When they want to move manufacturing or people lose their jobs ... these guys are all "this is just business".
this post was submitted on 30 Jul 2026
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Its because they don't actually want free markets. They want captive markets in a corrupt system that they can influence. The last thing want is to be forced to make a decent product at an affordable price
The irony is: the original theory of capitalism (in contrast with the clusterfuck that we have now) was based on the idea that competition breeds innovation - because those who didn't innovate would go out of business due to being surpassed by the others.
And China is kinda steamrolling US in a lot of markets right now.
They have subsidize the shit out of their industry by keeping their citizens capital tied up in their banking, housing and stock market. It is hard to get capital out of China now and only the very wealthy can pull it off.
So yes if the government took a good chunk of the interest or revenues you’d make from your investments yes you can have the same subsidized industries.
In their defense they are also willing to let bad companies go under which is something the US hasn’t done since the 90s.
Mostly in the areas of custom fabs, general manufacturing and not being run by fucking idiots.
I don't work in manufacturing, in work for a giant popular retail company.
I swear to Christ, I have zero clue how it has survived under the gross incompetence of our leadership. I have never witnessed such stupidity in all my life.
These guys are beyond the pale. Getting mad and emotional and making stupid decisions on vibes. When their nonsense fails, they just blame it on anything but themselves and do the next dumb thing. If we didn't have stores everywhere, we would be dead. We only survive because you can't swing a dead cat without hitting one.
It wouldn't be devastating if you read the room and made AFFORDABLE ANYTHING. Why do you think your own company couldn't keep the $20k Maverick in stock for years? Why do you think your $100k Lightning didn't sell well?
Make affordable, decent vehicles, and you won't have to worry about overseas competition.
The exact same thing they said about japanese-made cars in the 70s and in both cases they were right because american cars are trash.
I mean the CEO of Ford said it was humbling when he traveled to China to see what they were doing. Then he imported a Xiaomi SU7 to Michigan apparently so they could "study" it. The U.S. called that reverse engineering anytime China did such when I was growing up.
IIRC, some executive at Ford imported a Chinese EV and prefers it over their own cars, says he won't give it up.
That's how captive the US is as an auto market. You think that guy is going to stop lobbying to prevent the cars he sees as cheaper and better from competing against his product?
It's the same CEO, Jim Farley. He knows American manufacturing is smoked cause they can't keep relying on F150s forever.
Especially when the current F150 isn't desirable. Every truck guy I know of wants old trucks with less tech and longer beds.
I guess i dont understand the loyalty, if i was that guy id go to the chinese and be their main importer. Fuck ford their cars are plainly inferior, but jim farley is a free man and he can just call the chinese up and tell them he'll be the ceo of xiaomi USA and bring in their superior cars. That's how competition is supposed to work!
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
If you look at history from the 60s to 2000s, America has a history of blaming another country for "stealing", then creating laws to slow them down only to adopt it because Americans can't build it as well.
America then reclaimed some market value with technology in the 2000s. But we're also at the mercy of the hardware.
I think America is banking on AI heavily, and other countries will do it cheaper (thanks to hardware, so called "stealing", and having better power supplies). America is reaching its peak and going into free fall.
How the tables have turned.
Agreed. Also, I want an SU7 so bad!
because america is trash.
FTFY.
They've all lost foreign markets, no one wants American cars (usually not even made in America) so they'll bribe our government so we have to buy them.
The wealthy can afford luxury imports.
The problem is the whole bailout culture, if existing companies can't fail, new ones can't replace them. Innovaters are forced out or bought up and diluted.
And eventually that means they can't compete with foreign companies who weren't hamstrung like this.
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There's plenty of competition in the US auto market, both from US, Japanese and European brands.
The difference is these cars are either made in the US or in countries with similar enough wages. Even cars made in mexico are required to have a $16 minimum wage as part of USMCA.
