this post was submitted on 08 Apr 2025
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European Union leaders will consider imposing 25 percent tariffs on a range of US imports, including steel, clothes, and food, but not bourbon or other alcoholic drinks, following US President Trump’s decision to impose tariffs on imports from the EU.

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[–] MyOpinion@lemm.ee 155 points 6 days ago (9 children)

Big mistake. They should focus on Bourbon and food. That will hit MAGAts the hardest.

[–] Skiluros@sh.itjust.works 88 points 6 days ago (6 children)

No, bourbon and food is small fry.

Internet services headquartered in the US. That's the real deal.

Require a $100/per computer/per year on-going tax (phased in very slowly over 36 months, with extremely slow ramp in the first 18 months) for every enterprise Windows installation. Then figure out a similar approach for cloud computing and mobile enterprise (targeting Android/iOS). That's how you grab the Americans by the balls.

[–] eric5949@lemmy.world 47 points 6 days ago (16 children)

That windows tax sounds like a way to bring about the year of the Linux desktop and I like that idea.

[–] Skiluros@sh.itjust.works 12 points 6 days ago (1 children)

That windows tax sounds like a way to bring about the year of the Linux desktop and I like that idea.

I recognize the irony of "year of linux on the desktop", but we (not only EU, I say this as someone from non-EU Europe) should not be giving the Americans money. They've proven that they are unreliable and unwilling to deal with corruption and degeneracy in their country. No disrespect to sane Americans, but at the end of the day they too need to make things happen.

[–] eric5949@lemmy.world 12 points 6 days ago (1 children)

For the record, I'm american. Entire current situation aside, I would prefer my chosen operating system have more support and if I can at least get that out of the destruction of the only country I've ever lived in I mean that's something I guess.

But yeah you probably shouldn't be financing the Nazis of the 2020s that is true, and taxing people who do would probably cut down on that.

[–] Skiluros@sh.itjust.works 3 points 6 days ago (1 children)

As I said, no disrespect to sane Americans.

I've lived in the US and travelled extensively around the country (not only Manhattan and north-western part of LA), there are many sane Americans even in provincial pro-corruption hotspots.

But until the sane Americans implement true anti-corruption, judicial and election reforms (no Obama style "hope and change" bullshit), it is reasonable to expect nothing good to come out of the US. Even if a hypothetical Michelle Obama administration takes power in the next election (which is a giant if), that's not going to change anything until the Americans stop treating their oligarchs and criminal groups as sacred cows.

[–] eric5949@lemmy.world 6 points 6 days ago (1 children)

You're preaching to the choir man I've been beating this drum with increasing volume for years. We need 20 million+ of us on the national mall demanding a new constitution and government under threat of 1789 and I don't honestly know if that's possible.

Michelle Obama or any Dem won't be taking power in 2028, if the above doesn't happen 2028 isn't a real election and if it does the United States Government as it currently exists doesn't anymore so who even knows what the structure of our government will be.

Idk don't count on us getting our shit together, trump could literally genocide Hispanics on American soil and 1/3 of Americans would strongly approve specifically genociding Hispanics. Even if we recover from this, things will get worse for Americans as our empire crumbles, and in 40 years when I'm the boomer and my friends are all the boomers, we'll collectively beg for the good old days we grew up in when the American Empire was still strong, and we'll collectively vote for the new nationalists of the day to make America great again again.

I should mention that while I'm a fan of democracy and would never want to live under another system of government I do not and have never believed democracy to be long term sustainable. Maybe I would if I lived in a real one idk but y'all still got far right problems over there in most of the former empires so idk.

[–] Skiluros@sh.itjust.works 2 points 6 days ago

I honestly don't know what to say other than I wish you luck (no irony intended); it will benefit both you and me and you and our countries (and the world).

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[–] taladar@sh.itjust.works 38 points 6 days ago (2 children)

Lets be realistic here, everything from MAGA dominated states is small fry, they are not exactly the most productive states.

[–] terminhell@lemmy.world 2 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Devils advocate, most of those states are agriculture heavy. What do you mean by productive?

[–] taladar@sh.itjust.works 12 points 6 days ago

I mean they are literally some of the poorest US states with the lowest GDP per capita, the highest poverty rates, the highest rates of people who need government support,... and most relevant for this discussion, the least valuable exports.

[–] catloaf@lemm.ee 35 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Even better: services. Tariff Facebook ads, Netflix subscriptions, Office 365, Amazon Prime. If the corporations want to pull the strings in government, hit them directly.

[–] Skiluros@sh.itjust.works 7 points 6 days ago

Yes, that would be part of it. Windows on enterprise is just a good, simple example.

[–] FelixCress@lemmy.world 10 points 6 days ago

Invoke anti coercion regulations and suspend intellectual property rights of the US companies. Job done.

[–] Ideonek@lemm.ee 6 points 6 days ago (1 children)

I think that surprising amount of them are already located in Ireland for that and other tax related possibilities. Giant corporations are basically pirates sailing on lawless waters.

