Last year’s numbers for China’s electric vehicle industry tell the story: production rose 10 percent and revenues 7 percent, but profit margins fell to their lowest level in a decade. Production incentives lock original equipment manufacturers into a destructive cycle of hypercompetition called “involution” in which they impose even more crushing payment terms on their suppliers. Driven to overproduce beyond what Chinese consumers can buy, they dump excess output in foreign markets where they at least have some hope of making the profits they need to gain an edge on domestic competitors and keep factories humming to please Chinese Communist Party overseers. Add a significantly undervalued yuan that makes their cars artificially cheap in dollar terms, and you have an incubator for global manufacturing titans like battery maker CATL.

...

By all means, follow the money. Just understand that with Chinese EVs, it leads to a dead end for Canadian automotive manufacturing and could ultimately trigger a slow death spiral for much of Canadian industry. All too often, I hear Canadians saying we have no choice now. What they really mean is that the easy path is blocked, and they don’t like the harder road. But that’s the one that leads to longer-term prosperity and sovereignty through developing our own supply chains and ecosystems.

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[–] GodofLies@lemmy.ca 2 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Canada has industries...sure. But all these industries are more or less dominated or owned by foreign companies/countries/institutions etc. In Canada, anything is up for sale as long you know how to lobby your way through (usually with enough capital).

Also anything that is 'Canadian owned' usually turns into something like - "the owners become so big, that they are multinationals and likely have a base in another country". We can keep touting 'Canadian sovereignty', but it's really empty when corporations have no concept of what a social fabric of what 'Canada' is.

Even the big 6 banks, the big telecoms, the big grocery chains, who are homegrown, like to screw us.

The real target is not the industries, but the approach to monetary policy in Canada, that overwhelmingly incentivizes capitalistic behaviour. Canada is extremely weak when it comes to reigning in corporate power - ask yourself when was the last time anti-trust was enforced on big, dominant multi-billion dollar companies?

Until monetary policy changes or heavy regulation at the federal level, with the province in lock-step, expect nothing to change.

[–] Scotty@scribe.disroot.org 0 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Canada has industries…sure. But all these industries are more or less dominated or owned by foreign companies/countries/institutions etc. In Canada, anything is up for sale

Do you have any data for this?

[–] GodofLies@lemmy.ca 2 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Which part? The part that industries are foreign owned, have a significant stake and/or anything in Canada is up for sale? I guess in hindsight the sentence is loaded. Ones that come to my mind would be the natural resources and energy sector in BC as an example that would have significant amounts of foreign ownership. BC itself would prefer to ship out raw materials for cheap rather than have added value processes done locally. This extends to the energy sector too.

[–] Scotty@scribe.disroot.org 1 points 3 days ago (1 children)

For all parts.

Do you have any data for this?

Statistics Canada: Foreign control in the Canadian economy, 2024

Canadian-controlled share of total corporate assets in Canada increased by 0.5 percentage points to $16.2 trillion in 2024, representing 86.1% in total assets
US firms remain the dominant foreign presence, Japan ranked second, followed by the UK at 6.6%
In total, enterprises from 93 countries held assets in Canada in 2024, though eight countries alone accounted for 86.3% of that foreign-owned total.
Share of assets owned by foreign-controlled enterprises in the Canadian economy has steadily declined since 2010 and continued in 2024 as the number reaches 13.9%

...

[–] GodofLies@lemmy.ca 2 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Then the real question should be... why do Canadians feel otherwise? Why are Canadians feeling poor when from a macro view we seem to own our own corporations. Is it the taxation? Is it the monetary policies?

[–] Scotty@scribe.disroot.org 0 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Then the real question should be… why do Canadians feel otherwise?

It's disinformation.

[–] marxismtomorrow@lemmy.today 1 points 3 days ago (1 children)

People's lived experience is never disinformation, not matter how much it conflicts with the reality you're trying to create.

[–] Scotty@scribe.disroot.org 0 points 3 days ago (1 children)

What you are doing is spreading disinformation. And there are a lot of either sock puppets or accounts that serve apparently the same propaganda machine. This creates harm for the society, especially for those in difficult economic conditions.

A meaningful and serious discussion with such accounts isn't possible as they just keep spreading their narratives, even if there is evidence that the opposite is true. This is why I end this conversation.

[–] marxismtomorrow@lemmy.today 1 points 3 days ago

Cool, congrats on the comment being removed. Maybe fix your racism next time.