One wonders how idiotic tariff policy can get. Competition is stiff between Biden, the EU, and Trump. 
German auto manufactures are struggling against an onslaught of cheap EVs from China. One might think that would be welcome given preposterous Green demands, but its not.
Since the European car makers are struggling in Europe, they went to China where production costs are cheaper. The EU does not like that either, so it is taxing vehicles made in China by the European manufacturers.
Speed Limit for German Cars
Eurointelligence comments on the the plight of the German auto industry in Speed Limit for German Cars
The decline of the German car industry has already started – albeit from a very high level. The three top car makers, VW, BMW and Mercedes have seen a fall in joint first-quarter sales from 18.5m in 2019 to 15.5m this year. They never recovered from the pandemic. But the decline continues at a slow pace. During the first quarter, sales declined by 2%. Profitability was also down, but it is still high in total – the profit margins are 7.4%. Kia has the highest profits margins, at 13.1%. Despite the decline, Mercedes remains the most profitable European car maker in Europe, ahead of Stellantis. Tesla’s profit margin fell from 11.4% to 5.5%, perhaps the clearest sign yet that the global car industry is moving towards a lower-margin era.
VW recently announced is was planning to build a €20,000 electric car to be able to compete with cheap Chinese imports. We think it is possible for them to succeed commercially with such a product. But there is a cost too. The margins on such a car would be lower than on current fuel-powered cars. The bigger impact will be on the supply industries. The trickle-down profit margins that permeated through German industry will be a thing of the past. The new cars will have fewer components, and fewer German-made components. This is the reason why the decline in cars constitutes a decline in industry and in the economy – to the extent that countries depend on it. Germany is one of those.
In addition to the above secular decline setup, EU tax policy just made matters worse.
EU Tariffs on China EVs to Reach as High as 48%
Bloomberg reports EU Tariffs on China EVs to Reach as High as 48% With New Levies.
The European Union will impose additional tariffs on electric cars shipped from China starting next month, taking levies to as much as 48% in a move that further escalates trade tensions and adds to the cost of buying an EV.
The bloc formally notified carmakers including BYD, Geely and MG owner SAIC of the charges on battery-electric cars due to be implemented around July 4, the European Commission said, following an investigation of subsidies that started last year. China’s EV manufacturers have been pushing more aggressively into Europe amid a domestic price war and years of building a lead in the technology.
Aside from SAIC’s top rate, BYD will have to pay an additional 17.4% levy, and Geely — which owns Volvo Car AB — faces an extra 20% charge. While the probe targeted Chinese-owned EVs, Western carmakers including Tesla, BMW and Renault that produce in China and ship to the EU also face higher costs. Those cooperating with the probe are set for extra charges of 21% based on a weighted average.
The EV Tariff Wars Get Crazier
The Wall Street Journal chimes in with EV Tariff Wars Get Crazier
Whatever else you say about the European Union, you have to admit its leaders have a sense of humor. Mere days after voters across the Continent rebuked Brussels in part for its expensive climate policies, the EU announced it will make the electric vehicles it’s forcing Europeans to buy even more expensive.
In this case Europe is mostly hurting itself. Brussels complains that Beijing offers generous subsidies to Chinese EV manufacturers, which is true. Politicians in Europe and the U.S. fret that China’s heavily subsidized battery and EV industries will push Western companies out of business as the drive toward mass EV adoption accelerates.
But Western auto makers are in this fix because those same politicians are forcing consumers to buy EVs. Brussels last year required that all new cars and vans be zero-emission by 2035. As more households down the income ladder are required to buy EVs, the market naturally will become more price sensitive and China’s cost advantages will increase.
So Europe’s car makers have shifted production to China instead. About half of China’s total EV exports last year were produced by Tesla or joint ventures between European and Chinese firms. During the same span, fewer than 10% of China-made EVs imported into Germany—Europe’s largest auto market—bore a Chinese brand. The rest were Teslas or joint-venture products. This, as well as concern about Chinese retaliation, explains why German auto makers oppose the EU tariffs.
All of this is a classic illustration of how one policy blunder begets another, which begets another, and then another. EV mandates force consumers to buy cars that costly European climate policies force manufacturers to make in China. Then Europe imposes tariffs on those EV imports, raising prices for the EVs it forces companies to make and consumers to buy. This is the definition of economic masochism.
