Very thought-provoking article! Will Musk still support China when a mainland Chinese upstart replicates all of his company's technology, and undercuts Tesla in the Chinese market so completely that the Tesla factory in Shanghai is no longer necessary? Does Musk realize that his value to China is strictly temporary?
Can confirm backdated price increases. Currently seeing that from 2 different vendors. So far have only encountered when items ready to ship. "Price has increased since your order. If you still want your order, pay increased price. Otherwise we have customers who will."
I being from Buffalo finished college in late 07. I could only find a job at Lowes. I decided one day to try to find something in my garden dept not made in China, and in fact made in the USA. I think I found like a door mat and a garden gnome for the entire dept of tens of thousands of items, mostly shit only people seeped in 100 years of corporate consumerism propaganda would buy anyways. A geriatric history professor came in and made snarky comments about my anthropology degree helping me sell him grills. I'm still furious at these elitist assholes who did this to us, both the ivy tower academics, and the politicans. But I was recently reading a history of geopolitcs following WW1 by Adam Tooze. Even though China was busy fighting civil wars, being invaded by Japan, and stuck in the middle ages and not a threat to anyone, and even though the Great War and tore the guts out of humanity everywhere else, even then Wilson's main fear was the rise of China. IDK how these neolib assholes specifically chose China??? Why not Vietnam or Colombia, if they wanted to ruin the lives of everyone in the Rust Belt. Why did it have to be China?
Whatever ends up happening, it's hard to imagine a global superpower that could be any worse or more destructive than the U.S. And the U.S. is not particularly good at promoting democracy either. They are just more insidious and more subtle than the Chinese.
Matt, your work on monopolies is incredibly important (thank you!), but your animus towards China always puzzles me. Yes, the US should never have run down its industrial base and out-sourced production (to China, or anywhere else), but I can't seriously believe that the PRC intends to "sink the U.S. Pacific Fleet" or propagandize American youth with 'Communist' propaganda via TikTok. And as for the Solomon Islands, the US does not have a moral or legal claim on them: the thousands of soldiers killed there in 1942-3 didn't die on behalf of the Islanders or fight for their independence, they died to defeat Japan. In sum, the Solomons are a sovereign nation and can do whatever they please, even if Uncle Sam says "nice country you've got here...shame if something were to happen to it".
It has taken us many decades to get ourselves into the mess we have with China and our economics in general. Musk and Tesla are only the current iteration of the problem.
China is the ultimate monopoly - One Party, One Dictator and One Law (do what the Party wants or die). To most of us tyranny is undesirable but consider another viewpoint - tyranny is a beautiful utopia for those on top who have absolute power over life and death and unlimited wealth. When their feelings are hurt (Winnie the Poo meme) then offenders will be first be censored and then beaten, imprisoned and executed to stop the hurt and protect the dictator or ruling class from being humiliated or "marginalized".
We must understand how tyrants and monopolists think in order to defeat them. Things simply could not be better for the Chinese ruling class within the totalitarian utopia and our ruling class is impressed and envious - democracy, free speech and competition have become their chains and shackles and the masses of people are just a useless ball on the end of the chain.
Wallstreet oligarchs and hedge fund managers went from hating communism to loving it, because it can bring them unlimited power and wealth which is far more important than any devotion to a free market principle or any other kind of principle.
"I believe that free expression and liberty are values that only exist because they are protected by a strong liberal democratic state"??
The degree of freedom of expression should be proportionate to the speaker's responsibility for her words. That's China's rule and it works: 80% of them trust their media, vs. 30% of us.
"Chinese President Xi Jinping has told officials to ensure that the country’s economic growth outpaces the U.S.’s this year, according to people familiar with the discussions"??
This is doubly naive: China's Q1 GDP growth was literally 100 times America's, a margin it will probably maintain this year. And NOBODY who knows what Xi said is talking to the wretched Wall Street Journal.
"It’s all so stupid and thoughtless" should replace "E Pluribus Unum".
Very thought-provoking article! Will Musk still support China when a mainland Chinese upstart replicates all of his company's technology, and undercuts Tesla in the Chinese market so completely that the Tesla factory in Shanghai is no longer necessary? Does Musk realize that his value to China is strictly temporary?
