Feb. 27, 2025 - Freedomain Radio - Stefan Molyneux
04:59
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| Time | Text |
|---|---|
| All right. | |
| Steph, what do you think is the biggest benefit of Trump's tariffs for the U.S.? Well, I assume that the biggest benefit of Trump's tariffs for the U.S. is that it's a negotiating tactic, right? | |
| You have to have something to come to the table with as a negotiating tactic. | |
| So if you threaten tariffs, and this has already worked, right, in terms of dealing with fentanyl and some immigration issues. | |
| So, you have to have something to come to the table with. | |
| Most people, of course, do not negotiate from a moral standpoint. | |
| Because you don't really negotiate from a moral standpoint. | |
| You just remind people of their morals, right? | |
| So, if you have a deal, which you should have, of course, you have a deal with your wife or your girlfriend, it's like, we don't call names, we don't raise our voices, we don't threaten, we don't intimidate, that kind of stuff, right? | |
| So, that's not a negotiation. | |
| That's a thing you set up ahead of time. | |
| You're solid on it, right? | |
| So you don't really negotiate that stuff. | |
| And then you just remind people that the purpose of morals is to be reminded. | |
| And when it comes to conflict with your significant other, you have these baseline rules, and let's say that you start raising your voice, and she's like, no, no, no, we don't raise voices. | |
| That's not a negotiation. | |
| That's just reminding you of the rules, reminding you of your moral rules. | |
| So most people don't negotiate from a sense of morality, right? | |
| So if you were to go to some other country where the leaders really believe in free trade and there are these tariffs, you'd say, oh, listen, I'm not here to negotiate. | |
| I'm just here to remind you that we don't, you know, we're free trade people. | |
| We don't really do the tariffs. | |
| Right, I completely forgot about that one. | |
| Let's work to eliminate it because that would be sort of shared values. | |
| So the purpose of shared values is it bypasses negotiation and Really, all you do is remind people, right? | |
| You remind people. | |
| And then, oh, thank you, you're right, I called you a name, I'm sorry, we're not supposed to call names, but I agreed to that. | |
| So you're just reminding people, right? | |
| You're just reminding people. | |
| Like, you know, if you don't pay your bills, like you contract to pay a bill, you don't pay your bill, you don't get negotiation in the email, you get reminders. | |
| Hey, you promised to pay this bill, pay your bill, right? | |
| These are sort of reminders or prompts or whatever it is to say, do the right thing. | |
| So when you're sort of in the chilly, amoral, interstellar spaces between countries, the only thing that works is leverage. | |
| There's no particular morals that you are going to be able to remind people of and have them change their behavior. | |
| So the only thing that works is leverage, right? | |
| So when you're negotiating moral issues, it comes down to financial haggling, right? | |
| You know, when you're trying to buy a car and you're haggling about price and features and benefits, or you want to raise and you're negotiating with your boss about the raise. | |
| So those are not moral issues, right? | |
| Those are just financial ranklings. | |
| And countries negotiate with each other absent of morality, and so you need leverage. | |
| And how do you get rid of tariffs? | |
| You impose tariffs. | |
| So, right, it's sort of like if you... | |
| You're supposed to have a monogamous relationship, right? | |
| You're supposed to have a monogamous relationship. | |
| And your girlfriend says, I want to go sleep with some other guy. | |
| And you just remind her and say, no, no, no, we're monogamous, right? | |
| Oh, let's say you're married, right? | |
| And you've got kids and, you know, there's a lot of high stakes thing going on. | |
| So if you're married and your wife says, I want to go sleep with other guys, then you say, okay, well, then I'll go sleep with other women. | |
| Oh, no, I don't want that, right? | |
| So that's just, that's leverage. | |
| And it leverages what happens when you don't agree on moral values. | |
| If you don't agree on moral values, then you have to go with leverage. | |
| So, I mean, one of the reasons that Europe has outsourced its defense to a significant degree to America is that, or other countries as a whole, they're going to have a sort of significant issue. | |
| If they go to war, because if they go to war, there will be rebellions in their capitals. | |
| There will be rebellions in their home countries, and they probably will be quite paralyzed in terms of warfighting abilities. | |
| All right. | |
| You know, some new immigrant probably ain't going to want to be drafted, right? | |
| so it's not going to work out too well. | |
| I'm sorry about that, but thank you for the tip. |
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