $100, $10,000. It's going to impact us in the long run. And I wonder why are these tariffs still in place for the chicken and the truck if it's like no longer there? And I wonder what process does it take to take them off? Or is it really hard to take them off? Or are they scared to take them off because of the economic impact? Or what is the reasoning? Well, on that one, I'm sorry, George. On that one, let's go there. I mean, again, we're not, like they said, the chicken farms and stuff like that. We're no longer worried about sending chicken to Europe, right, plus Europe and all of them. They've upped their game, so they've got their own chickens. But when it comes to the trucks, we are getting that five percent tariff. And even though it hurt Volkswagen at the time, right, Toyota, Nissan, you know, all of the other folks that make the smaller trucks. I mean, the Toyota Tundra. They're selling tons of them, but they're getting five percent off of every one of them. Yes, sir. And I was going to say earlier about the, I'm not sure if it's applicable to what I'm about to say, but the dog food that we buy for the dogs, right. I remember when we first started buying them, for instance, it was 10 years when I got with my wife Lulu. It was, I think, $0.90, $0.89 per can for pedigree. We went today, went to the dollar store. Mine might be for the better, I don't know. A dollar, I think it was $1.86 per can. I'm like, what the heck? A dollar? For the same product? You know, I mean, it's just amazing that this cost has gone up so much that, like milk or even, announcing, I was telling Mr. Davis a while back, churches, guys, they have an announcement, oh, 20 piece, whatever. It was like $42. Wow. Damn, for chicken? Wow. So let me throw one crazy one at you. You know, here's my age again, right? Guess how much gas was when I first started driving? I'll say $0.92, $0.98. $0.25 a gallon. What? Really? I had a Volkswagen that held 10 gallons. It would cost me $2.50. Mr. Davis, that's the one that you had to crank, right? No, that's dead old, my brother. But it was a very, it was a 62 Volkswagen, a 36 horsepower engine. It held 10 gallons, cost me $2.50 to fill that thing up. And as a teenager, I could drive all week on that tank of gas. Wow. Okay, let's try to make a calculation. 10 gallons at $5 right now. $50. $50. $50? Even at $4. Dang. $40. And think about it. If you can't pay minimum wage, but right now, sadly, you can pay, what, $7.50, $7.25? There's a federal minimum wage, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Folks, I'm saying, some companies pay that, man. I'll tell you what, there is a company, well, I'm not going to go there. But anyways, there's some companies that still pay that. And the thing is, so you're making, what, average to take home, maybe $2.15 a week? You have to put $80 in gas? Yeah, and then think about this, too. And then you go online and you go shop for a product that everywhere across the United States is the same price. But you're getting paid $7 when someone else is getting paid $16 or $20. You know what I mean? So when these situations and tariffs come, it's going to hurt us big time. It's saying that it might cost us up to $1,000 or $3,000 extra. Oh, I saw that, yeah. Not only that, let's talk about housing. If you're making that federal minimum wage, where are you going to find housing? The standard rule in housing when you're renting or, you know, want to rent a piece of place, a place, you must make three times the rent. The standard is the rent is one-third of your income. Where are you going to find a place for one-third of a, what, over $1,000? You make, what, $1,000, $1,100 a month? Where are you going to find a place for $300 a month? That's what I'm saying. And, well, in defense to that, I guess you're in El Paso. You can get away with it, maybe $700. But you're right, Mr. Davis. Especially, like, in New York, in California, in Florida, where you have property just to rent. I've heard, like, $2,000 for, like, a one-bedroom. I'm like, what the hell? Here in El Paso, you have $2,000? You could just have a house with a swimming pool. You know what I'm saying? In California, you, in L.A., you can spend $2,000 for a studio. Damn, really? Yeah, yeah. $1,600 to $2,000 is what I was looking around. Studio. I was, like, looking for a one-bedroom studio. I was like, studio? Wow. Wow. Like, come on. I mean, put that in context, guys. You're making minimum wage, and you're making money going for rent. You're going to buy no food, no clothing, nothing. Nothing. Nothing. Wow. I didn't realize it was that much over there, $2,000. I mean, California is expensive, you know. But, again, we got, what is it? First of this year, it was imposed, the $20 minimum wage. Yeah, for fast food workers. Well, food service workers. Yeah, food service, that's it. You know. There you go. So this is from my experience when I was in the BT program, the cafeteria. So people don't realize. Yes, I get it. It's a living wage. I understand that. But at the end of the day, let's say McDonald's. That $5 or $6 burger just went to $11. Easy, because you have to pay. The biggest overhead you have in the business is your salary. It is. Because people don't realize you have a salary, plus you have insurance. Let's say FICA. You have to pay the FICA. So that $20 employee really costs you $26, $27. Well, the employer pays 50% of