this post was submitted on 10 Jul 2025
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[–] Mrkawfee@lemmy.world 211 points 1 day ago (15 children)

So free markets are a terrible idea now and countries practicing import substitution weren't impoverishing their people.

US hypocrisy at it's finest.

[–] latenightnoir@lemmy.blahaj.zone 72 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Our free market's good, yours is the problem! Gotta read the fine print!

[–] CosmoNova@lemmy.world 18 points 1 day ago (6 children)

„Free market“? Speaking of hypocrisy. Chinese car brands are so heavily subsidized they probably cost the Chinese economy more than they make selling them at the moment. China is clearly trying to drown the global market with cheap cars so they can ramp up prices immensely once they have killed the competition and have become a monopoly. China hasn‘t been the extreme low income country to produce super cheaply for a long time and they couldn‘t produce cars this cheap in a free market situation.

Many countries and the EU have measures against such practices because state run operations with the sole purpose to destroy an industry (which this is) undermine the very idea of the free market or even trade relationships.

Alternatively we could start subsiding local car makers and play the same little game China is playing but more cars is honestly the last thing we need right now. Tariffs are a much smoother option to deal with this even when they have a bad rep.

Ideally we use that generated money from tariffs to subsidize public transport so we don‘t get cheaper cars but cheaper alternatives but that‘s still just a dream I‘m afraid.

Whatever the case, one should look at super cheap cars and what that means in the long run more critically.

[–] wildbus8979@sh.itjust.works 62 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (6 children)

Alternatively we could start subsiding local car makers

We have been. Bailout after bailout. For the longest fucking time, and have had insane trade rules and tarrigs in place for decades and decades. I'd argue this is what it looks like to have another country finally being able to play on a level playing field.

[–] homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world 32 points 1 day ago (1 children)

After the auto industry intentionally killed public transport.

The fact that one of the most powerful monopolies in the world went bankrupt and was forced to be bailed out by taxpayers more than once should really be a disqualifier for any future endeavors.

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[–] halcyoncmdr@lemmy.world 152 points 1 day ago (13 children)

They have never considered actually competing have they?

[–] dinckelman@lemmy.world 82 points 1 day ago (1 children)

They’ve actually done the exact opposite. The lobbying, the import laws, the absence of a foreign export market, and the manufacturing of cars that would never pass safety laws anywhere else, all resulted in the kind of dogshit that Americans have to experience now. Why improve if you’re the only player

[–] ToastedRavioli@midwest.social 15 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

They have an export market, its the handful of douchebags in Australia that want compensator trucks instead of a ute

[–] WanderingThoughts@europe.pub 18 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Big corporations know very well how competition works and would like to avoid it at all costs.

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[–] BeigeAgenda@lemmy.ca 86 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Newsflash: American car manufacturer says "Our cars are crap and overpriced"

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[–] jubilationtcornpone@sh.itjust.works 76 points 1 day ago (3 children)

If you're one of the largest and oldest car manufacturers in the world and the most "innovative" thing you've managed to do in the last 20 years is rebrand Buick into a young family brand, then you probably need some good competition.

[–] QuarterSwede@lemmy.world 28 points 1 day ago

Don’t forget the courage to not support CarPlay/Android Auto … just stupid.

[–] Zwuzelmaus@feddit.org 19 points 1 day ago (1 children)

the most "innovative" thing you've managed to do in the last 20 years is rebrand Buick

... then you simply have no excuse anymore to exist at all.

[–] jubilationtcornpone@sh.itjust.works 25 points 1 day ago (6 children)

Well they wouldn't if not for that hefty bailout by the American taxpayers that they got back in 2008.

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[–] markovs_gun@lemmy.world 52 points 22 hours ago (3 children)

American cars have sucked compared to Asian cars since the 1970s. I don't understand why people are acting all surprised that this is true in respect to BYD. Sure in the past products designed in China were stereotyped as poor quality knock offs of western designed goods, but in the past decade Chinese engineers have increasingly proven themselves as perfectly capable of making solid, innovative designs that improve upon those of their competitors. I think it's kind of fucked up that everyone is so suddenly upset about China's role in the world economy since everyone was completely fine using them for cheap labor over the past several decades and are just mad that Chinese companies are beating them at high skill labor and technology. Chinese companies do have an "unfair advantage" given how much they are backed by the Chinese government but American companies receive all sorts of money from the government for all sorts of things as well.