Tariffs Won’t Halt BYD’s Advance
CNN assesses Tariffs Won’t Halt BYD’s Advance
After months of investigation, the European Union has announced additional tariffs on electric vehicles (EV) imported from China, because of what it sees as Beijing’s unfair support for companies that undercut European carmakers.
For market leader BYD, which vies with Tesla as the world’s top producer of battery electric vehicles, there’s still space for it to grow in Europe, even with the additional duty, according to Gregor Sebastian, a senior analyst with the Rhodium Group.
Facing the lowest additional levy of 17.4%, BYD could emerge as a relative “winner,” he said. Duties at this level could even allow BYD to cut its already competitive prices to gain market share in Europe.
“BYD is already building a factory in Europe, is likely to still profitably export to the EU even with 17% duties, and can export plug-in hybrids without additional duties,” Sebastian said. The new tariffs only target battery EVs.
Rhodium said in April that BYD’s European profits are 45% higher than in China, meaning that market will still remain highly attractive even after the new tariffs are imposed.
What About Tesla?
For Tesla (TSLA), which uses China as its base for global exports including to Europe, the situation is also tricky.
The European Commission said Wednesday that the EV giant may receive an individually calculated duty rate at a future stage following a request by the carmaker.
In a message posted to its website in several European countries Thursday, Tesla said it expected to have to raise prices for its Model 3 from July 1 because of the new tariffs.
Sebastian said additional duties above 21% would likely render Tesla’s exports from China to the EU uncompetitive.
Who’s the Winner?
That’s the big question at the moment.
Let’s seek an opinion from a leading authority, the stock market.
Please note Chinese EV Stocks Surge After EU Slaps Up to 38% Additional Import Tariffs
Chinese EV-maker BYD, which was the top gainer on the Hang Seng Index, jumped 8% during morning trade but pared some gains to trade at about 6% in the afternoon. Geely was up about 4% initially, while counterparts Nio and Li Auto saw their shares climb about 1.5%.
Joe Biden’s Position on Tariffs
The Above Tweet was from June 11, 2019.
On May 14, 2024, Biden changed his tune.
In case you are wondering, it’s a 100% tariff on BYD.
Also see Biden Wants EVs so Badly That He Will Quadruple Tariffs on Them
Astute readers will immediately notice the title of this post makes no sense. It’s not supposed to. But it is exactly what President Biden is doing.
Biden’s Brilliant Plan
As with the EU, Biden insists you buy an EV and he wants you to pay the most possible for it (no cheap BYD vehicles).
On top of it, Biden has a Green mandate with no infrastructure in place, no way to produce the needed batteries with US materials, and no way to get the minerals given China has a 90 percent monopoly on nearly all of the processing and most of the mining.
Nearly all of the critical materials are mined or refined in China. Yet Biden just blocked production in the US.
It’s a brilliant plan, if the goal is higher inflation.
The saving grace is Trump is likely to win the election, ending much of the Green madness.
Trump’s Tariff Madness
Unfortunately, although Trump will end Green madness, he won’t end Tariff madness. Trump proposes high tariffs across the board with a 60 percent tariff on China.
It remains to be seen who has the most damaging tariff policy. Is it Trump, Biden, or the EU?
I expect a recession will cool prices this year. But look further ahead. There are huge inflationary problems brewing everywhere due to terrible trade policy.
China Shock II Is Coming, the EU Will Be Hit Hard, Then the US
On May 17, I commented China Shock II Is Coming, the EU Will Be Hit Hard, Then the US
Germany is feeling the pinch of China shock. But the US is on deck too. A global trade war looms.
We are right on schedule for China Shock. And it will happen no matter who wins the election.
The EU is abandoning its De-Risking policy, now the decoupling has started – especially for the car industry
“Who’s the Winner?
That’s the big question at the moment.”
No it’s not. The big; relative (in absolute terms everyone looses when 10% of the world decide to commit collective suicide); winners are those who pay the least for the utility a BEV provides. Meaning, non-Europeans. Whose productive workers can now get by on lower, more competitive wages than their poor European peers. Eroding competitiveness of yet more European sectors.
“The European Commission said Wednesday that the EV giant may receive an individually calculated duty rate at a future stage following a request by the carmaker.”
Since, like, Musk is, like famous and has a, like, big butt and, like,yeah; “we” may deem and find and hold and feel and decide and judge and make up; completely arbitrary since that’s all idiots like us even understand, like, a,like different, like, rate and, like, you know….
