saxitoxin wrote:Vance nailed it. It's Old Joe's fault.
Senator J.D. Vance wrote:I support the UAW’s demand for higher wages, but there is a 6,000-pound elephant in the room: the premature transition to electric vehicles. While EV supply chains are still heavily concentrated in China, the Biden administration sends billions to that industry every year.
Seems to me your logic is completely ass-backwards.
European car manufacturers are admitting they missed the boat on EV's, and by doing so they have given China an open door into their market. Ten years ago China had almost no presence in the European market; today they have 8% of the European EV market and rising fast. Even by the most conservative estimates, that 8% is expected to double within two years, and many estimates put it far higher than that. European car makers admit there's sweet f*ck all they can do about it -- bringing a new car to market takes 5 to 10 years, and it's too late now. The production lines to compete with Chinese imports simply won't be up any time soon, and the fox will be permitted to run rampant in the henhouse.
The U.S. is now on the cusp of making the same mistake. If it doesn't gear up now, and gear up fast, it will soon be swamped with Chinese EVs, just as it was swamped with Japanese cars in the 1970s, when the American car makers didn't see the writing on the wall and didn't invest in fuel economy as a priority until it was too late. Aggressive investment now might --
might -- just prevent that. Lack of investment will pretty much guarantee that China in 10 years have half the American car market, and American cities with car plants will be begging their Chinese overlords not to shut down their factories, as they were begging their Japanese owners forty years ago.
I don't know if the small amounts Biden is throwing into the pot will make a difference, but I do know that it's definitely better for you than doing nothing.
Lonous wrote:Thoughts? Predicted outcomes?
I am encouraged by the fact that the car companies know they're in serious shit, and they've offered a HUGE raise for the first time in decades to try to head off the strike. I don't know how much more will be needed, but I'm pretty sure they've come more than half way across the table. A strike might still be averted, but even if it isn't, it might be brief and relatively painless.
I'm also encouraged by the fact that the union isn't going straight into a full-blown work stoppage but is going to go with rotating strikes. I think this means that they too know a strike isn't good for anybody, and are serious about either averting it or ending it in a relatively short time.
All in all, this is looking a lot less disastrous than it was a week ago.