• Buelldozer@lemmy.today
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    3 months ago

    China wants to subsidize the transition to EVs in N America.

    No they don’t, they want to dominate the next generation of the global automotive industry and their plan involves killing all of the competition in both North America and Europe. It is literally impossible for western auto manufacture to compete because of the pay, worker safety, and environmental regulations that they have to comply with.

    If China gets its way every place in North America and Europe that used to have auto manufacturing will look like Detroit.

    And don’t fucking dare tell me this is about jobs. Because if we were on better terms with China, the capitalists would move the factory there.

    You are attempting to use an argument that is objectively incorrect based on empirical evidence. Auto manufacturers could have moved production decades ago when relations were friendly but they mostly didn’t. The vehicles they built in China were for the Chinese market. The vehicles they built in Europe were for the European market, and the vehicles they built in North America were for the North American market.

    • archomrade [he/him]@midwest.social
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      3 months ago

      The US could subsidize their own ev production if they really cared about their automotive industry.

      Consumers want EVs but us auto manufacturers (and us govt) aren’t interested in making them cheaply

      • MisterD@lemmy.ca
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        3 months ago

        Where is that money coming from? Oil subsidies? Exploration writes? Bail outs?

        • archomrade [he/him]@midwest.social
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          3 months ago

          I imagine it comes from the same place as all the other the US spends on oil subsidies and environmental programs and defense and tax cuts and Medicare and medicade and and and

          The only time this question is asked is when it’s a popular policy that has no other reason to object to.

    • hark@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      If China gets its way every place in North America and Europe that used to have auto manufacturing will look like Detroit.

      How did Detroit end up looking like Detroit, was that China too? A big portion of auto manufacturing for American vehicles is already outsourced to places like Mexico anyway.