The irony is: the original theory of capitalism (in contrast with the clusterfuck that we have now) was based on the idea that competition breeds innovation - because those who didn’t innovate would go out of business due to being surpassed by the others.
And China is kinda steamrolling US in a lot of markets right now.
Mostly in the areas of custom fabs, general manufacturing and not being run by fucking idiots.
I don’t work in manufacturing, in work for a giant popular retail company.
I swear to Christ, I have zero clue how it has survived under the gross incompetence of our leadership. I have never witnessed such stupidity in all my life.
These guys are beyond the pale. Getting mad and emotional and making stupid decisions on vibes. When their nonsense fails, they just blame it on anything but themselves and do the next dumb thing. If we didn’t have stores everywhere, we would be dead. We only survive because you can’t swing a dead cat without hitting one.
They have subsidize the shit out of their industry by keeping their citizens capital tied up in their banking, housing and stock market. It is hard to get capital out of China now and only the very wealthy can pull it off.
So yes if the government took a good chunk of the interest or revenues you’d make from your investments yes you can have the same subsidized industries.
In their defense they are also willing to let bad companies go under which is something the US hasn’t done since the 90s.
China still calls itself “communist with Chinese characteristics”. They quite openly gave their companies strategic goals to fulfill.
It’s all the dorks thinking they could get hold of that sweet big market if only they gave China enough concessions. And there it was always only for the bosses and owners to participate in the windfall, employees be damned. They were played big time and payed themselves huge bonuses in the mean time for selling us out.
That’s kind of missing the forest for the trees
They have more than two times the population of the EU and US combined, and the manufacturing capacity for basically the rest of the world.
They have enough population so that whenever there’s a new tech/infrastructure to spin up, they’ll do it internally and then come out internationally with a finished & field-tested version of that product.
They also have more PHDs, research and patents than anywhere else in the world, integrated in their industrial ecosystem. That’s like a silicon valley but for basically every field of manufature, research etc.
And to address your first paragraph: Yes, if instead of value extraction for shareholders, which is literally capitalism, we reinvested all of that cash back into the economy as subsidies, we would also be thriving. That’s not a diss on China, that’s a failure on the US/EU.
The population figures you’ve cited coming out of China are dubious at best. Births have been repeatedly found to be overstated and school age populations are plummeting faster than anticipated because of local corruption when reporting their birth figures. Bottom line China is rapidly aging with few young workers to take the place of their existing workforce. That isn’t to say there isn’t a lot of them, but it isn’t nearly enough to sustain anything closely to replacement.
You missed the point entirely about my capital markets comment. Put simply the CCP direct any profits the average citizen has with their capital to subsidize industries. The citizen sees no benefit from their work only an elite few who have connections with the CCP do.
It’s akin to the US government directing capital towards building data centers which consume millions of gallons of fresh water, get subsidized electricity and a elite few who will benefit from their creation while local citizens bear the brunt of utility increases. However in the US you can fight it and vote in a new governing party to stop it. In China there is only the CCP so they just have to endure it. The West isn’t perfect but if you feel the CCP has a superior system I’d question your judgement.
That was the lie that was sold. It has always been about exploitation.
Capitalists don’t like honest competition, since it requires them to research positive innovations.
But Marx tells us (in Das Kapital ) that the capitalist will always be seek to bypass regulations and ultimately capture the regulating government.
And yes, the scientific advancements of the moon shots returned $14 for every $1 spent. Using that as a reference, lobbying federal and state governments return $120 for every $1 spent.
TIL private equity consolidated all the firetruck manufacturers into a single entity, and then slowed the rate of production, more than doubling the price and the wait time. Firehouses can no longer afford trucks.
Honestly, calling people like this Capitalists is like likening all communists to Stalin. The idea of capitalism is based on competition. If you are eroding competition, you are eroding capitalism.
But Marx tells us (in Das Kapital ) that the capitalist will always be seek to bypass regulations and ultimately capture the regulating government.
I am assuming he neglected to mention that the same type of people will seek to capture the government in any system. Socialist, communist, capitalist, feudal, doesn’t matter.
