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Originally Posted by Hack&Lube
China is actually about to hit a wall in demographics and economy because their cost of living and consequently their standard of living has risen dramatically in the past 20 years. The image of Chinese sweat shops is no-longer accurate as western countries have moved their actual sweat shops to places like Vietnam as Chinese workers are now too expensive. Chinese companies are probably moving their sweat shops down to Africa through belt & road.
Speaking of auto workers making a pittance, the UAW just won a landmark labor action against US automakers. I think I read a report that the average UAW salary is now north of $100,000 USD/year with staggering benefits and fully funded healthcare and this is going to add ~$800 to a cost of each vehicle next year. To be fair, I do need to enter a clarifying remark based on recent documentaries I watched that most of the money is heavily tilted to seniority with younger UAW workers entering the industry getting shafted.
In any case, the continued heavy unionization of the American auto industry is going to make them uncompetitive in the global economy in upcoming years. I don't think import tariffs and protectionism is the right choice and its bad for consumers. I want to be able to buy the best car for the best price. Not an artificial one to prop up a political bloc of Eastern auto workers that would otherwise not be competitive in a global economy. I don't want a Chevy Bolt. I don't even want my Tesla. I want to buy a Xiao Peng.
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But you are if you buy from China. It's the opposite of what you describe, China can undercut most other countries becuase it's a lot cheaper to make a car when you don't have to treat hazardous chemicals like you do in North America, or have cheap energy supplied by dirty coal, and workers who are poorly treated.
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China's auto workers bear the brunt of price war as fallout widens
As Shanghai sweltered in a heatwave in June, the car factory where Mike Chen works switched production to night shifts and dialled down the air-conditioning.
For Chen, toiling through the early hours in his sweat-soaked uniform, it was the latest slap in the face after cuts in bonuses and overtime slashed his monthly pay this year to little more than a third of what he earned when he was hired in 2016.
Chen, 32, who works for a joint venture between China's state-owned car giant SAIC (600104.SS) and Germany's Volkswagen (VOWG_p.DE), is far from alone. Millions of auto workers and suppliers in China are feeling the heat as an electric vehicle price war forces carmakers to shave costs anywhere they can.
"SAIC-VW used to be the best employer and I felt honoured to work here," said Chen. "Now I just feel angry and sad."
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https://www.reuters.com/business/aut...ns-2023-09-05/
So ya, I mean, if you don't care how you get cheap stuff, well, I guess that's up to you. I tend to think abandoning even more manufacturing, particularity as it moves to higher technology, is a dumb plan and can only work against Canada in the long term. What will be left, growing wheat and pigs to feed the Chinese industrial machine?
And ya, I'm realistic about components being made in China and that truly avoiding all Chinese produced goods is difficult to impossible. But a purchase on the scale of a vehicle? That's just giving up, and endorsing China's vision of low wages, lax environmental standards, massive government subsidies, and funnelling money to a government that runs interment camps and is girding for war in the South China Sea. I'm not going to go out of my way to support that, and it's kind of sad reading how many Canadians just don't care.