Willie Nelson • $5 T-shirts • Equity in America
Is it time we encourage wealth and facilitate the creation of economic standing?
Oh lawdhammurcy! CNN with more doomsday despair. It’s time to say goodbye to the $5 t-shirt. Trump tariffs mean a 25% increase in imported clothing price, thus we’re now faced with $6.25 t-shirts!
What’s a man to do?
Look, we all know the $5 t-shirt was bullshit. I mean, 10 years ago that same t-shirt was $5, and 10 years from now it’s gonna be $5, with no bearing on jobs or industry in the US - right?
The work/detention camps in Xinjiang rarely provide charts on labor data to their employees, and no words in the Chinese language can translate “living wage”. The “living wage” in these places is ‘you get to live for as long as you hit your daily t-shirt quota.’
Hey, in a land of 1.4 billion people, the corporate ladder resembles the Bataan Death March.
Oh, and 97% of your closet is imported. Trust me.
American Industry
Pick an American industry, any industry will do. You can overlay it against this chart of the US textile industry, and it will look oddly similar.
^ Yes, that’s cutting an entire industry in half across 25 years.
^ Here’s a chart showing the value of goods imported from China in roughly the same timeframe, which moves in the opposite direction.
Decision Time
Jobs? Or $5 t-shirts.
We can drive around America looking sadly at gutted towns left by the wayside - thriving towns that have seen thriving industry replaced by zombies snorting Oxycodone out of the gutters on the way to and from their meth trailers.
We can talk about the good ol’ days - tell me about ‘em, grandpa. We can wonder what happened to the American Dream. We can wonder what happened to the middle class - I mean, we’re supposed to be middle class, right?
Here’s a REALLY sad chart:
^ Productivity has doubled, yet the hourly worker is making the same money he did in the 1970s, when adjusted for inflation. Is this import strategy working out for us?
Canada
Canada has the same problem. When the Canucks got mad at Trump over his tariff and annexation threats, “Canada is Not For Sale” hats went viral. It seems everyone in Canada was wearing the hat and giving important TikTok speeches.
As it turns out, the hats were all imported from Vietnam, Bangladesh, China, and (get this) the U.S. Irony, eh?
So, it turns out, Canada is indeed for sale.
How The Hell Does Willie Nelson Factor Into This?
I read Willie Nelson’s autobiography, where he talks about recording his classic “Red Headed Stranger” album in 1975. The book details 6 days of recording, with studio costs totalling $4,000 (around $650/day). This hit close to home, given that I worked in the recording industry and I am very well-versed on studio rates.
When I moved to Nashville 15 years after this record was made, studios at $650/day were on every corner.
Guess what? In 2025, 40 years later, you can easily record at most any studio in Nashville for $650/day. In fact, $650/day is probably on the high side.
So, from 1975 to 2025, studio rates stayed the same. A flat line. Yet people still go into complete shock when they read the news of Nashville studios being bulldozed so condos and high-rise office spaces can be built on the land. Cracks me up…
Over the same 50 years, utility rates, property taxes, maintenance rates, insurance rates… about everything hammering your physical overhead has increased exponentially, while the rate you can command for your studio stays the same. At least Nashville (so far) sees little pressure from Guangzhou’s Music Row.
In addition, I got $15/hour as an assistant engineer when I started working in Nashville in 1990. Adjusted for inflation, an assistant engineer should be making $40/hour today. I’m going to guess today’s rates are a lot closer to $15 than they are $40. Maybe someone can chime in.
But hey, the people who can’t figure this shit out are the same people thinking they can buy $5 t-shirts with no repercussions on American economics. And then we wake up one day as a president offers a new path and a new idea, and we say “huh”?
Sad.
End the Facade
Look, it’s time to end the facade. There’s a fork in the road. We can sell America on the low bid, or we can strap it on and get to work. For far too long, America has ceded its worth to the lowest common denominator, both in our society and in the global economy as well. No more. Our options?
Status Quo - Selling America on the low bid - not working
The American working class is being gutted, as domestic manufacturing is outsourced to cheap labor in countries with fewer regulatory burdens. We get fed the promise of cheap goods, yet we have nothing to buy them with.
Our wages are stagnant, despite a lot of worker union rah-rah and political promises year after year after year. How long do we play dumb? NAFTA, the WTO, Paris Climate Accord, the UN, NATO - we’re on the losing end of the stick,
Tariffs - blah, blah, blah
The pass-through rate on tariffs is near 100%, meaning U.S. consumers bear most of the cost rather than foreign exporters.
Tariffs are regressive, hitting lower earners harder (2.5x the burden on the second income decile vs. the top).
Retaliatory tariffs could further raise prices by disrupting supply chains, yet there is opportunity to balance trade and encourage domestic production.
Corporate Taxes - blah, blah, blahblahblah
Raising corporate taxes to match tariff revenue impacts consumer prices, though less directly.
