my former manager who wanted projects estimated in minutes.

That wasn’t a manager, that was a demon.

Taxing the rich isn’t going to lower our cost of living, the changes needed are far more systemic. Taxes don’t decide whether the government can afford to do something outside of the local level. To solve that problem, you need to remove them from power and ensure they cannot take it back.

If you want a quick bandage for the problem without addressing that last point, you’re better off implementing fixed, affordable prices for necessities such as food, housing, utilities, healthcare, etc. so they can’t be used to price gouge.

This is obviously not sufficient by itself to address all of the problems and it’s almost certain it would never be widely implemented by the government of a liberal democracy. Cutting into corporate profits is unacceptable.

Until people realize that they must forcibly take back the power to define how their countries are run (not necessarily violently, but let’s be honest, those in power don’t even respond to peaceful protests without violence) and then begin to take actions that actually weaken those in charge, we will continue to live under their thumb and suffer the treatment they deem most beneficial to themselves.

One step that can be taken to weaken them is to organize your community to create alternatives to the institutional programs they expect you to rely upon. Develop programs similar to the breakfast programs of the Black Panthers. Organize your workplaces and local communities into workplace unions (not business unions!) and tenant unions organized, run, and composed of the members who will be covered. Force them to negotiate with you and be ruthless at the negotiation table.

Show the people that they DO have power and from there you can begin to build a movement to take it back.

Even if you take this at face value, the article is talking about western auto makers being supplied by what are presumably the same supply chains as Chinese auto makers. So they are both presumably profiting off of slave labor. It’s already well documented in many industries that western companies profit from slave labor both abroad and in the US with no lasting repercussions. So it really doesn’t seem like slave labor would set China apart.

The next complaint is that they are undercutting other companies. What’s the problem here? You get cheaper cars across the board because western auto makers have to lower their prices. Given their massive profits, I see no problem in cutting into those so the people get a better deal.

Another complaint I’ve seen here is the source of the operating system. Do you want a Chinese company spying on you or a US company spying on you? Does it make a difference and if it does, who is more likely to be able to take action on you because of the data they’ve collected? I think your domestic companies and government pose a bigger threat for spying (this includes China for those living in China).

Considering all the recent news and reviews of the EVs coming out of China, what’s the real downside?

Most of what I see boils does to yellow peril bullshit while western governments protect the massive profits and enshitification of western brands at our expense.

Translation from the lab can take a very long time and a lot of money.