On one hand allowing obviously superior and cheaper Chinese EVs into the states at MSRP would obliterate the automakers which are one of the last bastions of organized labor. On the other hand getting cheap EVs into people’s hands is the outer limit of viable climate change action in this treat demon settler country.
EVs aren’t a viable way to address climate change; overall primary energy use needs to decrease and EVs are still a very, very energy-intensive form of transportation. Organized labor will be a necessary component of any attempt to address climate change beyond offering people better treats.
It is however ridiculous because the dems have created a system where only affluent people can afford EVs; they’ll pat them on the back and assure them they did their part to save the planet. Now if only the poors trundling along in their aged gasmobiles could get their shit together.
fuck the tariff. US automakers obliterated themselves and are trying to make it a global suicide pact.
they turned into banks pushing financial products, cannibalized their domestic production capacity and undermined the social reproduction of their own labor force. they hollowed out their product value and, despite the relative power of organized labor in the UAW compared to like… everybody but cops, they gutted their workers too. i’m not going to let the crisis of US automaker capital formations be reframed as an attempt to protect american autoworkers or anyone in the working class. there might be an argument if 100% of these tariff revenues were going to renewable transportation infrastructure, but i would still call that regressive and perverse.
i understand the logic behind the UAW supporting the tariff and wouldn’t tell them not to, but it can barely even be considered a near term solution unless their contracts start pushing for
it’s pretty clear the capitalists have never given a fuck about long term viability of any of these organizations, so of course the only way they’ll make a good decision is if they are shoved to the side by the people investing their time and hoping for a future.
i don’t think a typical production worker gives a shit about who signs the check or who invented the technology, if the wage is right, the checks clear, and the work is safe. plants could be cranking out windmill dynamos, tidal turbines, solar panels, battery tech, grid connected vehicles, or cheap EVs. that is what is gonna do for us all.