Marc Andreessen-

'Our Boston Dynamics SPOT robot cost $50,000. China has a similar product that looks and acts similar and is even hooked up to an LLM and it only costs $1,500.

This is all upstream from all the military applications because it's all the same supply chain. We have to confront this. Having this fragmented approach where we hate tech and then somehow think we can develop a competitive response to tech is not coherent.

We have no whole of government strategy on technology or China. Zero.

It turns out the President matters.'

The nation state and the quality of its government is a crucial factor in the wealth of nations.

Chinas politburo are mostly trained engineers who know if they do not deliver growth they will face removal- and not a quiet retirement but probable shame if not death.

Chinas state led mixed economy is delivering superior growth to the wests corrupt rentseeking parasitic crony capitalism.

The concept of ownership/property is an artificial, human construct. It goes with the man made construct of the state and the struggle for control of territory and resources that humans engage in. The struggle for control of energy and resources is as old as DNA.

I did not hear of Bitcoin until 2017- a geek friend told me about it and I was pretty much instantly fascinated and dived into it- even getting briefly interested in shitcoins but fairly swiftly coming back to Bitcoin as the only one of value.

Why was I instantly attracted to Bitcoin? Because after a life of being interested in economics, politics, business and current events I had already come to see the status quo western financial system as corrupt and needing change. The GFC led to the Occupy Wall st protests and we had them here too In NZ- which I participated in- but the feeling from that time was that peaceful protests on the streets were not going to deliver the change and accountability that was required- the bankers just sat back in their strongholds and laughed, and the law enforcement backed them.

So when Bitcoin was revealed to be an alternative, decentralised monetary system that was not controlled nor could be manipulated by any banker or government I was in. I did not expect it to grow in value the way it has but was simply happy to be able to hold my hard earned savings in a form that was directly under my control and free of rentseeking parasitic bankers and governments.

So the meme about getting Bitcoin at the price you deserve is imo a broad generalisation based on the willingness of anyone to choose an alternative to the corrupt fiat system- most people have never questioned the fiat monetary system and many who have would nevertheless stick with it because it has the stamp of authority and established power behind it.

Only buy Bitcoin if you want to be part of the peaceful revolution building an alternative monetary system to the fiat debt slavery bankers cartel that owns your government.

The ratio of debt servicing to total expenditure is probably higher than its ever been though.

Insolvency looms.

Only because it seems easier for you to attack the messenger than to respond with reason, fact and logic to the message.

I live in New Zealand and am certainly not a CCP bot or Chinese. New Zealand has practised very open trade for decades while the US has retained hugely obstructive trade stance toward us.

You use this dishonest and abusive name calling attack on me (not for the first time either) because you know you cannot debate the facts and issues in a fair and rational contest of ideas.

Your lack the confidence and ability to defend and support your ideas when they are challenged and so resort to childish untrue attacks on the messenger.

The tariff (goods and service tax(GST)) is charged on imports and NZ businesses- this in not contradictory. It simply creates a level playing field for domestic and offshore producers- retailers. For example previously aliexpress sales to NZ residents were not charged GST so they avoided the tax giving them an unfair advantage over NZ producers of similar products- now they are charged (since about 2018) and so the tax on domestic and offshore producers is equal. The US is the hypocrit as the US already charges sales taxes on imports and in fact restricts imports of multiple goods from NZ already for example dairy products which NZ produces much more efficiently than US producers can - yet the US acting as a sore loser and bully is now imposing tariff on NZ exports on top of the extensive obstruction of free trade with NZ that US already imposes. You 'dont have time for the rest of it' because you know you are wrong.

'The US’s calculation that New Zealand imposes 20% tariffs on US goods entering the country is “outside the realm of reality”, economist Brad Olsen says.

The US has imposed a 10% tariff on all New Zealand exports to the US, claiming that was a “discounted” rate as it faced 20% tariffs into New Zealand.

But that US calculation appears to include New Zealand’s 15% GST, despite the fact that it is charged on all goods and services sold in New Zealand, and despite the fact that the US has its own sales taxes.

“The inclusion of GST is simply not in keeping with what what we are discussing on tariffs,” said Olsen, chief executive at Infometrics.