China is on a different level and allowing them to sell cars here without restrictions would cause a race to the bottom for wages in the auto sector, pushing back a lot of wins the UAW has gotten recently.
If they want to sell cars here they should get the same deal as mexico, require a minimum wage and labor standards.
Why would cars be different from phones and other electronics?
A union fought for standard livable wages. There are A LOT of unionized autoworkers. Huge number, maybe millions.
Cell phones were always an oversea item. Electronics were moved off shore for cost savings but also because they size of components/ technology changed. Asia was a huge developer of these techs. I used to work in this industry.
Just because one industry was destroyed doesn't mean you should destroy others.
Didn't say they were, almost all products these days are made by the exploitation of cheap labor in the third world.
Only difference is there still exists a manufacturing capacity to produce cars here that we can preserve instead of letting it die at the alter of globalization.
Other than us crazies on the left, I don't remember anyone giving a fuck when industries were being obliterated in the global south because of WTO rules. All I remember is stories about competitive advantage, English cloth and Portuguese wine.
Devastating... like having Dump's policies close your manufacturing locations down and have to layoff all the workers? That kind of devastation?
Well too fucking bad UAW and NADA both supported trump and now here come the leopards to eat their faces.
Trump pisses off our closest ally Canada and now they have given a toe hold in NA to China, and continue to boycott America products and tourism. The tourism alone has taken away 1.3 billion so far this year.
Chinese cars are coming and there's nothing these fucks can do about.
Fuck them.
UAW and NADA both supported trump
Where are you getting that from?, UAW endorsed Harris and Biden also put a huge tariff on Chinese EVs and harris seems like she would've continued that.
UAW was very spilt on endorsement, but extremely together supporting trumps tariffs.
NADA is full on maga.
It's wild people are still surprised about union corruption...
Corporations and the government have an incentive for corrupt unions, so they're not going to reign in the problematic ones.
It's on the voting members of every union to keep their own union in line.
They literally just vote for whatever benefits their industry directly.
Military was the same way, I got lined and my direct chain walked a very fine line talking about if we wanted to vote for someone that would expand the military meaning more slots for promotions, or someone that would reduce by attrition and no one gets promotions for four years.
It's a real thing and should be obvious to anyone, which again is why it's wild people don't know why it keeps happening.
When resources are scarce people get selfish.
We fight that by ensuring everyone has enough so they don't have to feel selfish, then we can out otw the minority who will always be selfish.
Once again proving that corporations have no beliefs apart from "Make more money."
The Ford that has moved a bunch of their manufacturing to Mexico after carving out a tariff exemption from vehicles manufactured there?
This is backwards. Capitalism is the disruption of free markets to create extraordinary profits for some and higher costs for most. Ford is doing Capitalism. What Capitalists don't want are free markets.
People definitely do not understand that free markets and capitalism are different things.
It's intentional, like the conflation of capitalism and democracy. It doesn't make sense if any thought is put to it but that doesn't happen enough.
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I love competition! Except when I lose then competition is bad I need to change the rules so I'm the only one who wins. Yes I am way more deserving than other humans because I am me. And me is better.
Checkmate!
Wait, new rule you have to checkmate twice in a row to win.
Checkmate again!
New rule it only counts if we just ate salmon before playing.
Very good dish, checkmate!
New rule, you have to be me to checkmate.
Invisible hand at work
Capitalism is when the government buys a stake in Intel, or tries to invest in AI companies or tariffs the world, or ...
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Ironic that Ford initially had to fight a 'car mafia' that he didn't want to pay their fee on every car he sold. Ford was trying to make sure workers were able to afford his cars for cheap and he couldn't do that if he had to pay the extra money.
He just went ahead and started selling his cars and fought them in court and won. Now his company is using the courts in order to stifle competition that wants to sell cheaper cars to the workers.
Nooooo, you have to let us ship all aspects of car manufacturing overseas while we pocket the profits and use that money to attack green energy!
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