this post was submitted on 04 Apr 2024
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[Dormant] Electric Vehicles
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This is like demanding that a new Walmart open in your town to drive down the price of goods. What happens is every small business in town shuts down and then everyone winds up making near minimum wage working at Walmart and then spending half their check buying everything from Walmart because nobody can compete with their artificially low prices. With the Chinese government paying a good chunk of the manufacturing cost of these cars, you're not bringing in competition, you're putting everyone else out of business.
This is why there's barely any manufacturing in the US anymore.
There needs to be more pressure on companies like Ford, GM, etc., who suck at innovation and need competition. Luckily some newer domestic auto manufacturers (Tesla, Rivian) are doing a decent job, but I think the US would benefit from getting some smaller, cheaper Chinese EVs in a similar wave to the Japanese and Korean manufacturers entering the US market.
I wasn’t implying zero tariffs since BYD is absolutely subsidized by the Chinese government, but more competition is always better for the consumer. Too bad we can’t rely on our government to enact laws that actually encourage competition.
These high tariffs are supported by the likes of Tesla and other car manufacturers that have a US presence. Why? Less competition for them.
And manufacturing left the US because of pure capitalism and greed. If anything THAT’S where more tariffs should be applied. Even out the actual cost of these workers.
When that $20/hr job goes overseas for $3/hr, the workers in the states lose $20, and the company profits from that $17/hr savings for “the shareholders”.