{"id":7835,"date":"2025-04-29T09:29:09","date_gmt":"2025-04-29T13:29:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dahlman.online\/?p=7835"},"modified":"2025-04-29T09:29:12","modified_gmt":"2025-04-29T13:29:12","slug":"into-the-sea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dahlman.online\/index.php\/2025\/04\/29\/into-the-sea\/","title":{"rendered":"Into the Sea"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Meme Battle<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Facebook is a battle zone.\u00a0\u00a0What used to be a \u201cplace\u201d where folks would share stories about their kids, or try to sell old lawn furniture, or ask for that giant pothole to get filled; is now ground zero for our political wars.\u00a0Somewhere in the middle of \u201cBuy Wings at the Depot<\/em>\u201d and a \u201cSchool Record relay team<\/em>\u201d, this appears:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s part of the ongoing battle for \u201cyour mind\u201d, and you don\u2019t even see it coming.\u00a0\u00a0One \u201cmeme\u201d doesn\u2019t make a dent, but the insidious impact of one after another, interspersed with \u201creal life\u201d stuff, seeps into your brain.\u00a0\u00a0Then, deep in the middle of the night (for me), you think about how persuasive this unrefuted, undiscussed, out-of-context statement might be.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tariff\u2019s in History<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Other than in History class, most Americans don\u2019t think much about tariffs at all.\u00a0\u00a0We might vaguely remember tariffs as part of the arguments between the North and the South prior to the Civil War.\u00a0\u00a0And, if you really paid attention, you might remember something about tariffs protecting American goods in the \u201cGilded Age\u201d of the 1880\u2019s and 90\u2019s. Or\u00a0\u00a0maybe the 1930\u2019s Smoot\/Hawley Act, part of Republican President Hebert Hoover\u2019s failed attempts to end the Great Depression.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But tariffs are front and center right now, even on Facebook. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Boston Tea Party<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Americans should recognize tariffs.\u00a0\u00a0It\u2019s part of our national \u201clore\u201d, the legendary fabric of our \u201corigin story\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0In 1773, the British Government needed money to pay for the standing armies they kept in the American colonies.\u00a0\u00a0Those armies protected the colonists from attack by the Native Americans,\u00a0\u00a0but also kept the colonists themselves under control.\u00a0\u00a0So to raise revenue, the British instituted a tax on a staple import, tea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Who paid the tax?\u00a0\u00a0The folks who consumed the tea, the colonists.\u00a0\u00a0Where did the tea come from?\u00a0\u00a0The British East India Company had a monopoly on the importation of tea.\u00a0\u00a0And why were the colonists upset about the tax (the tariff) on tea?\u00a0\u00a0Because they had no say in the law, no vote.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So a bunch of Boston\u2019s finest citizens dressed up as \u201cIndians\u201d in the dark of night, marched by torchlight down to the harbor, boarded the British East India Company ships, and dumped hundreds of chests of tea into the sea.\u00a0\u00a0They used phrases like \u201cNo Taxation without Representation\u201d, and had a catchy name for their little event, \u201cThe Boston Tea Party\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yep, we were fighting about tariffs before we were even a country. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In Fact, a Tax<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Now, no one today is going to march in the dark of night on the Baltimore Harbor and dump giant cargo containers into the sea.\u00a0\u00a0But there are some important lessons from the Boston Tea Party that do apply today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
First of all, the British tariff on tea was, in fact, a tax.\u00a0\u00a0And the consumers of the tea, the Boston \u201cIndians\u201d, knew full well that they were the ones being taxed.\u00a0\u00a0So let\u2019s not fall for the idea that the British East India Company then, or Toyota or Intel or Apple today, are going to \u201ceat\u201d the tariff costs.\u00a0\u00a0Just like the cost of tea, those taxes are going to be passed onto the consumers, us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So when President Trump (claiming emergency powers when an emergency doesn’t exist) says that tariffs will cost \u201cthose other countries\u201d money, he\u2019s just wrong.\u00a0\u00a0The Tea Tax wasn\u2019t paid by the British East India Company, it was to be paid by the citizens of Boston.\u00a0\u00a0The cost of our Intel chips (on almost every \u201csmart\u201d device) may double.\u00a0\u00a0And we, the modern citizens of Boston, will have to pay the difference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Give It Up<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
And what about the glib Facebook line?\u00a0\u00a0Well, they\u2019re right.\u00a0\u00a0If you don\u2019t buy imported goods, you don\u2019t pay tariffs.\u00a0\u00a0The problem for the colonists was that tea didn\u2019t grow in the colonies, it grew in India.\u00a0\u00a0And, like today, the colonists were as addicted to caffeine as we are to coffee.\u00a0\u00a0So it was a tax on a staple good that colonists didn\u2019t want to give up.\u00a0\u00a0(And, dumping the tea in the harbor didn\u2019t make the cost of tea go down.\u00a0\u00a0But it did hurt the bottom line of the British East India Company, a loss that reverberated all the way back to their political friends in London).\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So, let\u2019s give up products that need \u201cchips\u201d (from Taiwan).\u00a0\u00a0Or give up the wood to build our houses (from Canada). Or give up shoes, 95% of them are imported.\u00a0\u00a0That way, we\u2019ll never have to pay Trump\u2019s tariffs.\u00a0\u00a0As long as we don\u2019t have to give up coffee (99% imported).\u00a0\u00a0I\u2019d put on war paint about that.\u00a0\u00a0And I wouldn\u2019t dump it in the sea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019d sit down on the deck and make a pot.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dahlman.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/482090768_9271568829565201_2435063842744570298_n.jpg?resize=840%2C530&ssl=1\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n