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this post was submitted on 02 Mar 2026
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Paying 130% for the same product still isn't competitive tho?
Unless you're gonna start from square 1 and centrally plan every step as well as China did, you're looking at an industry that will never stand on its own.
I wouldn't call what China does "well planned" or "technologically superior", per se. More like "they don't pay their workers hardly anything and regularly utilize slave labour at a large scale".
They manufacture more than anyone else in the world because of how effective their planning has been.
They have factories they don't even bother to turn the lights on due to how automated it is. You're using stereotypes that haven't had any basis in reality for over a decade.
Eh, kinda, wages are still quite low, but for the last 20 years, labor-intensive work that can't be automated has been leaving China for countries whose wages haven't increased.
China doesn't use slave labor lmao.
If it was only an issue of low wages and high population, India would be the biggest manufacturer in the world.
How do we find the people who can do that?
If you didn't have the scientists and engineers before, you certainly have enough fleeing America now.
The issue for Europe is political. Capitalism has advanced so much I genuinely don't believe yall are capable of that type of investment without just funneling the money into the pockets of billionaires while terribly mismanaging the whole thing.
Similarly, among all the engineers, who selects the competent ones? We have market economies because central planning has shown its limits. Shouldn't we trust the process and support the market in figuring it out?
No because that is how neoliberalism just hollows the industries that all other industries depend on. There's a reason China builds more HSR and subway lines, ships, and solar panels than the rest of the world combined.
Markets are a specific tool that is useful in some areas and destructive in others. For example, if China didn't mandate bauxite mining operations extract gallium, the mines would never build the required infrastructure because it takes ages to pay off the capital investment required to do so, if it does at all, and China would have the same capacity to manufacture LEDs and derived products as the rest of the world, almost none.
Same with batteries. There's a dozen companies, but the 5 year plans and ability to intervene if the capitalists try to not compete or hollow out their industry in the name of profit ensures those companies have the quantity and price those companies need to reduce the price of batteries as low as possible.
Presumably people who are able to evaluate their performance. Unlike in capitalism where those engineers are selected by the people with the most money.
Not product, just the battery. Cost of battery is ~35% of the cost of a car so car with European battery will be what? 10-15% more expensive? Probably similar for other products. I would be more than happy to pay extra 10% for products with batteries made in Europe.
The EU and the countries in it are already subsidizing a lot of commercial activity that's deemed "essential", such as agriculture and auto industry. They don't necessarily have to be directly competitive.