Only thing of any value which can be determined for certain by this utter nonsense,is that the Ukranians who end up on the Russian side of the one-day new border, are; not a doubt in the world anymore; the lucky ones. Poor Zelensky: All those sacrifices. All for literally less-than-nothing.
“Brussels complains that Beijing offers generous subsidies to Chinese EV manufacturers, which is true.”
I wonder if any of these complete idiots have ever even considered which industry in China is supposed to be creating all the excess value which can then be channeled to so-called “subsidies” for everything else….
Probably not. Since 1) every single one of the idiots are, full stop, clinically retarded and absolutely nothing else, hence simply lack the literacy to even realize someone has to pay for others’s supposed subsidies. And 2)If there were not thus retarded, they would not be allowed to have an influential job in the undifferentiated idiotosphere that is the West in the first place.
The Chinese outperform the insults to humanity which makes up The Western nation states, because China is a freer, hence more capitalistic, country with a much smaller government. Not in any way different from how The US similarly outperformed Europe in the century leading up to WW1. Back when America still retained some freedoms.
Their smaller, more limited, government does result in Chinese industry having lower costs than European once-was-industry-now-is-just-lobbying-farms-with-some-makework-attached-to-aid-in-the-lobbying.
But China’s lower costs versus Europe, is not on account of China “subsidizing” its industry. But instead solely because The West anti-subsidizes; ROBS; its industry. Which they do, in order to maintain such idiotic, feelgood-for-the-retarded-and-entirely-useless-connected-leeching-classes delusions such as “Wall Street” generating ANY wealth, idiots “making money off their home”, idiots-squared “making money” by being “smart investors” blah-blah.
ALL the wealth that ANY of the above rackets; as well as from everything else stemming from any of the “ownership society” rackets; has to have been straight up stolen from productive Western industry. This theft adds up to several times what mere commies manage to steal over in China. Hence why Western industry faces higher costs than Chinese industry.
There are no other reasons; no matter how badly the dumber-than-garbage-bags rabble having been enriched by the childbrained rackets wishes that there was, so they could feel better about their complete waste-of-space selves.
And until the idiots and indoctrinateds of The West figures this out and rectify it, they’ll just continue falling further and further behind. There is simply no way industry can compete, as long as it is saddled with having to pay billions-to-trillions to enrich complete dead weight, zero-productivity wastes-of-space who contribute nothing.
Methinks this is along the lines of Government giving employees a raise so that Government can collect more income taxes and increase GDP statistics.
In principle I agree with you Mish. If the CCP wants to flood the world with below cost EVs, then I say back up the truck! Everyone should by two or three.
However with exploding batteries, failing structural components, remote control systems, and rife with spyware, I’ll take a pass. Most people don’t trust a Chinese made electric toothbrush, yet they’ll drive 75 down the highway with a Chinese EV?
Not for me thanks
If the makers of Chinese EVs want repeat customers and longevity in the US, the cars would have to be very durable to withstand the harsh climates, beat up roads and reckless drivers here.
Agree with the article that it’s a bad idea for the gov’t to impose tariffs which raise the price, decreasing affordability, thereby reducing revenues which could be used by the manufacturer to improve the product.
The greatest weapon against the threat of CCP hegemony is our number one export. Gayness. Its a demographics weapon. China’s demos are already in the toilet. Big Gay pulls the flusher. Climate crisis mania was a piece of the puzzle, but of course CCP industrial management has led to Chinese over production in all areas, solar, minerals, batteries, evs etc.
Do you receive from Big Gay salient points to discuss when we talk about China?
“To put EV’s into perspective, more than half are sold in China, about one quarter in the EU, and barely one fifth in the US”
To put Why they are being sold at all, anywhere, into perspective, please understand it’s because of: Massive “Government Subsidies”, Massive “Tax Breaks”, and additional “Policy Incentives”.
– China has the largest and most widely subsidized program (where 1/2 are sold).
– EU has the second largest and most widely subsidized program (where 1/4 are sold).
