The European Union voted on Friday to impose tariffs as high as 45% on electric vehicles from China, threatening a broader trade conflict with Beijing which has already vowed to protect its companies.
Slave labor will undercut fair wages every time. The point of the tariffs is to prevent China from setting the expected price of EVs to be too low for fair wage companies to compete, and defining a slave labor standard for the industry.
Despite what many commenters say, this is a good thing.
Slave labor is a system in which a person is bought sold and indentured to a master for a substantial duration, often life. Their labor is coerced as property of that master.
That is not how China produces cars. They use highly automated systems and paid workers like everywhere else. While Chinese workers are paid less due to the forces of unequal exchange (a system imposed by the US) and an export economy (a system usually imposed by the US but more of a 4D chess move by China to develop productive forces, with the US gladly taking the deal for exploitation), that is not really why the cars are so much cheaper. It is because China has highly concentrated industry and a much less financialized system.
Speaking about “fair” is amazing in this context. The US is simply trying to protect domestic monopsony industry and to damage Chinese industry. This is a jingoistic and corporate policy.
That’s true but the logic applies. The EU is part of the imperial core that eats from that trough and in turn supports its maintainer. It is simply following the US’ lead.
A US State Department “fact sheet” from 2021 that cites no sources. Amazing.
Anyways, Chinese companies make electric cars in modern factories with normal workers paid for their labor. Y’all are peddling in orientalist assumptions that only work on people that know nothing at all about the country aside from, say, US State Department single page propaganda pieces.
Its relevant. Having reduced buying power yet not risking loosing all of your buying power for the rest of your life is generally preferred.
Most people don’t realize how terrible it is in the US. Lots of migrants to the US searching for better pay, but they don’t realize how miserable life in the US is because most of their paycheck gets eaten by rent, transportation to work, healthcare, etc. And as soon as they manage to save anything, it all gets wiped out by a single hospital visit.
I don’t think Hollywood (how most people lean about the US) does a good job conveying how most people live in poverty in the US, how miserable they are, and how many of us kill ourselves because of the conditions.
Chattel slavery is different than indentured servitude. There is no ownership of the indentured servant, but they are forced to work against their will. This is the slavery found in Xinjiang, as well as the US penal system.
I didn’t mention chattel slavery or indentured servitude. There have been slave economies outside the American colonies / the United States.
There is no evidence of slavery in Xinjiang, though there is a network of propagandists tied to Adrian Zenz, the US State Department, and the Australian equivalent who make dubious claims.
And that trade Union serves the interests of capital. Try to form your own that fights for the workers, and you’ll get locked up. Its literally illegal.
You are not logged in. However you can subscribe from another Fediverse account, for example Lemmy or Mastodon. To do this, paste the following into the search field of your instance: [email protected]
This is the official technology community of Lemmy.ml for all news related to creation and use of technology, and to facilitate civil, meaningful discussion around it.
Ask in DM before posting product reviews or ads. All such posts otherwise are subject to removal.
Rules:
1: All Lemmy rules apply
2: Do not post low effort posts
3: NEVER post naziped*gore stuff
4: Always post article URLs or their archived version URLs as sources, NOT screenshots. Help the blind users.
5: personal rants of Big Tech CEOs like Elon Musk are unwelcome (does not include posts about their companies affecting wide range of people)
6: no advertisement posts unless verified as legitimate and non-exploitative/non-consumerist
7: crypto related posts, unless essential, are disallowed
Slave labor will undercut fair wages every time. The point of the tariffs is to prevent China from setting the expected price of EVs to be too low for fair wage companies to compete, and defining a slave labor standard for the industry.
Despite what many commenters say, this is a good thing.
Slave labor is a system in which a person is bought sold and indentured to a master for a substantial duration, often life. Their labor is coerced as property of that master.
That is not how China produces cars. They use highly automated systems and paid workers like everywhere else. While Chinese workers are paid less due to the forces of unequal exchange (a system imposed by the US) and an export economy (a system usually imposed by the US but more of a 4D chess move by China to develop productive forces, with the US gladly taking the deal for exploitation), that is not really why the cars are so much cheaper. It is because China has highly concentrated industry and a much less financialized system.
Speaking about “fair” is amazing in this context. The US is simply trying to protect domestic monopsony industry and to damage Chinese industry. This is a jingoistic and corporate policy.
Maybe not hardware, but practically all textiles in China are made with Uyghur slave labor.
https://www.state.gov/forced-labor-in-chinas-xinjiang-region/
Already responded to this one comment over.
I love how people still peddle US state propaganda unironically.
Were talking about labour laws in the EU, not the US
That’s true but the logic applies. The EU is part of the imperial core that eats from that trough and in turn supports its maintainer. It is simply following the US’ lead.
Labor conditions in the EU are better than in the US and better than in China
Depends on which part of the EU you are in. There is a reason the poor of Poland move to places like the UK.
Though this is neither here nor there as the original allegation was slave labor, which is simply a lie.
But it’s not.
https://www.state.gov/forced-labor-in-chinas-xinjiang-region/
Ah yes, the US would absolutely be the place you’d go for factual information about their biggest geopolitical rival. 😂
A US State Department “fact sheet” from 2021 that cites no sources. Amazing.
Anyways, Chinese companies make electric cars in modern factories with normal workers paid for their labor. Y’all are peddling in orientalist assumptions that only work on people that know nothing at all about the country aside from, say, US State Department single page propaganda pieces.
That’s valid. Better to cite Amnisty and HRW
My not American wage has me with less and less buying power with each passing year.
Do you loose all your savings and fall into years of debt if you have to spend a week in the hospital?
No but that’s also not the point being made here lol
Its relevant. Having reduced buying power yet not risking loosing all of your buying power for the rest of your life is generally preferred.
Most people don’t realize how terrible it is in the US. Lots of migrants to the US searching for better pay, but they don’t realize how miserable life in the US is because most of their paycheck gets eaten by rent, transportation to work, healthcare, etc. And as soon as they manage to save anything, it all gets wiped out by a single hospital visit.
I don’t think Hollywood (how most people lean about the US) does a good job conveying how most people live in poverty in the US, how miserable they are, and how many of us kill ourselves because of the conditions.
Chattel slavery is different than indentured servitude. There is no ownership of the indentured servant, but they are forced to work against their will. This is the slavery found in Xinjiang, as well as the US penal system.
I didn’t mention chattel slavery or indentured servitude. There have been slave economies outside the American colonies / the United States.
There is no evidence of slavery in Xinjiang, though there is a network of propagandists tied to Adrian Zenz, the US State Department, and the Australian equivalent who make dubious claims.
Except it’s not fair wages though and it’s getting worse not better.
This. Chinese workers cannot legally form a trade Union.
Of course not, they don’t want that pinko communist nonsense affecting the economy.
what are you smoking https://www.reuters.com/world/china/how-unions-work-china-2021-09-02/
They can’t form new trade unions because everyone already has to join a registered trade union.
And that trade Union serves the interests of capital. Try to form your own that fights for the workers, and you’ll get locked up. Its literally illegal.
Source?