"The Capitalists will sell us the rope with which we will hang them" -V. Lenin
So much fun watching the slow motion train wreck in real-time, isn't it?
Can confirm backdated price increases. Currently seeing that from 2 different vendors. So far have only encountered when items ready to ship. "Price has increased since your order. If you still want your order, pay increased price. Otherwise we have customers who will."
I being from Buffalo finished college in late 07. I could only find a job at Lowes. I decided one day to try to find something in my garden dept not made in China, and in fact made in the USA. I think I found like a door mat and a garden gnome for the entire dept of tens of thousands of items, mostly shit only people seeped in 100 years of corporate consumerism propaganda would buy anyways. A geriatric history professor came in and made snarky comments about my anthropology degree helping me sell him grills. I'm still furious at these elitist assholes who did this to us, both the ivy tower academics, and the politicans. But I was recently reading a history of geopolitcs following WW1 by Adam Tooze. Even though China was busy fighting civil wars, being invaded by Japan, and stuck in the middle ages and not a threat to anyone, and even though the Great War and tore the guts out of humanity everywhere else, even then Wilson's main fear was the rise of China. IDK how these neolib assholes specifically chose China??? Why not Vietnam or Colombia, if they wanted to ruin the lives of everyone in the Rust Belt. Why did it have to be China?
I appreciate much of what you write about, but this comes across as typical western anti-China partisanship.
Whatever ends up happening, it's hard to imagine a global superpower that could be any worse or more destructive than the U.S. And the U.S. is not particularly good at promoting democracy either. They are just more insidious and more subtle than the Chinese.
Matt, your work on monopolies is incredibly important (thank you!), but your animus towards China always puzzles me. Yes, the US should never have run down its industrial base and out-sourced production (to China, or anywhere else), but I can't seriously believe that the PRC intends to "sink the U.S. Pacific Fleet" or propagandize American youth with 'Communist' propaganda via TikTok. And as for the Solomon Islands, the US does not have a moral or legal claim on them: the thousands of soldiers killed there in 1942-3 didn't die on behalf of the Islanders or fight for their independence, they died to defeat Japan. In sum, the Solomons are a sovereign nation and can do whatever they please, even if Uncle Sam says "nice country you've got here...shame if something were to happen to it".
It has taken us many decades to get ourselves into the mess we have with China and our economics in general. Musk and Tesla are only the current iteration of the problem.
From this, the question logically follows: If another country controls your means of production, do you have national sovereignty?
Very interesting article, you, sir, need to keep up this great work
Musk, Bezoz, Zuckerberg etc They all have their lips plastered to China's a**.
I wish the US had a "dual-strategy" or any strategy for that matter, not including the idiotic "Overmatch" program from the Pentagon.
China is the ultimate monopoly - One Party, One Dictator and One Law (do what the Party wants or die). To most of us tyranny is undesirable but consider another viewpoint - tyranny is a beautiful utopia for those on top who have absolute power over life and death and unlimited wealth. When their feelings are hurt (Winnie the Poo meme) then offenders will be first be censored and then beaten, imprisoned and executed to stop the hurt and protect the dictator or ruling class from being humiliated or "marginalized".
We must understand how tyrants and monopolists think in order to defeat them. Things simply could not be better for the Chinese ruling class within the totalitarian utopia and our ruling class is impressed and envious - democracy, free speech and competition have become their chains and shackles and the masses of people are just a useless ball on the end of the chain.
Wallstreet oligarchs and hedge fund managers went from hating communism to loving it, because it can bring them unlimited power and wealth which is far more important than any devotion to a free market principle or any other kind of principle.
Excellent report!
"I believe that free expression and liberty are values that only exist because they are protected by a strong liberal democratic state"??
The degree of freedom of expression should be proportionate to the speaker's responsibility for her words. That's China's rule and it works: 80% of them trust their media, vs. 30% of us.
"Chinese President Xi Jinping has told officials to ensure that the country’s economic growth outpaces the U.S.’s this year, according to people familiar with the discussions"??
This is doubly naive: China's Q1 GDP growth was literally 100 times America's, a margin it will probably maintain this year. And NOBODY who knows what Xi said is talking to the wretched Wall Street Journal.