[–] dirthawker0@lemmy.world 18 points 22 hours ago* (last edited 22 hours ago) (3 children)

Americans have come to think of Chinese products as bad quality because of the American companies who engage them for cheaper labor. Walmart was known to order products made to a certain spec one year, then the next year demand the company increase production, but for the same amount paid as the previous year. The Chinese company, not wanting to lose the contract, obliges, but corners have to be cut. It should be called Americanesium, not Chineseum.

Derek Guy (Die, Workwear!) posted a thread a while back (I think about 6 months ago) about how the Chinese can and do make great quality products, pointing out high quality fabrics. Give them money to buy good raw materials, give them a decent wage, and they'll put out a good product. Honestly, they probably have a more fair work ethic than some American companies that just feed their CEOs massive salaries or are owned by private equity.

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[–] CameronDev@programming.dev 48 points 1 day ago (8 children)

I am pretty sure there is some financial fuckery going on with BYD. My parents own two, and they are very nice, but way under priced compared to every other EV manufacturer.

Can't prove anything of course, but there is something odd going on when everyone else is 20-30k more expensive.

Hard to feel sorry for GM though, they suckled at our governments (Australia) teet for decades before giving up and leaving entirely. At least if BYD is being propped up we are at least getting good cheap cars from it.

[–] Ulrich@feddit.org 25 points 1 day ago (6 children)

The financial fuckery is that they're very heavily subsidized by the CCP. It's not sustainable.

[–] einkorn@feddit.org 35 points 1 day ago (18 children)

I'd argue it is.

Just look how Amazon got where it is now: Sell way under market price, till local competition closed shop, then squeeze.

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[–] SocialMediaRefugee@lemmy.world 46 points 16 hours ago* (last edited 15 hours ago) (8 children)

The same thing happened in the 80s with Japan. The Japanese were no longer making crappy cars but small and very reliable, affordable cars. Detroit was still making rust buckets, obsessing over powerful engines with bodies that rotted out and defects galore. Detroit got beaten up badly (Chrysler had to get a gov bailout) until they cleaned up their act and improved their products. Protecting Detroit from competition would've just saddled US consumers with decades more of crappy, overpriced, low quality, cars.

https://imprimis.hillsdale.edu/how-detroits-automakers-went-from-kings-of-the-road-to-roadkill/

We still don't let in the small pickups the rest of the world enjoys.

[–] ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.world 12 points 13 hours ago

defects galore

A friend of mine from high school attended the GM Institute and became an engineer for them. One of his first projects was on a team that bought a Lexus and an Infiniti when they first came on the market and took them apart to see how many production defects they had. He said a typical American car at the time (and this was in the '90s after quality had rebounded somewhat from its disastrous nadir) had 300-400 defects. The Infiniti they took apart had 2. The Lexus had 0.

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[–] thann@lemmy.dbzer0.com 36 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

So they dont care about making cars for the world market, they just want regulations to allow them to milk the american market...

[–] M0oP0o@mander.xyz 12 points 12 hours ago

As is tradition

[–] zeca@lemmy.eco.br 33 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

So when can we stop with this "free markets" nonsense in the third world aswell??

[–] Itdidnttrickledown@lemmy.world 22 points 19 hours ago* (last edited 10 hours ago)

There hasn't ever been a free market. Its a captive market. When you can only succeed by denying a competitor into a market, you prove that. They refuse to rise to the challenge because they don't have to.

[–] sommerset@thelemmy.club 33 points 12 hours ago (2 children)

So here is the thing.
U lost. The moment I need American people to bail you out, you need to treat American people way way the fuck better.

Worker rights, mandatory vacations, work protections, pensions, guaranteed healthcare etc.

