European guy, weird by default.
You dislike what I say, great. Makes the world a more interesting of a place. But try to disagree with me beyond a downvote. Argue your point. Let’s see if we can reach a consensus between our positions.
I followed the link of a video here on Lemmy just a few minutes ago and it opened in the browser.
Nothing shocking up to this point.
Then I get a prompt from the video saying “Ready to buy products advertised in the video? Log into the official app in order to.”
Direct purchase through the YT app is a novelty for me.
Newpipe all the way.
Practical example.
I know this winery that usually exports nearly 95% of their production to the US. The owner spent a few decades there and made some contacts.
Last year, they had some problem with the american market and were forced to search for other venues.
They dropped their prices, opted to sell to our national market and did pretty much the same revenue they would have done exporting.
Exporting to the US is often the thirst for easy profit. Products that sell here for cents can be sold at a premium in the US, as it is the de facto luxury hungry market. Doesn’t really matter if it good; if is it expensive, it means it’s good.
Portugal mostly exports food goods to the US. I think cork, some clothing and shoes and some other items make up the basket, but in way lower quantities.
I’ve seen cheese and wine that are considered run of the mill here sold for ten times more in the US market. Which I consider theft.
This entire situation gets uglier the deeper we dig.
France and Italy could export to other countries easily or transform their cheap wine into properly aged wines and liqcours, with actual market value and product quality. Downsizing the industry wouldn’t be a bad idea, also.
Germany is already dwindling in their car industry. Could serve as a call to innovation an review of business practices.
I’m not great on economics but the concept of a tariff is that the entity importing something has to pay an extra levy in order to place in a market a given product.
This follows that an american importer of any trade goods of european origin will have to pay an extra thirty cents for each dollar such goods cost.
That extra cost will then be passed along the commercial chain, down to the final client.
So, prices go up for general public.
Meanwhile, nothing is stopping the country of origin of such products to divert their business to other countries, thus maintaining their normal activities.
Am I wrong or this whole thing is disastrous for the USA?
The EU is very strange. Yes, there is a global unifying policy but countries still have a wide autonomy.
Portugal has specific trade and travel agreements with individual countries, outside the wide EU policy. Other countries do this.
In this specific situation, we already know it will be the bloc handling as a whole the issue. Spain has already stated that all commercial tariffs must be addressed to Brussels, as it is part of the common external relations policy. But individual countries can add their twist to end.
Formal addressment.
It is an archaic way to address “officials” in public office, which ends up sounding as a preservation of royal/nobility occupation of positions, regardless living in a democratic regime.
It is argued as being a way to show respect and maintain dignity of institutions.
If want to write a letter to my municipal office, there is a template to be followed which starts with “To his/her Excelency, The President of the Municipality, Mr./Mrs. Dr. XXXXXXX”. This is loosely translated, obvioulsy.
Democracy yet not equality nor accountability.
I don’t give two cents for the american auto brands but spare me the drama: try and make a proper car.
Looking at Ford: try importing a few models from the european line and offer it in the states. Small, economic, somewhat reliable, fuel efficient cars.
Stellantis has a slew of models that could be brought into the american market. They make good cars.
And I’m willing to bet GM as a few models they build and market overseas that would be guaranteed sucesses.
Amazon basically solved this problem for me: they locked me out.
Under pressure for what?
It has already been stated that the import of food items, in detriment of the higher EU food standards, will not be negotiable.
Two simple examples: chicken and beef.
For beef, it would be as simple as stop pumping cattle with steroids and attest the origin of the animal, two things american rancher are unwilling and often unable to do. Argentina and Brasil sell meat to the EU. Isn’t the US as capable?
Stop washing chicken with chemicals (likewise, eggs), treat the animals properly, with good sanitary conditions, no steroids, and it will be fine.
But the real issue is that the EU already produces enough beef and chicken indoors. And meat consumption has been in a sharp decline. No one will buy what they don’t.
Besides these two, it would make a difference if the US stopped using artificial food colorings, with proven bad effects on health.
There are more issues.
Was that lamb properly cleaned? Sheep and goat have glands throughout the body that need to be removed in order to make the meat more palatable; it’s still edible, just unpleaseant and smelly.
I personally prefer adult sheep or goat. The meat is very though and oily but slowly roasted, with strong herbs, it breaks down and becomes tender. The fat in the meat is superb to cook root vegetables in.
Nothing against horse; unusual nowadays but it helped a relative of mine to ward off a serious malnutrition, leading to low blood iron levels. Game meats are game meats. I personally enjoy boar but not being a hunter makes it hard to source such meats.
Nothing wrong, per se, just non sensical.
The animal does not have much to eat, the meat is though and very fatty and heavily scented. Also, unless it is “fat”, it is not edible, leading to badgers in the area becoming leaner and more muscular.
Allso, it’s a protected species.
People eat badgers in my country… stupid people will eat anything.
We could just regulate tech companies and outright ban some practices but since we apparently don’t have time for rational solutions…
Well thought out sabotage can be written off to causality or involuntary human error.
Not giving notice of lay off is an abusive work practice and only shows how far we’ve allowed work conditions to degrade.
And that practice itself can be highly dangerous, if we consider a person can be midway into a complex task that can turn extremely difficult to follow by another: waste of time, resources, energy and money.
I do know they enjoy eating eggs from birds nests and other small animals are on the menu. But murderous?
Small acts of sabotage are easy to write off to causality, if well planned.
Stupid question but what is stopping the software engineers to poison the well?
Insert malicious code, self destructing functions, have entire batches of code lost or corrupted, hardware damaged, etc?
Cute as these animals are, considering their invasive status, I expect culling efforts.
I stand corrected.
Great. Fuck’em. It is the most stupid “industry” we, as a species, devised. Although I’m not that much of a fan of synthetic fibers, it’s better than sustaining this barbaric practice.