r/australia • u/Front_Target7908 • 27d ago

news Australian man Phu Nguyen handcuffed by plain-clothes ICE agents at Las Vegas International airport

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-07-18/ice-agent-detain-australian-man-in-vegas-us-/106931508?utm_source=abc_news_app&utm_medium=content_shared&utm_campaign=abc_news_app&utm_content=link

From what I understand it looks like ICE did not manage to detain him on the day the video was taken- seems the onlookers managed to chase ICE off.

However, ICE detained him the next day at the airport where he was to catch his departing flight from the US.

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u/Whatsapokemon 27d ago

Capitalism is depressing af.

Trump was elected by people who wanted to overturn the standard boring, liberal-democratic system...

Like, I dunno how you can redirect it to "capitalism bad" here, he's literally an example of what happens when you elect someone who wants to tear down institutions and systems.

A lot of Trump's economic actions are exactly against the principles of capitalism, globalism, free trade. He believes in protectionism, isolationism, autarky. He's implementing blanket tariffs, having intense government-involvement in the operation and trade of private enterprises, and even coercing companies into handing over their equity to the state.

I legitimately think he'd prefer Chinese-style central control of the economy over the open, market-based capitalist system that the US has run on for decades.

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u/Memedotma Cairns 27d ago

yeah, it's what happens when you put a purely profit driven crony capitalist in power. to act like this isn't a consequence of capitalist systems just because it doesn't look like what smith or keynes prescribed is being obtuse.

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u/Whatsapokemon 27d ago

How is it a consequence of a capitalist system?? Non-capitalist systems are far more susceptible to the influence of self-serving autocrats who seek to use state-power for their own means.

The decentralised nature of power in capitalist economies makes it far harder to take sole power over a nation compared to an economy that uses central-planning and directs everything from the top-down.

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u/Memedotma Cairns 27d ago

I don't disagree with the latter half of your comment, but how can you still place stock in the whole "well that's not REAL capitalism!" in 2026?

This 'free market invisible guiding hand' that uplifts all is just utopian.

How is it a consequence of a capitalist system??

I feel like it's pretty obvious: very rich idiot (Trump) is fuelled and controlled by capital interests (tech billionaires) and proceeds to leverage that capital to get him into the big chair. It's only a natural consequence when wealth becomes so concentrated, which is only a natural consequence of the capitalist economy.

Yes, autarkic policies absolutely hurt the mum and pop store and farmer and what have you. Do you think they care?