FICA. Well, that's what I'm saying. With the FICA, you have to pay the insurance. And if you have to pay the health care, you have to pay. So remember, that $20 employee is going to cost you $27, $28. Right, right, right. All in all. You know? Yeah. Yeah. So about that, too, it's like, think about it. The president just got elected. It's a businessman, a management business, a manager. You think he wants to give up his bottom line to his workers when their thing is get a bottom line, get more profits every year, increase your profits. I don't know how sustainable that is for a business to every year they must beat and beat and beat over and over and beat that record. After 10 years, after 20 years, you know? I just don't understand how, you know, you see these quarterly reports into the gas industry. Well, Exxon, they made $2.1 a quarter. Okay? A quarter. Now, Exxon, I'm like, how in the heck do you make that much kind of money and still not pass it on to the consumer who's still paying for it all? Well, no, how can you make that kind of profit and still have subsidies? That's right. You're right. You're right. And I'll do that part just to tell you you're right. And a trillion-dollar business, and they still need subsidies? Come on, if you can't make that business work, hey, I don't know what they're doing. Nope. I mean, subsidies were designed for infrastructure businesses, right, things that were needed within society that could not turn a profit. Nope. That's what they were designed for. Okay. And now they're using it as bait for corruption and, oh, that's another episode right there, so. Let's continue this article. Let's finish up. Tariff policy is kind of old. Even by the chicken wars, they were only imposed on around 7% of U.S. imports. Trump's plan for a second term is to bring them back dramatically. This is the policy that built this country, and this is the policy that will save our country. He's proposing a 60% tariff on everything from China and a 10 or even 20% on every import from every other country. Countries are going to finally, after 75 years, pay us back for all that we've done for the world. Multiple independent studies looked at the possible effects. One found it would cost the average American household $1,700 from higher prices. Another found it could cost more than 684,000 jobs. And they don't factor in how domestic goods might get more expensive or retaliatory tariffs from other countries. They're not going to take that with lying down. They're not going to change their behavior in some way to appease the administration that imposes such tariffs. They're going to retaliate. So not only will U.S. imports shrink, but U.S. exports will shrink as well. Trump wants to use these tariffs as a revenue stream for the U.S. to pay for tax cuts. As tariffs on foreign countries go up, taxes on American workers and families come down. Studies found his proposal would likely bring in around a quarter of a trillion dollars per year, about 5% of what the federal government currently brings in with taxes. So if tariffs are harmful, always harmful even to the economy, why is Trump so focused on them? In the last 20 years, China has gotten aggressive, investing in manufacturing to become the world's largest exporter. Even today, they invest more than any other country. It has let them export things like steel and aluminum at below market values. That, coupled with numerous trade rule violations. Allowed President Trump to really restart the whole discussion about using tariffs to achieve certain objectives, such as punishing other countries. And the Biden administration has just continued that. So the whole environment has really changed from 20 years ago, when trade policy was pretty quiet business. And now we're talking about industrial policy, tariffs, subsidies, and all these different interventions. Because the whole global and geopolitical environment has changed quite dramatically. And it would change even more dramatically with Trump's proposed tariff plan. In the short run, we know the economy will suffer. In the long run, no one really knows. Will it be a war between the U.S. and the rest of the world, or the western world against China? Trump wants to play a game of chicken to find out. 60%, man. 60%. Well, I mean, again, for me, it's Trump wants to get paid for doing nothing. I mean, you know, I mean, something else I heard in that last piece was China did exactly what I said earlier. When the American manufacturers moved out of China, right, they invested in manufacturing to the point to where they could offer these materials at below market value. And that's what the problem is, too, Mr. Davis, when it comes to the tariff, when they have those tariffs, everything, if not, like, let's say Walmart or Target, whatever, comes from China. You know what I'm saying? Even their cups. They got a cup of coffee, look at the bottom, it's going to say made in China. Even their underwear, you know, but the point is, 60%, guys, remember we were talking about that earlier? Let's go basic. Let's go basic, guys. You know, basic math. Something that costs $1,000? Now that company is going to, okay, now we have to pay $1,500. Think about this. For children, all those little remote cars, where do they come from? China. All the little other accessories that they want, like the headphones and all this, China. Geeks. AirPods. China. Yep. Game