– U.S. has by far the least widely subsidized programs, the most convoluted program, and with Tariffs, mandatory on many materials purchased, including the lowest cost EV’s By Far on the Planet via China (where 1/5 are sold), and a lot (most?) of these purchases were for the rental industry, which has since punted, and is trying to unload them as cheaply and as quickly as possible before they become obsolete (good luck with that!), which has already started to occur…
Winner of the Most “Stupid & Hypocritical” comments I have seen in quite sometime: “This dominance in the EV sector has not only given China’s auto industry sustained growth during the pandemic but boosted China in its quest to become one of the world’s leaders in climate policy”
What a Joke…
P.S. Anything Subsidized gets more sales, because Taxpayers Cover the Overall Cost. What a sham/scam way of making (forcing business) something appear cheaper than it actually is. In the end, the Taxpayers (i.e. You!) Always PAY!!!
An important point about tariffs that is often forgotten is that they end up in the EU’s coffers. Therefore, EU tariffs don’t have to make sense, if they generate income for the the EU bureaucracy. They are hidden EU taxes. To be sure, I asked AI:
Question: Hello Gemini, when the EU for instance puts on tariffs on Chinese EVs, where does the money paid for this tariffs end. Does it stay on the account of the European Union, or does it go to the member states?
Answer: “The money collected from tariffs imposed by the European Union on imported goods, such as Chinese EVs, goes to the EU budget. This budget is then used to fund various EU programs and initiatives, such as agricultural subsidies, research and development projects, and infrastructure investments. While a portion of the EU budget is distributed to member states through various funding mechanisms, the tariff revenue is not directly allocated to individual countries. Instead, it is pooled together and used to support the broader goals and priorities of the European Union as a whole.”
Zero coverage about the floods in South Florida. Floods with no hurricane. The economic impact of these floods has more impact than China, EV or trade.
If you don’t live in southern Florida or never had then you would see the floods there as something exceptional when it’s not.
Correct. Flooding happens in Florida regularly without Hurricanes. The whole state is flat so any large amount of rain in a short period of time leads to flooding.
Summer is the monsoon season with heavy thunderheads building in the morning and diverging their torrential rain in the afternoon. I love it. California weather is too boring.
US and EU aren’t competitive because an excess of taxes, hyper regularions, DEI costs, etc. Tariffs are not the solution.
Very true, and when you add in a forced minimum labor charge, often the most costly expense to a company, you actually place a floor on your minimum. So now everybody else just has to stay lower than that shared number to compete. This is extremely easy for China, Russia, Middle East etc. to do, as the Leaders set their floors, and change them as required to stay competitive.
Chaos in West. Seems nothing is going to work.
Classic example of late stage societal collapse.
Simply Further Proof: They Eat Their Own!
“Since the European car makers are struggling in Europe, they wert to China where production costs are cheaper. The EU does not like that either, so it is taxing vehicles made in China by the European manufacturers.”
I recall the Classic Line in “Forrest Gump” – “Stupid is as stupid does.” And it just fits so many examples that the EU has done to self destruct from within (Hmm.. Sounds sort of familiar…).
I see the Likes of Poland, Hungary, Greece, France, amongst others including eventually even Germany, all coming around to intelligent decisions together, and brushing this all behind them. Canada was the Test Case, but that’s about to fail miserably. LaPen will see to it France jumps onboard quickly. Heck, it will be a domino effect, of rushing to the exits…
Five months after the Government scrapped subsidies for clean vehicles, the market for electric cars still has yet to recover.
Sales of new battery electric vehicles were down 62 percent in May from May 2023 levels. Plug-in hybrids fared even worse, with sales down 76 percent year on year.
https://newsroom.co.nz/2024/06/10/ev-sales-yet-to-pick-up-as-rest-of-auto-market-joins-decline/
Jeff – what’s the used market looking like?
To put EVs into perspective, more than half are sold in China, about one quarter in the EU, and barely one fifth in the US. This has the bar chart with numbers.
https://youtu.be/QfaRjncsjrA?t=422
China has lots of coal to burn for electricity. The US has lots of coal to not burn for electricity. Gets confusing …
Follow the account of “Eugyppius” on Substack and X. He has written many articles about how Germans fell for the ‘green’ scam at first, then backed away from it. Here’s one of his latest.
https://substack.com/home/post/p-145573486
Where have all the unsold Teslas gone ?
https://sherwood.news/business/elon-musk-tesla-extra-inventory-satellite-imagery/
Far, far away.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXAsWdzLRyI
6 minutes.
Venezuela with world largest oil reserves (but difficult to produce tar sands) heading for societal collapse.
Chevron pulling out.
