> On May 23, 2024, at 8:31 AM, Marv Gandall via groups.io
> <marvgand2=gmail....@groups.io> wrote:
>
> https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/us-europe-gripes-on-china-overcapacity-aren-t-all-backed-by-data-1.2054401
I have a couple of problems with the article.
1. Prices: "From the rest of the world’s perspective, overcapacity can be felt
through lower prices." The title of the article is "Gripes on China
Overcapacity Aren’t All Backed by Data," but in looking at the first set of
data, the author shifts to world-wide demand and argues that prices are going
up so there can't be over-capacity. That's a straw man. The Chinese
overcapacity that Yellen and others are concerned with is whether China has
enough capacity to flood the US market with cheap vehicles. The Chinese
manufacturers will then be able to raise their car prices in the US market, no
doubt owing to their much lower costs, even with hauling the vehicles overseas
and adding more oil content to the coal content that goes into making each
Chinese vehicle. This will encourage more cheap vehicles made by workers with
fewer rights to control the conditions of their labor and have a voice in the
workplace, and it will be made in communities that have no control over the
environmental consequences of cheap-vehicle production.
2. Utilization: Utilization is lower than what is considered normal "according
to a commentary by the Communist Party’s leading financial body."
"Overcapacity" is now a political issue and commentary from a political body
should be considered reliable.
Except for a couple of cited sources, I don't know where all the information is
coming from, the independence of the sources, or if the Bloomberg name should
be trusted on this matter given that they may not want to expose their
very-good sources. But the conditions of the market shouldn't guide our
strategy here.
When workers win the right to independent trade unions and the nation's masses
democratically decide to impose ecological restrictions on resource use, the
neoliberal world order allows capital to evade these added costs by shipping
the domestic jobs to places where workers live in dormitories or crates rather
than ranch houses and where government imposes few ecological safeguards. But
the capitalists then need for their companies to sell those products back on
the domestic market in order to realize higher surplus than if produced
domestically.
So, how do we struggle against that except for controlling access to the
domestic market? Why wouldn't we demand the same level of workers rights as
our own and the same level of environmental safeguards we imposed on those
businesses when they make goods here?
Mark
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