[–] Skiluros@sh.itjust.works 7 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Target HQ based on consolidated financial account reporting not regional HQ. Doesn't matter if you have a regional subsidiary in Ireland or Moldova. If the final accounts/HQs are US-based all transactions in Europe get hit with massive on-going subscription-style tariffs (since ICT services are largely subscription based).

[–] Ideonek@lemm.ee 7 points 6 days ago (2 children)

If only tax-evasion was so easily solved. The are not shy of restructuring completely just to fit into any gap that law created. On paper "BigBadCorpo US" and "BigBadCorpo Irealand" could be two completely separate entities, with BBCI turning zero to no profits becouse it license brand from BBCUS.

You would think that Worner Bross is a movie making company. It's not. On paper it's a company that lend very overprices movie equipment. To shell companies created solely for the purpose of creating one movie...

Taxes are hard and people who employ literal armies of layers have the edge over slow law making.

[–] Skiluros@sh.itjust.works 2 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Taxes are hard and people who employ literal armies of layers have the edge over slow law making.

While this is true, it's also a matter of desire and commitment.

Case in point, the US companies all publish consolidated accounts and often break out Europe, albeit sometimes it's EMEA not Europe.

You can target the final consolidated accounts and focus on revenues if the companies don't provide actual numbers for Europe (or if it looks like there is something fishy going on, which there is).

[–] Ideonek@lemm.ee 1 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Company A is in Poland. You regulate law in Poland. Company B is in USA. You don't regulate a law in USA.

You want to tax company A, based on company B report, that was created for 3rd party government?

[–] Skiluros@sh.itjust.works 1 points 6 days ago (1 children)

I recognize that this is not exactly a reasonable approach.

But sometimes (when the situation is dire and you're dealing with unreasonable, profoundly corrupt individuals that lack humanity) you need to take an active (not reactive) approach.

Literally just say "You made $20B (revenue) in Europe as per your 10-K, you will pay $4B and we don't care what you have to say because we both know you are dishonest and corrupt. Lying is not going to work!"

I am not saying that now is the time to use such measures. But to completely deny any active postures and solely leverage a reactive approach does not work.

[–] Ideonek@lemm.ee 1 points 6 days ago (7 children)

That's not unreasonable. That's a law-suit. They will get back all this money with surplus.

Imagine that you have a company A. And you legitimately licens something from 3rd party company B. That's your cost.

And you license something else from company C... that's your profit some how?

On paper your relationship with company B and C is identical. There is nothing tangible linking you to company C more than B.

And if you manage to find something, they will shift the structure and change it.

You probably pay higher taxes than some of those companies.

Pirates. Enemies of the human kind.

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[–] brot@feddit.org 1 points 6 days ago

You can do a lot against tax evasions - if you want. Yes, they will find loopholes. But you can close them. Quickly - if you want. They have literal armies of lawyers? Well, hire armies of clerks, they will pay for themselves and make laws without loopholes.

[–] alehel@lemmy.zip 1 points 6 days ago (1 children)

I feel that would grab our European balls more than theirs. Practically everyone is heavily invested in AWS, Azure or GCP with few actual European alternatives, and migration to a new provider being a massive undertaking for a lot of those projects.

[–] Skiluros@sh.itjust.works 2 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

I definitely agree, I work in the industry so I have no childish illusions about how painful this would be.

That being said, it is not completely out of the realm of reality. China still uses Windows/Android/iOS, but they have their own cloud providers and they are making massive inroads with respect to semiconductors and homegrown components. And they are working on getting rid of American operating syste6m and I think in ~10 years they will succeed.

At some point you need to make a call around whether using American tech is in your interests. Moving off American tech will never be easy, the question is when and how you do it and how you manage the pain.

And mark my words, the Americans are only going to get even volatile and chauvinistic. Unfortunately, the sane Americans lack risk-tolerance and motivation (they are in a broad sense too well off to care if their country moves from current early proto-fascism to full on facism).

[–] atzanteol@sh.itjust.works 26 points 6 days ago (2 children)

Yeah, that's an odd one to leave out. US alcohol isn't any form of necessity either.

[–] sirico@feddit.uk 8 points 6 days ago

Maybe there's a export like rye that the EU provides

[–] Danquebec@sh.itjust.works 2 points 6 days ago

Maybe it's to avoid tarrifs on European alcohols?

[–] Ledericas@lemm.ee 9 points 6 days ago (1 children)

kentuckys economy is exclusively bourban, or at least most of it.

[–] madcaesar@lemmy.world 5 points 6 days ago

And Kentucky is full of magats

[–] PotatoLibre@feddit.it 4 points 6 days ago (1 children)

They should tax digital products.

[–] MyOpinion@lemm.ee 2 points 6 days ago

Digital Providers are large donors but they are located in a blue state. Target the states with the votes that mater.

[–] Melvin_Ferd@lemmy.world 4 points 6 days ago

Right, why are countries not coordinating counter tariffs. Why isn't EU and Canada and others joining up to target some of the biggest donors and supporters

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