this post was submitted on 05 Aug 2026
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[–] Abyssian@lemmy.world 36 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (5 children)

Let's be honest. The highest estimates I find are around $160 billion in illegal tariffs. If we split that evenly it would work out to around $640 for every person over 18 in the country.

What good would giving 250 million people each $640 do? For 99% of them it would be gone as soon as they got it. They'd waste it on things like rent, bills, food, gas money. Temporary things. Within a month almost no one would have anything to show for it.

But giving a relative handful of large companies hundreds of millions to several billion dollars each? For them it's pure profit. Their bills are already paid. They've already used the profits from that year for stock buybacks to get their wealthy shareholders more money and divided the rest giving their executives huge bonuses. And now suddenly they all have huge amounts more profit almost out of thin air.

It's money to invest in AI to replace human labor so the coming years can be even better, to do even more stock buybacks so that the people who own the most stock in each company see huge increases in their net worth, or do give CEOS a second round of yearly bonus. Months and years from now there will still be amazing homes, yachts, private islands, and new faces that we'll all be able to point to as the lasting good that came from this.

[–] Crackhappy@lemmy.world 15 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

Man for a second I thought you were serious and was getting my pitchfork ready. Bravo.

[–] Abyssian@lemmy.world 8 points 21 hours ago

I mean... don't put it away. You should still take the opportunity to make sure it's nicely rusty and dull. We do need everyone to have them ready. That sarcastic message of mine is still describing what the government and corporations actually did to us. And they're not raping and killing their own kids. Well... they probably are raping their own kids too. But not killing or possibly eating them.

Since they're now all in charge of investigating and arresting themselves and their buddies and passing laws to stop their own blatant corruption it seems that us stepping in with pitchforks might be necessary very soon.

[–] dejected_warp_core@lemmy.world 3 points 23 hours ago (2 children)

What good would giving 250 million people each $640 do?

You say that, but something a lot like that already happened: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_Stimulus_Act_of_2008

Most taxpayers below the income limit received a rebate of at least $300 per person ($600 for married couples filing jointly). Eligible taxpayers received, along with their individual payment, $300 per dependent child under the age of 17. The payment was equal to the payer's net income tax liability, but could not exceed $600 (for a single person) or $1200 (married couple filing jointly)

Most everyone I knew spent it on HDTVs. Economic stimulus indeed.

[–] mangobanana@discuss.online 2 points 3 hours ago

No matter what they spent it on, it was still stimulating the economy.

[–] Abyssian@lemmy.world 9 points 23 hours ago

You think I don't rem... oh Christ, it was 18 years ago? There really are people here who wouldn't remember it.

Yes. I know. I'm sort of surprised anyone could read my post and not see all the sarcasm. I do not really believe that spending money on food or rent is wasting it. It's needing to use that money in order to keep living. Companies getting it all to make the rich richer and buy yachts and new faces is not something I actually consider to be better.

[–] thermal_shock@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

Even if it was $6, refunding it to us and showing a little respect for a major cash grab fuck up would work wonders.

[–] beernacle@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

You forgot to add 'in greenland' at the end. That's why they want it they can set up billionaire land while the rest of the world is 50C in summer.

[–] Abyssian@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago

Ooh, good point. I hadn't thought much on it beyond the minerals thing the news likes to go with. That's far more likely.

[–] muusemuuse@sh.itjust.works -4 points 22 hours ago (2 children)

Your argument amounts to “you dont get your stolen money back because you will spend it irresponsibly.”

Thats sovcit-level quackery.

[–] merc@sh.itjust.works 8 points 21 hours ago

You ate at the onion.

[–] Abyssian@lemmy.world 1 points 21 hours ago* (last edited 20 hours ago) (1 children)
[–] muusemuuse@sh.itjust.works 1 points 21 hours ago

Sorry, that response wasn’t for this post, it was for another one. I’m not sure why it went to yours.