LogFAQs > #980395332

s0nicfan posted...

There's a significant difference between countries specializing in different things and a country cheating the system by using tax money to artificially deflate the cost of what they're producing until there's nobody else left on the planet that can afford to compete.

What you're talking about is two farmers growing different things and trading produce at the end of the harvest. What China is doing is more like one farmer growing the same produce as the second, but then selling them at half price until the other farmer shuts down and then turning around and charging whatever the hell he wants because there's nobody else growing what he grows.

Subsidies aren't cheating the system, it's called putting your resources towards your specializations. All governments subsidize their industries (yes, including the US). It's like you're complaining that farmer 1 is cheating by buying more tomato seeds and tomatoes happen to be in far more demand currently than the corn that farmer 2 put more money into. The US also subsidizes their auto industry, it's just that the US auto industry would rather spend that money on fatter executive bonuses and stock buybacks, and they'd rather focus on large-ass gas guzzlers and keeping prices high.

China is able to sell for cheaper because they've made major investments in batteries which make up a huge bulk of the cost of EVs. BYD in particular has a lot of vertical integration which means they don't have to pay extra for a whole bunch of suppliers.