Russia and China have loaned money to Venezuela for future access to oil.
Stay tuned.
Chevron had a strong foothold in California. Then Newsom decided “oil” was bad. Never mind he was raised by a Getty Oil lawyer father and adopted by the Gettys. LOL. California now buys Chevron oil not from California (those jobs permanently lost) but from Venezuela.
A reminder that Newsom is WEF trained, graduating in 2005 as a “young leader.” He’s clearly a foreign agent and cares ZERO for California and Californians. Also read Peter Schweizer’s latest book, Blood Money. Gavvy’s in it thick with China.
This is Venezuela not California.
Why do u think Russia and China are investing long term?
BTW, a Russian nuclear sub just pulled up to Cuba and is going to Venezuela next….
https://www.yahoo.com/news/russian-submarine-just-showed-off-183713993.html?ncid=facebook_yahoonewsf_akfmevaatca
Batteries and other components will come from China. High paying assembly workers
will be preserved. Consumers will pay higher prices, but union jobs will be protected.
Turkey has a target on it’s back. The Europeans are fed up with Erdogan who fused
his backbone with China.
They started developing their rare earth mineral farms in the 1990s. Anyone in Purchasing (for Manufacturing) can tell you this is true. They’ve been wanting to be #1 in the world for decades, destroying the USA.
Time to reshore for sure.
Europe is in a forced, panicked de-industrialization process caused by enviro-terrorists and WEF plants inside their own governments.
Worrying about some vehicle taxes when all of commerce is collapsing is the textbook definition of missing the forest for the trees.
Don’t care about some vehicle taxes that are rounding errors compared to the overwhelming anti-business attitude of Brussels.
What’s never talked about here is why the US and EU want to impose these tariffs and it’s all about taxes and revenue but not just from the tariff.
If BYD floods the car markets with $10,000 cars there is a much smaller amount of VAT or sales tax that can be imposed on the sale.
https://electrek.co/2024/03/06/byd-launches-cheaper-seagull-ev-9700-price/
So imagine 1m cars sold at $10,000 with a 6% tax in US or 20% tax in EU vs 1m cars sold at $50,000 at those same tax rates.
For the US at 6% tax, it means a tax difference of $3 billion vs $600m in tax revenue. It’s a loss of 5x in tax revenue.
It’s even worse for the EU at 20% VAT.
of course, insurance, maintenance and other expenses also go down with a $10k car over a 50k one so there is a cascading loss of tax revenue from the whole “car ecosystem.”
Car “owners” are the new tax host for the tax leeches and they will milk and bleed you dry. This is why the best car move is to not have one and build your life around not needing one. Eventually people will figure it out or go broke trying.
That’s a silly argument.
If you have to buy a 20000 EV due thanks tariffs and you pay a sales tax of 6% you pay 1200 dollars in tax.
If you buy a 10000 EV without tariffs you and you pay a sales tax of 6% you pay 600 dollars in tax. This seems like you pay less tax. Except that extra 10000 is then spent on something else (TV, vacation, hair cuts, restaurants etc) upon which you also pay a sales tax of 6% so that extra 10000 spent on something else also nets 600 dollars in tax for a total of 1200.
Either way you pay 1200 in tax on 20000 worth of goods/services. The difference in the 2nd case is you get WAY more for your money (car + all the other stuff).
You think in terms of binary transactions and not ecosystems. This is why central banks and governments love inflation because it continuously increases the tax base for more spending, taxes, and deflates away debt for those that can stay ahead of the game.
In your example, I wouldn’t spend the $10k savings on other stuff, i would invest it to earn more money but the people that have your mindset will find themselves poorer through more inflation, taxation and debt drag.
That’s how the game is played, if you don’t learn how to play it you’ll be eliminated from the board and placed into tent city.
Here’s where you make a mistake. You believe the market is infinite when in fact it’s finite.
So you personally might indeed invest that 10K. But as you noted, in general the population won’t. In fact it’s basically impossible for ‘everyone’ to invest the 10K because there are not infinite productive assets to invest in so at some point the economy runs out of productive assets (see China or even the housing bubble here) in which case investment goes into losing assets or money just gets spent on goods/services.
But coming back to tax purposes, even if you personally invest the 10K into something (buy a rental home, stock, bond etc) you transfer that 10K to another person who then spends it on goods/services (or they invest in something else) but at some point down the line someone gets that 10K and spends it in which case the government gets the 600 tax.
