March 7, 2025 - Freedomain Radio - Stefan Molyneux
05:31
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| Time | Text |
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| So, yeah, so the trade war is Trump is sitting on the goose that lays the golden eggs, which is access to the US market. | |
| And he has absolutely every right in terms of the Chile international economic sphere of negotiations. | |
| He's got every right for companies that have a lot of tariffs on importing goods into exporting goods to their economies. | |
| The countries have a lot of tariffs. | |
| He's like, you've got a lot of tariffs on us. | |
| We are going to restrict your access to the incredibly Wealthy, decisive, and productive American economy if you don't fix immigration and fentanyl. | |
| We don't want a bunch of people pouring across the border, and we don't want a bunch of Americans, to the tune of, what, 100,000 a year, dying from fentanyl or other drugs. | |
| Is that... | |
| And again, we can talk about pure free market theory, and that's fine, but we do have to deal with the real world. | |
| Is it unreasonable to say, if you're sitting on a massive gold mine, That people should deal with you fairly in order to access it. | |
| The purpose of tariffs is to eliminate tariffs and restore free trade. | |
| But you cannot eliminate tariffs and restore free trade by asking nicely. | |
| You can't do it by having no tariffs when other people are putting tariffs on you and have for decades. | |
| It's not inflationary because in the 19th century, tariffs were 98.5% of the American government's income. | |
| 98.5% because no income tax, right? | |
| 98.5% of the American government's income in the 19th century was tariffs, and inflation was functionally 0%, because there wasn't a big central bank just printing a bunch of money, right? | |
| At least not consistently. | |
| So, I don't know if you've ever negotiated, and I've done, look, obviously I'm not far from it, right? | |
| But I have done a lot of negotiations with big companies, Both domestically and internationally, and negotiations are a carrot and a stick. | |
| They are a carrot and a stick. | |
| And the stick is tariffs. | |
| The carrot is access to the US market. | |
| Now, is it fair to ask countries who want access to your golden goose US market to say, control the fucking borders and stop killing citizens with your fucking drugs? | |
| Tell me how that's corrupt, insane, evil. | |
| I don't see it. | |
| Now, again, in an ideal world, free trade, absolutely. | |
| But unfortunately, in the world that is, the world is controlled by vainglorious, idiotic assholes playing for the mouth-breathing, low-IQ domestic base. | |
| What are you going to do, right? | |
| What are you going to do? | |
| It was like Zelensky, right? | |
| He craps all over Trump and Vance. | |
| And then, oh, it was so sad. | |
| It was so pitiful to see all through Twitter Zelensky then running to all of the other leaders. | |
| Oh, oh, oh. | |
| And all the other leaders like, oh, we got your back, cell boy. | |
| Oh, we got you, baby. | |
| Don't you worry. | |
| We love you. | |
| Fuck Trump. | |
| We love you. | |
| Oh, that's just so sad, right? | |
| I mean, that's just so pitiful, right? | |
| And then, of course, he's got to come back because the Europeans are like, well, I guess we could dig you up some Neolithic era. | |
| Flint bows in Canada can send, you know, probably two-thirds of an F-16, and they say, okay, thank you, right? | |
| So, it's just leverage. | |
| That's all it is, just leverage. | |
| And to act in the best interest of American citizens is to prevent illegal immigration, to prevent the flow of fentanyl over the border, and to restore manufacturing, because this is another reason why, when... | |
| An industry is what's called the rust belt for a reason. | |
| It doesn't come back without extreme action. | |
| Because the other thing, too, is that investors don't want to invest in the newly resurrected smoking crater of a former industry. | |
| So if the steel industry gets wrecked in America, and remember, the oil industry in America in part was wrecked and undermined because Saudi Arabia, a massive oil producer, of course, was funding environmental groups to oppose drilling. | |
| In America, right? | |
| That they were literally working for a fundamentalist dictatorship and it was not organic, right? | |
| It was just funded by people who make more money if America doesn't drill its own oil, right? | |
| So, what are you going to do? | |
| Are you just going to cling to abstract principles that nobody else is clinging to and watch the whole country go down the drain? | |
| I don't see how. | |
| Like, if you're playing by the rules and everyone else is cheating, you're going to lose. | |
| You're going to lose. | |
| So, if you want to look at it from a libertarian standpoint, you would look at it from the proposition of self-defense, right? | |
| Other people are initiating force against American producers by putting tariffs on exports from America, and so you are responding in kind, which is a form of self-defense. | |
| So I hope that helps. | |
| Yes, yes, yes. | |
| So good. | |
| Thank you, Taylor. | |
| FreeDomain.com slash tonight. | |
| If you find this, I would really, really appreciate that. |
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