Corporations pass about 50% of tax costs to consumers, resulting in higher prices. Then we must trust Congress to responsibly “redistribute” the increased tax revenue in way where Americans will see/feel the benefit. Good luck.
The rest of the tax burden is absorbed by shareholders and workers via lower profits and lower wages - not good.
Tax The Rich - blah-blah, blahbbity-bullshit-blah
News for the AOC / Elizabeth Warren “PowWow Wealth Redistribution Club”. The top 10% earners in America earn 48% of the income and pay 72% of the taxes while accounting for OVER HALF of all consumer spending. Taxing them harder simply makes no sense. If anything, we should offer them tax breaks in exchange for investment in US-based businesses, job creation, and wage growth. Free up the capital we have here on hand for US-based investment.
Over 40% of Americans pay no income tax at all. Our tax base is severely tilted to the top. Everyone needs to have skin in the game.
America is based on stock market success. Sorry if that hurts your feelings. Even Barak Obama liked to point to the stock market as evidence of his presidential economic prowess, even though it meant the rich getting richer. It’s time to get every person in America invested in the stock market… how?
My Proposal - Equity & Inclusion
No, not the kind of Equity & Inclusion where the blind lady from Senegal gets promoted to Chief Graphic Designer.
I am talking about equity in our US-based companies and inclusion in the profits.
Social Security - It Should be Equity in America
Where does the money yanked from our paychecks for Social Security go? It’s a Ponzi. Right now, it gets paid right back out to those receiving benefits - classic Ponzi Scheme. If we’re lucky, by the time we reach retirement age, our benefits will cover rice and beans.
That money being yanked from our paychecks should be invested in the Wilshire 5000 - a stock fund that captures 100% of the investible U.S. market. A worker should be proud to see that money deducted, knowing he/she has an “account” that is being invested in America and that he/she has equity in our country’s success. This would also ensure our SS investment grows over time instead of falling behind inflation and purchasing power as it does today.
If Nike is going to pop a 35,000% profit over 25 years by having 7-year-old Vietnamese kids make our tennis shoes, we should at least get a piece of the action in our SS account!
Sovereign Wealth Fund
America’s greatest asset is capitalism - full stop. It is time to wield this asset patriotically. We’re losing the technology race, and going broke trying.
China, Japan, and Germany are wiping the field with our ass when it comes to technology and advanced manufacturing. We can’t match their investment in advancing the cause because we paid over $ 800 billion in debt interest in FY24. Ridiculous!
Adam Smith published The Wealth of Nations in 1776, just as Thomas Jefferson was wrapping up the Declaration of Independence - twin revolutions (American democracy + American capitalism) were born together, and then somewhere along the way separated, wadded up, and thrown away.
A mere $150 billion (DOGE can find it) invested in a Sovereign Wealth Fund earning 8%/year (see Alaska’s Permanent Fund) could grow to $300 billion in a decade, at which point we could give every child age 3 or under a $6,000 investment account in America. Furthermore, every child born afterwards would receive the $6,000 account when they receive their Social Security Number.
We’d soon reach a day when these kids would not have to file a tax return, but they’d get a check every year instead!
That, or we could keep shipping billions off to Ukraine so their politicians can buy French Chateaus and Bugattis. What is a better long-term investment?
Effect - Profit Sharing in America
Stop giving away government-funded innovations - the internet, GPS satellite technology, mRNA vaccines, etc. - for free. And stop letting the Chinese steal them. Leverage these as American investments, so that our future generations are not funding the success of private companies with their tax dollars, but owning their success instead.
Look, I love Elon Musk and SpaceX, but with a 60-year head start on the technology, why is NASA not the one swiping credit cards and launching satellites for every other nation on the planet? Come on…
Personal Experience
If you go into an Apple Store and the employee you meet has been working there for a decade or more, chances are they are quite well off. I knew several Geniuses and Product Specialists who worked for Apple for 10-15 years, who are millionaires. I’m not talking managers, I’m talking hourly employees who stayed around and invested in Apple via ESPP and RSU shares. I worked there for 8 years, and my Apple stock balance is quite fruity!
The effect of equity/ownership in American businesses is HUGE and, from where I see it, considered far too lightly. We give away far too much in America, or we auction it off at far too low a price. It’s time to change that!
“Money Talks, Bullshit Walks” - Bobbi Flekman
Today, we have our politicians clamoring around and complaining about who is rich, who got rich, who is getting rich, and how to punish those who are rich - all while they get rich themselves on our dime!
For the privilege, they do absolutely nothing across multiple decades to impact America’s standing.
^^^ Look at this chart! HALF of America is sitting stagnant, while steadfastly believing this President, or this Rep, or this Senator will be different. It does not have to be this way!
Sad…
Is it time we encourage wealth and facilitate the creation of economic standing? I think so.
Sincerely irreverent,
Todd