Disrupting the apple cart

The African proverb that "When the elephants fight the grass gets trampled" has an analogous significance to me as it relates to the topic of tariffs and It's impact on small businesses.

After my brief tenure as a reporter with the Mobile Press Register, I started a local newspaper in the early '70s. Without any significant capital but assisted by my fellow reporters from the paper and other local artists, we rocked along fairly steadily. 

And then, the "great shortage" happened. We were hit with massive inflation and part of that was because of the tariffs that hit newspapers, especially small ones like ours ("readers": free, artsy), especially hard. Because of the costs associated with the recession and, especially, the tariffs placed on Canadian newsprint, we went from being able to publish from 50 to 70,000 runs to just 10,000. 

I borrowed money to keep it afloat but eventually it was too much of a struggle. I sold it and was lucky enough to get hired as a paralegal by legal services where I wore a few hats; public benefits specialist, community organizer, pr, etc. 

I had taken the job, first, because I needed one, and, secondly, because I wanted to see if I was smart enough to be a lawyer. I was happy in my job. I was well-paid, respected, and, most importantly, I was doing some really good things for the community. 

Then, Reagan happened. 

I spent the last year of my legal services tour crying in my office, frustrated at my impotency in helping our clients. On top of everything else that was happening in the country, the "government is bad" folks had plunged everyone, including, the marginally - employed middle class into a crude cold bath. The same folks who had voted for him were now finding the bumpy reality of the gilt-paved welfare Cadillac streets, horrible before, but now almost non-existent.

  

I jumped to law school.

I had been horrified by the actions of the Reagan Juggernaut - and, as a side bar, that includes Iran Contra, October Surprise etc. The impact of their attack on the social welfare system, at that time, I thought to be the height of cruelty and counterproductive. When he left I thought we had passed our darkest moments.  

I was wrong. 

Compared to Trump, Reagan is Eugene Debs. Unlike Reagan, Trump is indiscriminately flailing around trying to make happen his loosey-goosey public policy notions and they center around his fixation on tariffs. Like the kid stealing from the apple cart, he pays no heed to the manner in which things are stacked and is indifferent to the dangerous potentiality of his actions.

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