I think we need to abandon the “he is bad at business, look how many bankruptcies he has had” because it distorts what is really going on and also assumes that he is the same as what we were taught in school both about business people and heads of states/governments, which is a specious assumption. When we assume that the business owner’s goal is to have a successful and profitable business and, therefore, Trump is bad at being a business owner, we miss the fact that Trump’s (and modern finance capital’s) version of business is to suck the value out for personal gain and leave an empty husk behind, which they put into bankruptcy, leaving the creditors holding the bag. “Trump’s businesses failed” but Trump succeeded (the old Monorail scam).
Likewise, we assume that Trump’s interests with the US align with the long-term well being of the US. Like his bankrupt businesses, Trump can personally succeed while the US completely fails. He doesn’t care that he might lose a trade war or a currency war because the US and the US people are the losers in that, while he still plans to personally come out on top of whatever mountain is left in the aftermath. It’s just like all the tech-bro billionaires building bunkers to go live in in other countries - their plan is to leave behind a hollow husk of the US and take all their gains to their personal libertarian paradise. They still “win” even though the US and the rest of the people there completely lose.
I think we need to abandon the “he is bad at business, look how many bankruptcies he has had” because it distorts what is really going on and also assumes that he is the same as what we were taught in school both about business people and heads of states/governments, which is a specious assumption. When we assume that the business owner’s goal is to have a successful and profitable business and, therefore, Trump is bad at being a business owner, we miss the fact that Trump’s (and modern finance capital’s) version of business is to suck the value out for personal gain and leave an empty husk behind, which they put into bankruptcy, leaving the creditors holding the bag. “Trump’s businesses failed” but Trump succeeded (the old Monorail scam).
Likewise, we assume that Trump’s interests with the US align with the long-term well being of the US. Like his bankrupt businesses, Trump can personally succeed while the US completely fails. He doesn’t care that he might lose a trade war or a currency war because the US and the US people are the losers in that, while he still plans to personally come out on top of whatever mountain is left in the aftermath. It’s just like all the tech-bro billionaires building
bunkers to go live in in other countries - their plan is to leave behind a hollow husk of the US and take all their gains to their personal libertarian paradise. They still “win” even though the US and the rest of the people there completely lose.