The means they use to capture the government are different. To intention is the same.
This appears the fundamental flaw in every single governance system we’ve tried thus far. The sociopaths will always take over, consolidate power, and abuse and exploit everyone else for their own benefit.
Capitalism or Communism, both as vulnerable, both have failed for the same reasons as far as I can make out.
We need dark triad personality screening and trat it like a disability that disqualifies them from participating in politics or leadership roles. It’s bad for them, they can do other things. Completely blind people also shouldn’t be bus drivers.
Just capture the testing procedure and you capture the government. That is the fundamental flaw of “allow only X to run for office”.
Well, while USA failed, there are many countries where the combination of democracy and capitalism succeeded to various degrees. Not ever perfect, but way better than anything else tried.
Its because they don’t actually want free markets. They want captive markets in a corrupt system that they can influence. The last thing want is to be forced to make a decent product at an affordable price
It wouldn’t be devastating if you read the room and made AFFORDABLE ANYTHING. Why do you think your own company couldn’t keep the $20k Maverick in stock for years? Why do you think your $100k Lightning didn’t sell well?
Make affordable, decent vehicles, and you won’t have to worry about overseas competition.
When they want to move manufacturing or people lose their jobs … these guys are all “this is just business”.
Devastating… like having Dump’s policies close your manufacturing locations down and have to layoff all the workers? That kind of devastation?
Once again proving that corporations have no beliefs apart from “Make more money.”
The Ford that has moved a bunch of their manufacturing to Mexico after carving out a tariff exemption from vehicles manufactured there?
I love competition! Except when I lose then competition is bad I need to change the rules so I’m the only one who wins. Yes I am way more deserving than other humans because I am me. And me is better.
Checkmate!
Wait, new rule you have to checkmate twice in a row to win.
Checkmate again!
New rule it only counts if we just ate salmon before playing.
Very good dish, checkmate!
New rule, you have to be me to checkmate.
Invisible hand at work
Nooooo, you have to let us ship all aspects of car manufacturing overseas while we pocket the profits and use that money to attack green energy!
Chinese cars can’t be sold in the US?
Buddy, I’d have bought a BYD like 3+ years ago if I could.
No. There isn’t a single Chinese automaker selling in America.
There’s plenty of competition in the US auto market, both from US, Japanese and European brands.
The difference is these cars are either made in the US or in countries with similar enough wages. Even cars made in mexico are required to have a $16 minimum wage as part of USMCA.
China is on a different level and allowing them to sell cars here without restrictions would cause a race to the bottom for wages in the auto sector, pushing back a lot of wins the UAW has gotten recently.
If they want to sell cars here they should get the same deal as mexico, require a minimum wage and labor standards.
Why would cars be different from phones and other electronics?
A union fought for standard livable wages. There are A LOT of unionized autoworkers. Huge number, maybe millions.
Cell phones were always an oversea item. Electronics were moved off shore for cost savings but also because they size of components/ technology changed. Asia was a huge developer of these techs. I used to work in this industry.
Just because one industry was destroyed doesn’t mean you should destroy others.
Didn’t say they were, almost all products these days are made by the exploitation of cheap labor in the third world.
Only difference is there still exists a manufacturing capacity to produce cars here that we can preserve instead of letting it die at the alter of globalization.
Other than us crazies on the left, I don’t remember anyone giving a fuck when industries were being obliterated in the global south because of WTO rules. All I remember is stories about competitive advantage, English cloth and Portuguese wine.
Ironic that Ford initially had to fight a ‘car mafia’ that he didn’t want to pay their fee on every car he sold. Ford was trying to make sure workers were able to afford his cars for cheap and he couldn’t do that if he had to pay the extra money.
He just went ahead and started selling his cars and fought them in court and won. Now his company is using the courts in order to stifle competition that wants to sell cheaper cars to the workers.
I want a BYD very badly. A lot of people to blame here, Government for propping up a subpar product, unions for going too far with demands, aging and complacent workforce, lack of reinvestment, executive greed, piss poor repair record… Damn I want one of the Chinese EV’s. Let free market be free.
