• Not_mikey@slrpnk.net
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    20 hours ago

    On one hand this will slow the ev transition.

    On the other car manufacturing is one of the few industries left in America with some union density and decent wages and having to compete with subsidized Chinese evs that are made with a fraction of the labor costs would destroy that industry.

    Globalism hurts workers and helps consumers. One of the triumphs of neoliberalism is to get people to identify as consumers first and workers second.

    • surewhynotlem@lemmy.world
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      16 hours ago

      Protectionism has historically not done well for any country that’s implemented it. If we wanted to improve American industry, then we should be focusing our efforts and dollars on improving local industry to compete.

      • Not_mikey@slrpnk.net
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        2 hours ago

        Full protectionism does cause problems with inflation and degrading the competitiveness of firms, but full neoliberal globalism leads to a race to the bottom on wages and working conditions.

        The answer is somewhere in the middle, we shouldn’t be putting blanket tariffs on a country or the entire world. But we also shouldn’t turn away from possibly helpful protectionist policies.

        Tarriffs can help in new and developing industries to make sure they aren’t strangled in the crib by foreign competition. A large reason for the success of the development of south Korean and Taiwanese economies was due to initial protectionist policies . The tariffs have to be understood to be temporary though but they can help in getting an industry off the ground.

        I’d argue electric vehicles are an emerging industry that will be very important if the world shifts to a greener economy. Letting China take over that market and dominate it would be detrimental to the strength of our economy long term.

    • BigDiction@lemmy.world
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      17 hours ago

      I would be curious to poll the Seattle WTO protesters and see how they voted in the last election.

      I recently moved to the Midwest from the West Coast and understand how Globalist policy kinda sucks for a lot of people out here.