“Realistically, it’s a convenient way to up the numbers, and create the feeling of greater unfairness,” he said.'

Trump is a looking like poor dishonest loser and a bully. USA set the rules of international trade and still lost the trade war. Now USA seeks to change the rules again to address its chronic trade deficits.

My country of residence charges ALL countries the same uniform tariff of 15% on all goods and has done since the 1990s.

This tariff is the goods and services tax that is charged on all transactions within New Zealand and so charging it on imports simply creates a level playing feild- ie free trade.

The USA in response has refused to negotiate any free trade agreement with us and maintains huge barriers to free trade meaning US consumers have been are still denied the cheaper and higher quality of NZ produce.

The US now loses all credibility by unilaterally reneging on the free trade agreements it had made with countries like Canada and Mexico.

The USA has lost the trade war with China and the rest of the world- it has grown fat and indolent upon the endless spigot of USD money debt printing - and now that USD hegemony is in decline the USA wants to change the rules to hugely distort the global trade markets.

It might buy the US some time but little else- it is most likely to result in a global fragmentation and the US ending up isolated and broke.

Europe and other traditional allies have already been trading more profitably with China and that trend looks like being accelerated by the US tariffs which make most trade with the US even less viable.

Scoff all you like - $36 trillion debt makes USA look insolvent and USD hegemony unsustainable.

ETFs enable a future where an EO6102B could be applied with considerable force and effect because they concentrate custody of Bitcoin into the hands of a few US domiciled institutions which could be forced to co-operate with such an order. In fact those operating the ETFs would benefit from such an order as it would serve to preserve their dominance under the dollar fiat standard system. ETFs are the fiat banksters Trojan Horse and they are now accumulating at a rate to control most of the supply within a decade.

The US chose to shift manufacturing to China because China could make things cheaper.

This delivered higher dividends to US corporates.

This is how free markets allocate capital and investment- to the use and purpose where they generate the highest returns.

Trumps tariffs seek to overtly distort market signals.

This only makes sense if you are heading into war and need to revive supply chains for strategic reasons...

China has won the free trade war by being structured to make things more efficiently than any other economy can.

China played the 'capitalist' west at its own game and beat them- now the USA wants to change the rules because it is losing at the game it set the rules for.

Presumably the national average build price/cost given is excluding land cost...and averages regional materials and labour cost variations.

Built DIY offgrid cabin in New Zealand for under USD$15k. Not big or fancy, but is very comfortable!

So now US consumers and businesses face a hugely distorted global marketplace. Paying higher prices than everyone else and likely to see increased production of goods within America that will only be produced in America because of the tariffs obstruction of free trade.

Trump is admitting that the US economy is not competitive and can only be artificially 'revived' by blocking free trade and thereby creating massive distortion of market signals.

This only makes sense if you are heading into war and need to revive supply chains for strategic reasons...

Theft? or compulsory purchase with people being paid the then 'market' price?

Wasn't a lot of it also gold held on behalf of European nations during WW2?

Taxing cigarettes doesn't reduce their use or help pay for the consequential health care costs? Really? I gave up cigarettes largely because of the tax on them.

The US once dominated global trade- after WW2 it was home to most of the worlds manufacturing capacity. At the same time is assumed global leadership in banking and money- the USD was established as the basis of the Breton Woods agreement. USA thus became the centre of the global financial markets. Even after the dollar/Nixon reneged upon the USDs central role under Breton Woods, as redeemable for gold, USA and the USD remained in place as central to the global financial markets. Since that time however USA has declined in importance as a trading nation- China today dominated global trade in manufactured goods and commodities. China is building its alternative trade payments network and increasingly trade is and will be denominated in Yuan- this process may still be gradual but there comes a point when a trend such as Chinas increasingly central role to global trade triggers a rapid decline in the central role of the USA and the USD. This is what Trump is seeking to delay, perhaps even prevent. His threats to BRICS nations if they continue to move away from USD denominated trade is recognition of the fragile and declining status of the USD. With Iran and Russia already selling their oil mostly for Yuan and Saudi Arabia joining the mBridge digital trade payments protocol the USD is close to losing its post Nixon petrodollar dominance.