The Double Squeeze: How Tariffs and Deregulation Are Forging a ‘Slave Class’ in America

What if, beneath the rhetoric of “prosperity” and “America First,” a deliberate economic squeeze is tightening, designed to create a new, dependent underclass? This is not hyperbole; it is a chilling, logical conclusion drawn from the combined forces of Felonious Punk’s tariffs, falsely claimed to be paid by foreigners, and his Labor Department’s sweeping deregulation of worker protections. One might get the impression that the White House is attempting to create a “slave” class within the population.

Felonious Punk’s administration is systematically forging a “slave class” in America through a calculated “double squeeze” of economic policies: imposing devastating tariffs that force American consumers and businesses to pay inflated prices, while simultaneously dismantling over 60 critical workplace regulations to suppress wages and erode safety. This deliberate and cynical strategy reveals a profound disregard for human dignity, aiming to create a dependent workforce stripped of its rights and economic autonomy. It’s too perfect; it makes too much sense. And it fills one with a sad feeling that the genuinely free, democratic environment we desire is slipping away.

The Tariff Trap: Making Americans Pay for a Fantasy

Felonious Punk’s trade policy is built on a foundation of lies. He has repeatedly, demonstrably falsely claimed that his tariffs make foreign companies pay, that “They don’t take our cars. They don’t take our food products. They don’t take anything.” This is the language of a king who believes he can command reality, regardless of facts.

The undeniable reality, however, is that Americans are footing the bill. Bloomberg’s evidence is clear: “American businesses and consumers are mostly paying for the tariffs.” Companies like General Motors initially absorbed the blow, reporting over a $1 billion dent in profits. But forecasters know corporations won’t sacrifice profits for long. Walmart, once a holdout, now concedes it has “no choice but to pass them along.” This has led to “robust price increases for other commonly imported goods like toys and appliances.” The Yale Budget Lab chillingly estimates that Felonious Punk’s sweeping global tariffs will cost the average American household more than $2,300 a year.

His administration’s attempts to spin this are equally disingenuous. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent claims falling gasoline prices (a mere $200 annual savings per car) will offset the tariff burden, acting as a “tax cut.” This is a fraction of the actual cost. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projects tariffs will result in higher inflation and slower economic growth, not prosperity. The overall economic drag is immense, with the manufacturing sector already cutting 8,000 jobs last month due to tariffs. Importers like Patrick Allen, a wine merchant, face cash-flow crises, paying tariffs upfront before making sales, leading to “out-of-stocks on the shelves” and businesses “going out of business.” This is a king’s delusion, a fantasy played out with American livelihoods.

The Deregulation Deluge: Yanking Out the Bottom of Wage Control

Simultaneously, Felonious Punk’s Labor Department is unleashing a calculated “deregulation deluge,” attempting to systematically dismantle over 60 critical workplace protections. This isn’t about “slashing red tape” for efficiency, as Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer boasts. It’s a deliberate “dumping” of regulations designed to ensure that we won’t be able to handle them all, and some things—critical protections, basic rights—will fall through the cracks. The cynical timing of this move, just before Congress’s long recess, guarantees that “even if we do see something horrible, there won’t be anyone around to do a damn thing about it.”

The most egregious assault is on wages, setting a terrifying precedent for poverty. The DOL proposes to eliminate the federal minimum wage ($7.25 per hour) and overtime pay for an estimated 3.7 million home health care workers. This reverses Obama-era changes, reverting to a 1975 framework. NO MINIMUM WAGE on home health??? You see what they’re doing, right? This is a direct attack on a workforce “very heavily dominated by women, and women of color in particular,” who historically worked 50-60+ hour weeks without overtime. If they can get us to accept no minimum wage here, they’ll go from one industry to the next, trying to wipe out any wage guarantees at all. This is the terrifying path to a “slave class.”

Beyond home health, the assault on wages includes revoking minimum wage increases for federal contractors, retracting rules that made it harder to classify workers as independent contractors (denying benefits), and eliminating data collection for individuals with disabilities, undermining anti-discrimination efforts. They’re even removing collective bargaining rights from most federal employees in national security roles.

While wages are suppressed, worker safety is being drowned. OSHA wants to rescind requirements for adequate lighting at construction sites, despite critics warning of “many fatalities where workers fall through a hole in the floor” due to poor visibility. Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) district managers are being stripped of their authority to mandate critical ventilation and roof collapse prevention plans. Migrant farmworker protections are being gutted, rescinding seat belt requirements for employer transportation and reversing anti-retaliation rules, leaving a vulnerable workforce exposed to a “long history of retaliation” and abuse. OSHA’s “general duty clause,” a crucial safety net, is being proposed for exclusion from “inherently risky professional activities” like those of athletes, actors, and even journalists, a move critics warn will allow employers to “throw safety to the wind.”

The Strategy of Enslavement: A Calculated Disregard for Dignity

This is not about “restoring American prosperity” for workers; it’s about boosting corporate profits by “cutting corners and lining their own pockets” at the expense of human lives and dignity. The strategy is clear: overwhelm, obscure, and undermine. The sheer volume of changes, coupled with the cynical timing, is designed to make it impossible for Congress, unions, or advocacy groups to scrutinize every detail, ensuring that the most devastating impacts are buried.

The combined effect of inflated prices due to tariffs and suppressed wages and safety due to deregulation creates an unbearable economic pressure cooker. When people struggle to afford basic necessities and have no wage guarantees, they become more dependent, less able to challenge exploitative conditions. This is the mechanism for creating a “slave class”—a workforce stripped of its fundamental rights and economic autonomy. The administration’s actions demonstrate a profound, callous disregard for American workers’ lives and livelihoods.

The Fight for Freedom – Resisting the Chains of Indignity

Felonious Punk’s administration is systematically constructing an economic reality that threatens to strip American workers of their fundamental rights and economic autonomy, pushing them towards a “slave class.” This is a direct assault on the American worker, particularly women and minorities, and a profound betrayal of the government’s responsibility to protect its citizens.

We must not allow this to happen. This is not just about policy; it’s about human dignity and freedom. We have to do something to keep it from drowning into obsolescence. Every proposed rule must be scrutinized, and every voice raised in opposition. If someone were to become injured or killed directly because of one of the situations being eliminated—such as not enough lighting on a construction site—they could potentially sue the federal government under the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA). While the FTCA has strict procedures, short deadlines, and exceptions like “discretionary function immunity” (if the government’s action involved policy judgment), it remains a potential avenue for accountability and justice that should be pursued.

The fight for fair wages and safe workplaces is a fight for the soul of our nation. We must demand that Congress immediately hold hearings and challenge these rollbacks. We must support labor unions and worker advocacy groups fighting on the front lines. We must make it clear that American lives are not expendable for corporate profit. We absolutely have to move away from a capitalistic mindset of hoarding wealth to maintaining fiscal health so that we can be mentally healthy, physically healthy, and let our minds be more open to the possibilities we never had time to consider before. This is not just a fight for wages; it’s a fight for human liberation. We can change this. We have to change this.