Comments by "AQuietNight" (@AQuietNight) on "The Electric Viking" channel.

You don't pay attention to the economics, you will pay for it through the politics.
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One commentator said Chinese auto companies let their customers be the testers. 12 new models would be a parts inventory nightmare.
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Ford used to be vertically integrated.
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When Americans were buying primarily American made goods, those were considered good times and the economy grew. Problems began when we started buying cheap Asian stuff. If China wants to take it toys home and leave the American market, U.S. companies will start picking up on making many of those lost goods.
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@vanhocwong6689 "That's an illusion" It was a reality and China wasn't needed for it. Two things: China sits on it's currency, the U.S. protects the value of it's currency. The U.S. should allow the dollar to drop in value. Actually, Europe should do it too with the Euro. In the world of tomorrow holding a high value currency is like fighting with 1 hand tied behind your back.
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I wouldn't put too much value on what Friedman says. But, China's biggest advantage is the low value Yuan, not electric batteries. Australia effectively operates as a colony to China selling primarily raw materials which China turns into manufactured goods to ship back to Australia. Australia offers low value minerals and in exchange gets high value manufactured goods back. While this does produce a trade surplus for Australia, it eventually will mean Australia is running a dead end economy but at least you will have solar panels (of course made in China).
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I strongly doubt the U.S. will let GM, Ford and Chrysler disappear. Toyota also has invested heavily in the U.S. and they are almost seen as an American company now. These companies employ 100,000's of people so the Chinese makers will get tariffed.
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Europe, like the U.S. will get bled to death with Chinese imports. Putting up factories will slow the bleeding, but not stop it. Local content rules would help. The European automakers will have to start reducing wages to compete. Shiny new factories will not make that much of a difference, but clearly labor will be taking a hit.
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The end result of low ball prices will be job loss. Then people won't be buying Chinese anything.
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Well thought, something not done often enough.
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As jobs or income is reduced, that will mean less customers for Chinese cars.
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Not the U.S. Germany is looking at the trade numbers. Germany loses money on trade with China. Germany does better with trade with the U.S. where they have a trade surplus. Every euro they make with the United States, they lose about as much with China.
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Eventually China will find many fewer people to buy their products as they termite their way through the economies of the west. You can't sell to people without incomes. And you can only sell a little to the remaining people who have incomes. Then again, this maybe the intent of China.
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@bubba842 This presumes customer choices had nothing to do with it.
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@vanhocwong6689 The Swiss Franc is worth half of a U.S. Dollar. The Swiss still eat well. High end manufacturing over time becomes about as valuable as low end because it becomes a commodity product (think televisions, integrated circuits). High is very good to have but some low end is needed to keep the less skilled and those who were never gifted with the talents to do high end work. I'd rather have the Chinese get the reserve currency status and then watch as the reserve currency higher value slowly drags down the Chinese economy.
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If you want to trade with China, eventually wages have to drop to Chinese levels. Over time, cheap stuff from China will cost you a fortune.
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The network China is building seems to be designed to give the Western Powers the heave ho as suppliers but still retain them as customers. Australia is just China's latest cheap thrill.
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Americans are just not into electric cars like the Chinese are.
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China would take a severe hit if the U.S. stopped by buying Chinese. The U.S. trade deficit with China is huge and represents millions of jobs in China. If China does 50% of manufacturing, the rest of the world will be dealing with the scraps, the left overs, the jobs China doesn't want. And China will be setting wage floors around the globe.
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The current head of the UAW is a left wing radical.
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Like on Twitter... some of these guys go to China and they start losing all perspective.
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Getting a little paranoid there...
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Several of the Chiese automakers are not doing well either as they are engaged in a price cutting war in China. The UAW in the U.S. will probably be seeing wage cuts if BYD comes to town.
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If the stuff is MADE in the U.S., fine. I do not want China to get our money.
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I was reading about Australia's labor costs a few years. Not too much concern at the time because they were selling raw materials to China at a good clip.
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@WalkOverHotCoal True. The issue now would be, what is the next step for the Australian economy?
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@hansj5846 That doesn't change much of what I said. The ideal is to minimize the damage.
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You are punishing the companies that have made this life possible. Vermont is a nothing but New York is becoming less livable and expensive. Solar panels and wind turbines are tinker toy technology.
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China will effectively destroy the customer base they will need to sell to and survive with,.
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Cutting the dividend won't do a whole lot for you if the competition's cost structure is far lower than yours. It's more of a nice gesture more than anything else.
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@JustinTipton China has lower labor costs, programs to help their auto companies to get started and grow plus a currency that gives them an edge in international sales. No matter how efficient VW can become, they still have other hurdles to deal with. Maybe Germany can insist the Chinese battery makers set up shop in Germany?
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@HNedel That would make it an EU problem.
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The west will have to go on a diet and start reducing costs through out society to get costs down. China is setting the wage floor and if costs need to go down everything has to down. China has created a lot of race to the bottom economic scenarios for the west.
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California today is a reservation for high income lefties. They pay about 3 times as much for electric as I do.
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China could drive wages in the U.S. In order to compete wages in the U.S. auto companies will probably need to be halved. If this goes across the U.S. economy this could boomerang on the Chinese as there will be less disposable income to buy Chinese products.
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