by johnea | 2025-06-21 19:04:13+00:00
I want to start by saying: I'm in general agreement with what you say here.

Now, the But: But, it's very important to acknowledge who's responsible for the decline in US manufacturing. BYD isn't "wiping out", the US auto industry. China didn't sneak into the US and steal the factories, the government didn't edict that things be made in China, and tree-hugging hippy libtards didn't give everything away to commonism.

US auto industry ownership unilaterally sent US auto manufacturing to China!

And has thus reaped many many billions in increased profits, over decades, as a result of throwing American workers, American consumers, and the US's strategic competitiveness under the bus, for the purpose of their own personal profit.

Now, somehow, it's China's fault! for being the world's preeminent manufacturing center. And now somehow, US taxpayers (that's us, the idiot herd, not ownership) need to make big payments to Make Manufacturing Great Again.

This is just another example of the typical policy of socialist welfare for ownership, and neoliberal austerity for the idiot herd.

This is like how the taxpayers pay to build a nuclear power plant, then a private utility operates it for decades while money pours out of it, then, when it's time to clean up the super-fund site scale of radioactive pollution, that's again the responsibility of socialism.

Why should US auto industry innovate?

China's already making most of what we consume here, and they're making world leading innovation in the EV market. So why aren't we just importing the EVs from there like we import everything else?

It's not like this is all some big surprise. The problems with continuing to burn petro, the massive simplification of vehicular mechanisms and the improvements in lifespan and reliability resulting from electrification have all been known for decades. Where's all this capitalist competition driving technical innovation?

The answer of course, is nowhere. There is no such thing in modern US big industry capitalism. It's a big f_cking lie!

The only thing modern US capitalism is focused on innovating is how to f_ck the consumer, the worker, and the vendor, a little more completely, in favor of shareholders. I'm sure we all needed more financialization of everything.

I'm not an absolutist. I think capitalism is basically the only system that's ever been in place in human civilization, and the most straightforward way to prosperity is via that system. But (again with the But) it needs to operate more in line with what is preached: competitive markets leading to innovation that benefits everyone, not just shareholders.

Another large portion of the blame lies on the uneducated, irrational US consumer population. Denial of the realities of the consequences of continuing to burn petro, denial of the benefits of electrification across the board. While people talk about their need for "pride" and "faith". This sounds like a bunch of emo bullsh1t to me. Where's the objective, rational analysis? It's no wonder the US consumer gets shafted by industry, it's pretty much begged for.

So, while you're general assertions are true. The widely ignored realities of how we got into this mess, and who should be making changes to get us out of this mess, are almost never mentioned out load.