this post was submitted on 31 Aug 2024
168 points (95.2% liked)

World News

39025 readers
1874 users here now

A community for discussing events around the World

Rules:

Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.


Lemmy World Partners

News !news@lemmy.world

Politics !politics@lemmy.world

World Politics !globalpolitics@lemmy.world


Recommendations

For Firefox users, there is media bias / propaganda / fact check plugin.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/media-bias-fact-check/

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

Foreign investment would be an economic boost for Mexico. The company has claimed that a plant there would create about 10,000 jobs. A Tesla competitor, BYD markets its Dolphin Mini model in Mexico for about 398,800 pesos—about $21,300 dollars—a little more than half the price of the cheapest Tesla model.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] eskimofry@lemmy.world 7 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Why won't the Americans let in the chinese manufacturers to find out? Surely if the cars are trash they have nothing to worry about?

[–] catloaf@lemm.ee 6 points 2 months ago (1 children)

That's the thing about economics. Humans are not rational actors. And even if they were, they don't have perfect information.

For example, there's a thing going around in the US right now about raw milk. It's not allowed to be sold because of the risk of disease. But people are idiots and seek it out anyway, and get themselves sick.

For cars, assume one of them is an absolute lemon and deathtrap. It constantly needs maintenance, and if you get in a crash, you die. You won't know about the former until a few years after you've bought it, and if the latter happens, you can't seek any recourse because you're dead.

Now, I'm not saying that this applies to the Chinese EVs, exactly, but we haven't seen them shaken out in the US yet, and China doesn't have a very good track record with consumer safety in the recent past.

[–] Aceticon@lemmy.world 5 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

To counter those vague negative "maybes" of yours, I just want to point out that the EU, which have much more tight regulations on just about everything than the US, especially when it comes to consumer protection, allows the sale of BDY cars.

If a regulatory regime which is more strict when it comes to consumer protection than the US allows such cars to be sold, then claiming or implying that the reason for the US to block their sale there is that they might be dangerous is quite the flight of fantasy.

[–] CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 5 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I mean, it's not what OP was arguing, but the main reason they don't want the cars let in is just to stop China from becoming more powerful. It has little to do with the products themselves.

[–] prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Surely if the products were shit, then there would be nothing to worry about with respect to China's power. No?

[–] CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 4 points 2 months ago (1 children)

If they're shit today, they probably won't be tomorrow. They're just as capable of bootstrapping as the next person.

Back in the 90's Clinton was quoted as saying that with capitalism and development, democracy would inevitably follow in China; trying to stop it would be like nailing jello to a wall. Nobody thinks that way anymore.

[–] prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I don't really understand your point... I wasn't making any comment about democracy in China. That's absurd.

[–] CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 2 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

To clarify, the reason China was allowed to gain that amount of economic influence in the first place was because it was thought they'd be part of the democratic West. Without that, nobody wants an authoritarian superpower.

[–] prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 0 points 2 months ago (1 children)

What? Literally nobody thinks that. The entire Belt and Road Initiative is pretty much open expansionism

[–] CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 1 points 2 months ago

Belt and Road is waaay more recent than what I'm talking about, being declared in 2013. The Cold War ramped down in the 80's and ended around '90 or so, and then the triumphalist narrative that "history had ended" and democracy had irrevocably won was influential in the 90's and arguably 2000's.

Also, I'm not really sure "expansionism" is the right word for peacefully growing one's economy and soft power. Otherwise, the West is expansionist as hell, and that undersells actual territorial expansionism like in Taiwan or Ukraine.