• Habahnow@sh.itjust.works
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    123
    arrow-down
    23
    ·
    7 months ago

    So reasons include: politics (Lots of swing voters work in the auto manufacturing industry that would get pissed with an influx of chinese cars), national security (worries of the type of information Chinese cars would send back home), and lastly industry protectionism.

    As much as this sucks, I kind of agree. We really don’t want to rely on China until they prove to reliably not want to screw us. If this was Taiwan, Mexico, any country from the EU, etc. I would definitely want their cheap EVs to hit our market and bloody up the american manufacturers.

    • IrateAnteater@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      54
      arrow-down
      8
      ·
      7 months ago

      To add to the national security angle: the auto industry is one of the industries that would be able to pivot to wartime production the fastest (as seen in the world wars). Probably not the first thing on everyone’s mind, but I’d bet it’s at least part of the consideration.

      • regul@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        39
        arrow-down
        20
        ·
        7 months ago

        Killing the planet so you can be ready for war.

        God bless America.

        • IrateAnteater@sh.itjust.works
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          16
          arrow-down
          13
          ·
          7 months ago

          What? Burning bunker oil to ship Chinese made cars across the ocean is better for the planet than manufacturing them domestically?

          • regul@lemm.ee
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            19
            arrow-down
            4
            ·
            7 months ago

            Oh I must have missed the press release where he announced much higher tariffs for all cars, including ICE ones, manufactured on the other side of the Pacific.

          • HelixDab2@lemm.ee
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            9
            arrow-down
            1
            ·
            7 months ago

            Well. Yes, probably.

            The environmental costs for shipping on a large container ship are, per unit, pretty low. China’s already got the process for making cheap EVs down cold; we are still building our industry up, and it’s slooooooooow. It’s also more environmentally expensive to be duplicating processes rather than making scaling an existing process.

            OTOH, the ability to wage war effectively is a compelling national security interest.

          • FaceDeer@fedia.io
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            4
            arrow-down
            1
            ·
            7 months ago

            Not to mention that China is pretty big into the “prepare for war” game too.

            • newnton@sh.itjust.works
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              2
              arrow-down
              1
              ·
              7 months ago

              Not sure why you were downvoted, however you feel about it the fact that China is currently undergoing one of the largest peacetime military buildups in history is undeniable

          • Joncash2@lemmy.ml
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            5
            arrow-down
            4
            ·
            7 months ago

            Yes actually, if you understood economies of scale there’s a lot of reasons why planting your own garden in your backyard is worse than having industrial farms. Similarly, one country being able to control all the pollution would be far better than spreading it out and having little to no locust of control.

            https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/23132579/eat-local-csa-farmers-markets-locavore-slow-food

            https://www.forbes.com/sites/christinero/2023/01/27/eat-local-if-you-want-but-not-for-climate-reasons/?sh=1bf904c65215

            For some articles about farming. Now obviously, there are situations where you can make local manufacturing better, but that comes at a high cost.

            Either way, the point is, your initial assumption is wrong and I hope you learned something.

            • IrateAnteater@sh.itjust.works
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              7
              arrow-down
              2
              ·
              7 months ago

              We aren’t talking about small scale manufacturing vs large scale. It’s large scale either way. Your analogy doesn’t work.

              • Joncash2@lemmy.ml
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                4
                arrow-down
                1
                ·
                7 months ago

                Sadly for the US is it small scale manufacturing. Which is kind of the problem. There’s been so much reduction in US manufacturing capability that they are essentially small scale. Other people have already pointed that out. What I will extend though is technically this is what the US is concerned about. The whole point that the US government is trying to make is that it’s a national security issue that the US only produces at such small scale. So not only is what the US saying is that they want to destroy the environment and spend billions to start to maybe create large scale manufacturing again. Is it worth it? I dunno, but that’s what’s being proposed. Kill the environment, stick with ICE vehicles so USA can still compete in large scale manufacturing. Thus, Biden is a hypocrite.

      • eltrain123@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        8
        arrow-down
        3
        ·
        7 months ago

        To add a bit more to the national security angle: with the potential to escalate into open warfare with China, due to tensions between Taiwan and China, we really don’t want millions of drivable computers sending harvested metadata about our road systems and behavior patterns directly to enemy leadership.

    • umbrella@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      11
      arrow-down
      4
      ·
      7 months ago

      i like how the US imposed the free market onto everyone else, bit now they are closing theirs for protectionism

        • umbrella@lemmy.ml
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          edit-2
          7 months ago

          of course, what bothers me is the hipocrisy of making everyone else adopt that shitty freemarket-at-all-costs model when they themselves arent.

      • Habahnow@sh.itjust.works
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        9
        arrow-down
        5
        ·
        7 months ago

        Well china is completely anti free market.so I’m actually surprised more countries aren’t charging more tarrifs on them. Also, I don’t think most major countries are completely protectionist free.

        • umbrella@lemmy.ml
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          4
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          7 months ago

          china is being sanctioned to hell because of that, war with them is being discussed by republicans over this.

          any country that is does, and most cant survive it.

          china is the exception because they are big enough to survive it.

    • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      16
      arrow-down
      12
      ·
      edit-2
      7 months ago

      What?

      We make about 150,000 vehicles a month in America…

      https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/DAUPSA

      We sell about 150,000,000

      https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/TOTALSA

      If Biden if fucking over every other American to “protect” a few thousands jobs…

      That’s a bad choice.

      For damn near everyone except the executives of companies who make most of their vehicles in Mexico anyways.

      Like, if Biden is doing this to protect jobs, it’s protecting jobs that went to Mexico decades ago.

      https://www.statista.com/statistics/889529/mexico-automotive-production-volume/

      • Trainguyrom@reddthat.com
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        7 months ago

        Like, if Biden is doing this to protect jobs, it’s protecting jobs that went to Mexico decades ago.

        The Bureau of Labor Statistics indicates about 1 million people in automotive manufacturing (including parts manufacturing) and 2 more million in sales (including auto parts sales, 1.5 million excluding sales) that’s a lot of people concentrated in rust belt swing states who would see job instability by foreign vehicles entering the market at race-to-the-bottom prices and quality.

        https://www.bls.gov/iag/tgs/iagauto.htm#iag31cesnsaemp.f.p

        If you expand the scope to all manufacturing jobs (because auto manufacturing doesn’t exist in a vacuum and actions taken to affect the auto industry will also have some effect to most if not all manufacturing industries) that grows to about 13 million jobs

        On an unrelated note, they also indicate about 200,000 unfilled job openings in manufacturing every month indicating the industry has a desire to grow but lacks the humanpower to do so.

        https://www.bls.gov/iag/tgs/iag31-33.htm