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[–] PunkRockSportsFan@fanaticus.social 30 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

First the enshittified the food

Then the health care

Then every consumer product

Finally they enshittified the nation itself

[–] PalmTreeIsBestTree@lemmy.world 17 points 23 hours ago

Before that they enshitified the labor movement and unions via red scare tactics so there was less resistance to the enshitification process

[–] qyron@sopuli.xyz 28 points 17 hours ago (12 children)

I don't give two cents for the american auto brands but spare me the drama: try and make a proper car.

Looking at Ford: try importing a few models from the european line and offer it in the states. Small, economic, somewhat reliable, fuel efficient cars.

Stellantis has a slew of models that could be brought into the american market. They make good cars.

And I'm willing to bet GM as a few models they build and market overseas that would be guaranteed sucesses.

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[–] wosat@lemmy.world 27 points 21 hours ago (22 children)

I don't disagree with the criticisms of American cars -- overpriced, uninspired, unreliable, over-engineered, etc. -- but to everyone saying "we should just compete", do you realize the realities that Chinese workers experience? Have you heard of 996? It's shorthand for a common work schedule in China: 9am to 9pm, 6 days a week. Benefits that are common in the U.S., even in non-union shops, like retirement plans, PTO, worker's comp, and overtime pay are rare. So, yeah, things can be made much cheaper if you are willing to feed your workforce into the grinder.

[–] jarmitage@mander.xyz 17 points 19 hours ago (2 children)

And that’s exactly what is coming to the US, since they think workers rights and unions are the problem.

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[–] Jhex@lemmy.world 14 points 20 hours ago (1 children)

So we should then let American oligarchs drive American workers to the same but slower? because that is what has happened so far

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[–] Deflated0ne@lemmy.world 27 points 23 hours ago (6 children)

Domestic US cars can't compete with foreign cars. We've known that forever. Or at least since the 90s.

Look no further than Kei trucks being illegal.

Our overengineered, over priced, unnecessarily complicated crap just can't compete with simple transport vehicles because they aren't made as a tool to serve a purpose. Everyone wants to make a Corolla into a Cadillac and sell it for Cadillac prices.

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[–] whotookkarl@lemmy.world 26 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

No shit, people want cheap, reliable transport and workers would want to build them, build and work on replacement parts, build batteries, etc. The only people supported by blocking BYD in the US are executives, shareholders, and the politicians they bought.

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[–] gizmonicus@sh.itjust.works 25 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

Good. Fuckem. They make shitty, oversized trucks that are a danger to pedestrians and people who drive reasonably sized cars anyway.

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[–] funkyfarmington@lemmy.world 24 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

Maybe GM could, I don't know, innovate?

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[–] kemsat@lemmy.world 21 points 18 hours ago (16 children)

Maybe the USA should heavily invest in the industry of the USA, just like China does, in order to keep up? No, then USian companies would have oversight & have to meet expectations, and we all know that they wouldn’t want that.

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[–] floquant@lemmy.dbzer0.com 17 points 4 hours ago (2 children)

Where free market? It will regulate itself /s

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[–] UltraMagnus0001@lemmy.world 17 points 17 hours ago

Meanwhile, instead of trying to compete they cripple all EV advancement to make a quick buck on fossil fuel.

[–] carl_dungeon@lemmy.world 16 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

I mean, didn’t Japanese and Korean automakers already do that?

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[–] RadioFreeArabia@lemmy.world 16 points 4 hours ago* (last edited 4 hours ago) (1 children)

Six months ago I moved from the US to a country where BYD and other Chinese brands are available. In the past I owned GM cars. The former GM executive is correct. After trying Chinese cars I find it extremely difficult to justify paying 40-60% more for a car made by GM or anyone else. GM’s best selling cars here are made by its Chinese joint ventures and aren’t available for sale in the US, and they are the only GM cars I would buy.

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[–] Fedditor385@lemmy.world 15 points 6 hours ago (10 children)

American manufacturing seems very incapable of change. If things worked this way for decades, why change it? Meanwhile the world moved on and they ask themselves why doesn't anyone wanna buy american...?

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[–] Zwuzelmaus@feddit.org 12 points 1 day ago

BYD? Wait until you see the Xiaomi car LOL!

[–] Gormadt@lemmy.blahaj.zone 12 points 19 hours ago (2 children)

Only if they chose not to compete

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