• atomicbocks@sh.itjust.works
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    3 days ago

    For starters the 300,000+ people employed by those two companies (Chevy is GM). Perhaps you meant to include Stellantis (Chrysler) which would make that number closer to 600,000 people. The auto industry was a big driver of the 2008 crash.

    That’s before we even start to get into the issues stemming from a Chinese monopoly on the auto industry. What happens if American, Japanese, and European auto makers go out of business and then China stops the subsidies? We will literally be in the same situation we are now but with money going to China instead of paying domestic workers.

    • Toga77@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      So what.

      Protecting them from china and bailing them out multiple times hasn’t done anything.

      It’s almost like poorly run businesses SHOULD FAIL.

      Are we a free market capitalist society or not?

    • BrickEater@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      Idk, as I said before sounds like everyone Big Mad because China is better at capitalism than the west. We could easily sell vehicles for cheaper costs by producing closer to local markets and making simpler cars. But then the corps wouldn’t keep their over inflated stock prices.

      • boonhet@sopuli.xyz
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        1 day ago

        I agree, western automakers could easily lower prices.

        1. Get rid of unions

        2. Lower wages in auto manufacturing AND every industry in the supply chain (mining, etc).

        3. Every country that manufactures cars needs to mine and produce its own materials (may need to create more humans to work these industries)

        The engineers and designers at BYD make less money than assembly line workers in Germany or the US.

    • taj@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      Yes, and? They’ve been propped up by the USA govt for decades. If they can’t compete with China or Japan, that’s their own damned fault.