Comment by laidoffamazon 10 months ago
> The investment in factories is absolutely massive over the past few years.
The fascinating thing is people don't want to believe this. They'll make every excuse before admitting that it's true. They want to be in a declining empire when the reality is the opposite.
That's because reality that is readily observable by these people does not match the reality reported by the media and the reality portrayed in Democrat speeches. In that alternate reality manufacturing-heavy towns are booming and not dying out. US-made automobiles are the most advanced and Detroit is a world-class city. And it's simply not true, much like what Pravda would report back in the day.
> reality that is readily observable by these people does not match the reality reported by the media and the reality portrayed in Democrat speeches.
Democratic* and also, no.
> US-made automobiles are the most advanced
You may be living in a different country then, given how impressive Tesla, Rivian, and Lucid are.
> And it's simply not true
Except it is, you're proving my point
here's a bookmark from a few days ago:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqhTRQ--x_Q #video on #China/#USA politics trying to keep out electric vehicles with 100% tariffs while US car companies spend their government EV research grants on stock buybacks. High-end electric cars, electric dumptrucks, and even electric mopeds support battery-change recharging; it’s commercially deployed. They’re very impressed with how advanced all the Chinese cars are, and also positively impressed with how accommodating the auto parts manufacturers they met with were, especially by contrast to US and Canadian companies.
a thing i didn't mention in that bookmark is that the prc-company-made equivalent to the (prc-made) tesla model y (still the most popular car in the prc) is one fourth of the price
my bookmarks file has 14601 entries, including dozens of entries about that trade war.† i find that it's helpful to be able to cite sources when discussing topics with other people, and summarizing them helps me understand them better to start with
the video itself is only incidentally political; it's a 'custom car build show' from canada with 700k subscribers which primarily focuses on things like engine performance, welding machines, impact wrenches, and fixing dilapidated machinery. but a month ago the guys that make the show decided to go to china to see if they could source some car parts for their custom builds, and they were absolutely blown away by how much more advanced chinese cars were than usa-made cars, to the point that they filled a half-hour video mostly marveling at that
to me this seemed relevant to the thread
______
† i'm interested in things that seem likely to result in hundreds of millions of deaths in the next few years, so there are lots of entries about drones and the ukraine war too, for example
A democratic speech would be something about the right of the people to elect a government that represents them (as opposed to being told they are Nazis for wanting to do so). A Democrat speech is any speech delivered by a Democrat.
The USSR also had fanatical members of the Youth Comsomol who'd loudly denounce anyone who questioned the party line as either insane or "anti-Soviet". That's what you and your comrades are doing.
But really, it doesn't matter if Pravda reports a new record in farm production every other week - the people still see the empty shelves in the grocery stores.
US manufacturing growth is manufactured as follows: use tariffs to ban much cheaper (and frequently better) goods and demand that they are produced locally. Or even better: make components for a fleet of ships that costs $4B each and that nobody needs and that gets canceled (see: Zumwalt). Step 2: use the ridiculously inflated costs as proof that manufacturing is growing (hey, you just need a big number).
This is some sort of weird projection, where you have swallowed lots of propaganda, accuse anybody with actual facts as being "insane," and then accuse others of exactly what you are doing.
Meanwhile, back in reality
Bloomberg: US South Accounts for Lion’s Share of Factory Construction Boom https://archive.is/URbMw
Bloomberg Video from a year ago "factory construction has doubled": https://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/2023-10-06/the-america...
"So one was just like, "Oh yeah, they got those higher starting wages." If you're walking in with no background in manufacturing, no skills that you could point to, the starting wages are in the like $17.50 to $22 an hour range depending on the role" https://www.volts.wtf/p/how-is-new-clean-energy-manufacturin...
This is not from tariffs, it's from carrots in tax incentives, used to build up the entire supply chain, not just a few factories.
If you have empty shelves in grocery stores, where the hell are you living? You expect me to not believe my own eyes, and imagine some empty grocery store shelves? If so, it's your own area's politics that are causing the problem. Wages are waaaaay up, especially on the lower end, much less on the top end.
The economy in the US is blowing away China, Europe, etc. We are so strong right now. If you are not doing well in your own micro area, look internally to see how your area is fucking up so much when there's opportunity everywhere.
Empty grocery shelves are you not being able to read, and taking a comparison literally. However, they could be observed not long ago in much of the country. There were supply chain issues during COVID with most anything. And even after COVID there were disruptions like a sudden unavailability of eggs.
Starting wages increasing by 20% for the first time in a decade doesn't even keep up with inflation.
You are so strong you have to completely change trade policy to a protectionist one. China is the one to watch for the next decade.
> don't want to believe this
I don't think so. Rather, we are being told repeatedly that investment in factories is real bad and we should just continue to do what we did. We, then, respond to that - and that gets interpreted as "oh so you don't believe the situation is getting better?"
It is getting better, but there's still a lot of opposition and the opposition still needs to be addressed and their concerns heard.
Cool, factories get invested in, the c levels get paid $500k/year and the workers get $17.50/hr. Come to the Midwest and see it.
Investment in factories != investment in american communities.
Legal immigrants with special protected status, Medicare coverage, and some basic income from the government are given these manufacturing jobs because then the investors don't have to pay for health benefits, can severely under pay, plus they have the bonus of having a desperate, captive workforce.
The investment class thinks workers need to be knocked down a couple pegs. This stuff will not end well.