cross-posted from : https://lemmy.zip/post/67657166
Volkswagen is trying to implement a comprehensive cost-cutting programme with up to 100,000 job losses, double the amount previously planned, by 2030 and the potential contraction or closure of several plants.
Hahaha
You’ve been making overpriced junk for decades and getting away with it because consumers don’t know better and EU regulations drive people to replace their cars frequently.
Now China is producing the same level of “quality” for much less and you’re freaking out.
Hahaha
And here I am driving a 20 year old Honda that should run for another 10 years with few issues.
And here I am driving a 20 year old Honda that should run for another 10 years with few issues.
Now that is the resilient Cuban way!
Kinda ironic that competition is often referred to as “the driving engine of capitalism”. It’s almost a guarantee that the “bold decision” that Germany will make is to pressure the EU into banning vehicle imports from China.
It’s been funny to see how quickly liberal democracies retreat from their professed love of the free market as soon as it threatens to challenge their market share. It’s almost like the free market hasn’t ever existed and is only used to justify the monopolization of industry by people who already have a head start.
It’s been funny to see how quickly liberal democracies retreat from their professed love of the free market as soon as it threatens to challenge their market share.
It’s worker protection, something I thought most people here on Lemmy agreed with. No western nation can compete with China on price without completely gutting 7 decades of worker, social, and environmental protection laws.
It’s been funny to see how quickly liberal democracies retreat from their professed love of the free market as soon as it threatens to challenge their market share.
As opposed to illiberal democracies like China who do it by not allowing anyone free access to their market in the first place?
It’s worker protection, something I thought most people here on Lemmy agreed with.
If the main concern was ever workers protection the economic system wouldn’t rely on capitalizing the excess production value of said workers. They don’t really care about workers, they care about the profit those workers produce. Otherwise the workers would be the ones running the company and benefitting from their own labor instead of shareholders.
No western nation can compete with China on price without completely gutting 7 decades of worker, social, economic, and environmental protection laws.
No western country is willing to invest in the infrastructure and supply lines necessary to to even think about competing with the China’s prices, even with a large tarrif.
Worker, and environmental laws are not the main source of price difference, and I’m not sure what you really mean by social and economic laws. The biggest advantage they have is that their country invested billions of dollars into their infrastructure for production capacity while most of the west were busy giving billion dollar companies and the wealthy tax breaks.
As opposed to illiberal democracies like China who do it by not allowing anyone free access to their market in the first place?
Liberal* as in John Locke’s theory of merging limited government and a free market. Illiberal democracy is not a economic and political theory. China is not being hypocritical because China never claimed to participate in free market economics…
I’m in Germany and i wouldn’t buy any of their overpriced garbage, fucking BMW with their “special” logo screws, VW with electronics that can barely go a year without short-circuiting, Mercedes=Bauer Porsche, fuck Porsche in general, Audi… fuck off.
I bought a 2012 Dacia Sandero in 2019 and it’s been great, just general maintenance every 2 years and it’s still going.
Oh get bent.
German car industry rose on cheap reliable cars from the 60s. From 2000, they just started making expensive douchevaggons that only got more expensive and less reliable.
This still won’t be enough for them to survive without a pickup in sales, which are only set to decline further as any EU action on Chinese imports will be immediately retaliated by measures against EU OEM’s. The EU car industry is about to be completely massacred.
I don’t like the German car execs, but the economical and political ramifications of not saving the European car industry will be enormous, so it makes a lot of sense to try to save it.
