Electric cars are actually bad for the American economy though…
Each one takes less labor to build and the overwhelming majority of factories capable of producing ev batteries are overseas.
So while we can make evs domestically with less labor we now have fewer jobs and one of the most expensive parts of the car is being imported anyway, exerting downward pressure on the domestic workers in assembly.
So every electric car that replaces an internal combustion car is reducing the gdp in measurable terms.
Not that gdp is a good measure, but there’s a hard undeniable kernel of truth to the statement that electric cars are bad for the economy and specifically in a way that hurts working class Americans most.
You sound like an economist. They cost less to build and maintain. Which means the money is freed up to do other things. Only an economist would want to bailout inefficiency.
how are the ostensible productivity gains from evs going to be used to help american workers?
it’s hard to believe that the reduced demand for skilled tooling, die and machining labor will translate into some kind of gain for the communities and people that rely on that work to survive.
and we’ve seen how anemic reskilling efforts are and how the usual boilerplate response, “learn to code”, is completely defunct with the combination of LLMs and the cheap overseas junior dev labor pool.
american conservatives are trotting out these arguments to appeal to people who feel like they’re being forced to give up their lifestyle (driving cars with cheap gas), and materially are actually being heavily pressured to get evs without fully understanding the economics of this new class of Second Most Expensive Thing Most Americans Will Ever Buy, but that doesn’t mean that the realities that appeal is built on aren’t there.
Yeah an economist. Backwards ass logic of having more money in your pocket means you are poorer. A car factory is not a work program, it is a factory to make cars. Technological progress shouldn’t be crippled because some special interest group paid you to convince every single person to spend more money for an inferior good.
Goose chasing meme: more money in whose pocket, motherfucker?
Seriously. We’re talking about shitcanning a third of the us auto jobs. Who’s gonna get the money from that nightmare?
How can we expect those communities to take it lying down when they saw what happened and continues to happen to coal country?
This isn’t fake made up handwavey bullshit. These are the real effects of domestic ev production and we can’t just say “anyone who opposed evs is a conservative piece of garbage or a head-in-ass neoliberal economist.”
No really, the parts/labor breakdown of an ev skews farther to parts than an ice car. Who gets that money in their pocket in exchange for all the jobs?
What happens to the families and communities that depend on the jobs that are going away?
Have we learned anything from the failed reskilling of Appalachian coal country?
Come on, is the best insult you got that I sound like it’s my job to defend workers?
Really and truly, where will the labor cost savings go? There’s going to be one, so who gets it? How will that be enforced?
What’s gonna be done for the people whose labor isn’t needed anymore? Bear in mind we’re not just talking about the protagonists of the now forty year old song “Allentown”, but entire industries that support ice car production like die making and machining. Surely we have some idea of what happens here aside from “theyre fucked, some people’s blood and bonemeal grease the rails of progress”.
You can’t just handwave away the real effects of changes in productivity in the name of abstractly defined technological progress.
If you can’t seriously engage with the effects of a transition to producing electric cars then it’s no wonder American conservatives are making so much hay over it.
They’re planning on building four, and they paused construction recently as a power play in negotiations when the uaw said battery workers should get the same pay as the machinists.
I saw that those plants will be making batteries for the new f150, not the much smaller evs that everyone else drives.
Battery manufacture is part of its own can of worms though, and one that doesn’t make evs look great either.
I wanna also say that I’m not against spinning down the ice auto industry, but no one who’s suggesting doing that or making fun of people who recognize that it’s the consequence of things that are already happening has a real plan for it.
they’re gonna be a hit with the people who’ve been buying them instead of sedans lately, but the fleet and rural markets are gonna be less inclined to use em and needing a big battery service periodically is gonna change the long term value proposition of a full size truck for a lot of people.
Electric cars are actually bad for the American economy though…
Each one takes less labor to build and the overwhelming majority of factories capable of producing ev batteries are overseas.
