And I only have one upvote 😒

Treat the American oligarchy like the robber barons they are

This would make Trump panic in the best way, it would directly undermine his aesthetic of Rich Asshole Who Other Rich Assholes Like.

This would be the largest W of the century, but I'm going to go ahead and manage my expectations

It's a super long read, but filled with nuggets that explain exactly how to hit the rich by taking away their money. The TL;DR is to repeal the country's anti-circumvention law then route the subscription money locally.

The Post-American Internet (permalink)

there's a third possible response to tariffs, one that's just sitting there, begging to be tried: what about repealing anticircumvention law?

It's hard to convey how much money is on the table here. Take just one example: Apple's App Store. Apple forces all app vendors into using its payment processor, and charges them a 30 percent commission on every euro spent inside of an app.. .. Apple makes $100 billion per year on it. If the EU repeals Article 6 of the Copyright Directive, some smart geeks in Finland could reverse-engineer Apple's bootloaders and make a hardware dongle that jailbreaks phones so that they can use alternative app stores, and sell the dongle – along with the infrastructure to operate an app store – to anyone in the world who wants to go into business competing with Apple for users and app vendors.

Those competitors could offer a 90% discount to every crafter on Etsy, every performer on Patreon, every online news outlet, every game dev, every media store. Offer them a 90% discount on payments, and still make $10b/year.

In addition, kick out McDonalds, Burger King and Subway. Better for general health too.

I'm pretty sure Ireland is where all the major companies are "headquartered" and technically keep all their money there for tax reasons. Ireland could just freeze the bank accounts of Apple, Google, Microsoft, Meta, Intel, ... Or do something similar if they so choose as retaliation. Would be devastating financially afterwards, but would get the US's full attention

Yep.

If Europe announced a 100% tariff on Amazon, Facebook, Microsoft, and OpenAI, Trump would be gone in a week.

Block billionaire's services and nourish European alternatives.

We already know how to do this, its literally the first thing we did when we sanctioned Russia for Ukraine. Target the business interests of the people actually making the decisions.

Tarrifs the fuck outta Tesla and spacex

Make all the IP of those billionaires unprotected in the EU. Maybe also get China on-board.

Forget taxing them, the ones who committed crimes against humanity (Zuckerberg with enabling the Rohingya genocide, Musk for the disastrous disorderly shut down of USAID).

And get rid of all American oligarch gang activity; Apple, Google, Meta, all of them.

You could enact or enforce laws that forbid a felon, or associates of a felon, entry to your country.

Who would want criminals, or associates of criminals entering your country?

You might name such an organisation Immigration Criminal Exclusion, or ICE for short

This was always the answer they were just too afraid of their own rich people until a land invasion seemed imminent.

No Tariffs. tariffs can be passed on to the poor, who have no part in this invasion. Start sanctioning the Billionaires & seize their assets instead.

Finally some fucking sense. Doing nothing and being mad has gotten no one anywhere. Hit them where it fucking hurts, bottom line be damned. Governments are not businesses.

I know some rich assholes here in the states... Put a 1000% tarrif on everyone visiting from the US. Nobody working class can afford it right now anyway.

Europe: sorry, best we can do is specific carveouts for US billionaire owned companies in our tax code....

The digital ID is a Larry Ellison project through oracle so it seems like the politicians really want to shove American facist billionaires into your government

you can do that by siezing thier properties and thier bank accounts(including thier investments).

Gary Stevenson is also good

The EU needs to divest its self of US technology. It’s clear we have gone down the drain and will no longer be considered a competent ally.

A billionaire tariff is a way less disruptive response than mass selling US treasury bonds. And it hits the people that might be able to pull zombie Hitler’s strings.

YES please. Tax Musk till he bleeds. This would be a massively successful and effective plan, since these billionaires would pressure Trump, which is just about the only way Trump would change his mind.

Hey, the argument against a wealth tax for these types is usually "but they'll move to somewhere else!"

Well, in this case, they are already somewhere else. Isolate these dipshits and get them stuck in the USA until someone with the balls to institute a wealth tax in the USA when they can no longer run away because the rest of the world is sick of their shit.

Fucking do it, Europe. Please.

Please do it! These people need to feel consequences and their finances are the only consequence they understand.

Yes immediate 90% tariff.

Even the freaking EU is trying to care for Americans better than USA

I feel like this implies that global powers are aware that the top 1% control the world. We know it, but hearing leaders admit it is not pleasant.

Europe, if you wanna get immediate change, threaten a tax against the whiniest economic cohort who have easy access to the USA president -- billionaires.