consoles. All of that stuff. Everything your child does in today's world is important. I bet you there's microphones. You know, come from China. Picture Mr. Davis, the mics we're using. That headphone on my head might say it was made for China. Some clothes is made from China. For those people that are doing printing on shirts and have a shirt business, they're going to. Hold on. Let me, something else comes from back in the day when I was driving trucks, a very well known brand for men, a button up shirts, right? Kennington shirts. Okay. Have you guys ever heard of that brand? Well, they were nice, really nice shirts, you know, nice printed, you know, patterns and stuff like that. But anyway, on the tag, it said made in America. Okay. Well, let me go here. They found a loophole. The material was made in America. They shipped it to Mexico to be cut. Then they shipped it to China to be sold together. Then they send it back here and sell it as American made. Ah, okay. I miss that kind of loophole. Yeah, okay. You know what I'm saying? I mean, the corporate America is going to work every angle they can to increase their bottom line. And that's just one angle they work. And it's like, if you go back to this, guys, back in the day when I used to do, I got into the seller there. There was a company called, I don't think they're around anymore, Chichat Mobile. And they thankfully gave me an opportunity to have my little small business selling phones. But one of the things that, to activation, some phone companies are not going to like this, what I'm about to say, but the activation fee, oh, it's a $50 activation fee or a $25 activation fee. No, there isn't. You can make it up to the price, whatever you want. You can make it a dollar, you can make it $5, you can make it $20. But they'll do that because what? You want that product? So, you know what? Hell, I'm going to pay the 50 bucks for the activation or $25, even though it costs the company nothing. Right. Nothing for that. All you got to do is, you know, do a couple of keystrokes and boom, you're in. No, literally. Really, that's what it was. But see, that's to make money, extra money. You know what I'm saying? So, you're right, Mr. David. I mean, at the end of the day, all this little stuff, it's going to catch us in the butt. And I don't know, I'm just afraid that down the road, that same chicken pointed piece is going to cost 50 bucks or 60 bucks. You know, it's amazing. It really is. I mean, for me, I mean, you know, sitting here in the aftermath of the election and whatnot and thinking about all the things that went on, you know, in the campaign and all the promises and stuff he made and all this 2025 stuff and blah, blah, blah. I'm being honest. Number one, I'm hoping we still have a democracy in four years. Okay? Number two, he's going to create such a mess that it's going to take another. I mean, Biden was amazing. He brought it back in four years. Okay? College, old and whatever, feeble, whatever you want to do. I mean, he could sit behind his desk and do his negotiations and stuff like that, right? And he made it happen. Okay? He brought us back from the brink of what do they want to call it, a recession? Yes. Okay. In four years, in four years, he created an economy that was twice what it was when Trump took office. Right? All of these campaigns. You know, so my point is, if we still have a democracy, I'm sorry, if we still have a democracy, how long is it going to take us to recover from the damage he did? You notice me and Pedro don't have an answer to that because you don't know. We really don't know. We really don't know. Yeah, we really don't know. And I guess this is leading to the outro. You know what I mean? We don't know. Let's just hope this experiment we call America, this successful experiment, the successful passing of power, just like how we passed power onto the Republicans and stuff like that, and it was a peaceful transfer of power. That's how the system should work. The system shouldn't be someone going, it's rigged, it's rigged, it's rigged. We could call her, it's rigged right now. We could say it was stolen, but are we going to do that? No. No, we're going to hand it over to the White House peacefully, just like all other presidents until Trump have done. Yep. And, hey, guys, just to joke around in a joking sense, I think he's been the ghettoest president ever. What president's gone through all those scandals, does all that crazy stuff, talks mess and doesn't care? Oh, my God. I don't know. And still just elected. And still just elected. I'm still in shock. All right, guys, any last words, any last comments? We're looking hopeful on the beginning of our podcast, our first episode. We're looking hopeful for the democracy. Are we going to hold their foot to the firehead on our podcast? I mean, that's our plan. We're going to speak our minds. We're going to say what we got to say, regardless of whether people think about it. We just hope that people enjoy what we are talking about, what we do have to say, and you guys will continue tuning in and, you know, we'll be your spot to, you know what, let's go listen to Three Blind Mice. There you go. The mousetrap is the mousetrap to come in for the cheese and stay for the story. Hey, that's why it's called the mousetrap. And we're out.
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