So while we can make evs domestically with less labor we now have fewer jobs and one of the most expensive parts of the car is being imported anyway, exerting downward pressure on the domestic workers in assembly.
So every electric car that replaces an internal combustion car is reducing the gdp in measurable terms.
Not that gdp is a good measure, but there’s a hard undeniable kernel of truth to the statement that electric cars are bad for the economy and specifically in a way that hurts working class Americans most.
You sound like an economist. They cost less to build and maintain. Which means the money is freed up to do other things. Only an economist would want to bailout inefficiency.
What will that money be doing?
how are the ostensible productivity gains from evs going to be used to help american workers?
it’s hard to believe that the reduced demand for skilled tooling, die and machining labor will translate into some kind of gain for the communities and people that rely on that work to survive.
and we’ve seen how anemic reskilling efforts are and how the usual boilerplate response, “learn to code”, is completely defunct with the combination of LLMs and the cheap overseas junior dev labor pool.
american conservatives are trotting out these arguments to appeal to people who feel like they’re being forced to give up their lifestyle (driving cars with cheap gas), and materially are actually being heavily pressured to get evs without fully understanding the economics of this new class of Second Most Expensive Thing Most Americans Will Ever Buy, but that doesn’t mean that the realities that appeal is built on aren’t there.
Yeah an economist. Backwards ass logic of having more money in your pocket means you are poorer. A car factory is not a work program, it is a factory to make cars. Technological progress shouldn’t be crippled because some special interest group paid you to convince every single person to spend more money for an inferior good.
Goose chasing meme: more money in whose pocket, motherfucker?
Seriously. We’re talking about shitcanning a third of the us auto jobs. Who’s gonna get the money from that nightmare?
How can we expect those communities to take it lying down when they saw what happened and continues to happen to coal country?
This isn’t fake made up handwavey bullshit. These are the real effects of domestic ev production and we can’t just say “anyone who opposed evs is a conservative piece of garbage or a head-in-ass neoliberal economist.”
-The proceeding was a paid for commentary by economists of UAW.
No really, the parts/labor breakdown of an ev skews farther to parts than an ice car. Who gets that money in their pocket in exchange for all the jobs?
What happens to the families and communities that depend on the jobs that are going away?
Have we learned anything from the failed reskilling of Appalachian coal country?
Come on man it is Friday night. You can punch out. UAW isnt paying you to work the weekends
Come on, is the best insult you got that I sound like it’s my job to defend workers?
Really and truly, where will the labor cost savings go? There’s going to be one, so who gets it? How will that be enforced?
What’s gonna be done for the people whose labor isn’t needed anymore? Bear in mind we’re not just talking about the protagonists of the now forty year old song “Allentown”, but entire industries that support ice car production like die making and machining. Surely we have some idea of what happens here aside from “theyre fucked, some people’s blood and bonemeal grease the rails of progress”.
You can’t just handwave away the real effects of changes in productivity in the name of abstractly defined technological progress.
If you can’t seriously engage with the effects of a transition to producing electric cars then it’s no wonder American conservatives are making so much hay over it.
deleted by creator
They’re planning on building four, and they paused construction recently as a power play in negotiations when the uaw said battery workers should get the same pay as the machinists.
I saw that those plants will be making batteries for the new f150, not the much smaller evs that everyone else drives.
Battery manufacture is part of its own can of worms though, and one that doesn’t make evs look great either.
I wanna also say that I’m not against spinning down the ice auto industry, but no one who’s suggesting doing that or making fun of people who recognize that it’s the consequence of things that are already happening has a real plan for it.
deleted by creator
i’m skeptical about electric trucks.
they’re gonna be a hit with the people who’ve been buying them instead of sedans lately, but the fleet and rural markets are gonna be less inclined to use em and needing a big battery service periodically is gonna change the long term value proposition of a full size truck for a lot of people.
deleted by creator
I guess we’ll NEVER FUCKING KNOW because they insist on only making MINIVANS FOR INSECURE DADS.
I think you’re gonna find out very soon because four battery plants are in the works for trucks.