GenZedong

Great points, comrade.

I'd like to add a point (which I don't think contradicts you). The EU and the US heavily subsidise their ruling class but, like 'corruption/lobbying' they call it different things. Take Dublin, for example. What are Dublin's low taxes but a massive subsidy? There's a market logic to it, so it's not only for Europeans in a strict protectionist sense. But it does subsidise 'business' (at the expense of taxpayers).

There's also the welfare state. By providing some necessities (albeit these systems are crumbling), employers can pay significantly lower wages. If not for welfare, the workers would simply be unable to survive and/or perform on their other wages. Plus agricultural and fossil subsidies, which keeps some prices lower, enabling the workers to eat calorie dense foods and travel to work on their shit wages (which are shit even topped up with welfare).

I agree with you, though. These redacteds don't see these things as subsidies because their anti-trust laws say that they're not allowed therefore the decision makers must pretend that something else is happening.

Additionally – or maybe it's the same thing reworded – Anglo-European subsidies are often financial in nature. It's a roundabout way of funding industrial/agricultural production but it has two major flaws that will lead to the demise of neoliberal capitalism.

First, by strengthening finance capital, they accelerate the gap between financial and, let's say, productive capital. This is terrible for people as it contributes to rampant inflation and 'justifies' high interest rates. But it can only go on for so long before something like a war with Russia swings the bat of reality into their faces as they realise that increasing military expenditure to €Xbn doesn't mean shit if the money isn't spent on actual factories, etc. Same with the auto industry. It can only be used to leverage finance for so long before the cracks start to show.

Second, there's no guarantee that the subsidy is applied efficiently. By that, I mean, the only guarantee is that if you give neoliberal vampires a tax cut the only trickling down they'll be doing is with piss over the working class. The tax savings will be laundered through a tax haven.

In this sense, I suppose, these subsidies aren't subsidies. They are a way of funneling social wealth into a few private hands. Which brings us to one of the EU's unstated concerns: cheaper Chinese EVs (in cost, not quality) or any other commodity don't just risk European company sales; they risk doing to the tracks of the gravy train what the yanks did to the tracks of their real trains through simple neglect. The EU top brass knows the real movement to abolish the existing state of things has started and they have zero answers. Poor them.