Trump Tariffs and the Ethics of Capitalism

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-tells-walmart-eat-tariffs-instead-raising-prices-2025-05-17/

Trump wants Wal-Mart to 'eat' the costs of tariffs and not pass the prices on to consumers. He knows this will cost him politically as the working poor (many of whom support his movement) will be hit the hardest by the price hikes.

And yet, his Right-wing and Wall Street allies will take an ethical exception to this advice. In the contrived mammonist ethics of Capitalism, the investors come first. If there are costs that need to be 'eaten' - the price must be paid by someone else. Short a supplier, raise retail prices, but don't do anything that would harm profits and thus dividends. They receive the 'ethical' priority.

It is of course a bogus ethic premised on an unscriptural concept of labour. I say this knowing that some Christians will twist and pervert some of the parable teachings of Christ in order to support their view. But they are mistaken having misunderstood the nature of parables and that their arguments to this end are self-defeating. They have missed the very Kingdom mysteries the parables reveal and have instead taken Christ's words as mundane maxims and worldly wisdom - something He warned about.

Trump like many a sociopathic would-be dictator wants people to fall on their swords to his benefit. For Trump, there are no ethics apart from loyalty. If you're loyal to him, you will suffer loss. You will take a lesser dividend. You will pay a higher retail price. You will not make any move that will harm his profile and standing. He is a megalomaniac and like so many of that stripe, he views himself in messianic terms and those who resist are heretics.

How many professing Christians will put his cult and its ethics above all else? I cringe when thinking about it.