“In fact it’s basically impossible for ‘everyone’ to invest the 10K because there are not infinite productive assets to invest in so at some point the economy runs out of productive assets….”
We’re at $34 trillion in non-productive assets Tim and in a few years I’m sure it will be $50 trillion and more beyond that….but it may eventually break at some point, until then I’ll ride the money train.
At some point is the issue, as they want to control when and how often.
Or you have borrowed less to buy the cheaper car (the banks and finance companies lose). Or by buying the cheaper car you didn’t need that second job or overtime to pay for it. That reduces the governments income tax take.
Or you use the saved money to pay down debt. Again the banks lose.
Bottom line is smart buyers of cheaper cars don’t have to spend the money they saved by not buying the fancier car.
my point was the government doesn’t want “cheaper” cars, it wants expensive cars for more tax revenue. There is a net benefit when an asset (like a house) goes from $200k to $500k because the property taxes grow significantly. It’s “free” money to the city/county/state/fed to spend. it’s the same with cars now that the average price is approaching the cost of a house.
As I explained to you above, it doesn’t matter what the price is.
The Government gets the tax revenue regardless because the money is always spent by someone. The only way it isn’t spent is if you literally take out cash and put it under your mattress. Whatever else you do with it (spend, invest etc) eventually gets ‘spent’ on taxable goods by someone.
Interesting take… I see your point about wanting tax revenue for the Political Class (ie. Rulers), to force their Agenda, and spend on their wants and not their Countries needs necessarily.
Hmm… I will have to look deeper at this, but I initially look at this, as just another tax generating scheme. I think we can agree, that without tax revenue, Governments are broke, and have no way to push their agendas…
Mish quotes the Wall Street Journal “But Western auto makers are in this fix because those same politicians are forcing consumers to buy EVs. Brussels last year required that all new cars and vans be zero-emission by 2035. As more households down the income ladder are required to buy EVs, the market naturally will become more price sensitive and China’s cost advantages will increase.”
Historically, a developing place, like Vietnam, starts with bicycles, proceeds to scooters and motorcycles and then to low priced enclosed automobiles.
With government forcing consumers to buy EVs, and forcing the price of those up and our standard of living down, will we see the previous paragraph run in reverse, with few people having EVs, people turning to motorcycles and scooters, and ultimately to bicycles?
— I have already seen European Greens advocate for 15 minute cities, where everything a person needs is only a 15 minute walk away.
I suppose I ought to mention that when there are no more tractors and Big Ag breaks down, we may see a 1975-like migration of people out of cities like Phnom Penh to become peasants again and grow the food they need. Viva Cuba’s experience!
Trumps latest idiotic idea… he’s going to fund the entire US government through tariffs on ALL imports and eliminate income taxes. Guess who will end up paying for all those tariffs as they get passed on to consumers?
Stupid question of the day: “Guess who will end up paying…”
The same people who pay income taxes, sales taxes, property taxes, regulatory fees and administrative surcharges.
The only difference is how the corrupt, bloated bureaucracy collects its protection money – not how much
Once upon a time, before an income tax, tariffs funded the US government.
The government (federal, state and local) was a lot smaller then. Total protection money collected by government was smaller.
Citizens were happier, more free. Our standard of living was much higher.
Along came the academic know-it-alls, the “Karens”, the warmongers, the HOAs and an infestation of self proclaimed “experts” who f#cked everything up
Everything was better (for citizenry) when the government was much smaller
Our standard of living was higher before income taxes? Wow. Most people didn’t even have electricity or running water in their premises before 1913. Cars, air conditioning, refrigerators, computers, television, air travel, etc.
Our standard of living is much higher today.
And our standard of living could be much higher again if the tax take was much smaller and each person decided what to spend their money on in a user pays society. Getting rid of income tax would not mean you would go back to 1913 living conditions of no internet etc
PapaDave is an unemployed weenie who gets a tiny stipend check from one of Soros’ so-called non profits. PapaDave spends his day eeking out a living writing political agitation because he has no marketable skills.
Indoor plumbing and electricity were not invented by taxes or by bureaucrats.
Plumbing and electricity made us better off. Taxes made the working man poor, and allowed the laziest bureaucrats to be paid the same (and now-a-days MORE) than the person who works for a living.
Trump is a financial illiterate ! Biden is as bad , or worse!