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> On May 23, 2024, at 8:31 AM, Marv Gandall via groups.io > <[email protected]> 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 one. This will encourage more cheap vehicles made by workers with fewer rights to control the conditions of their labor or to 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 NOT 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 outstanding 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 US workers 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 in the US? Mark -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#30485): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/30485 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/106146595/21656 -=-=- POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. #4 Do not exceed five posts a day. -=-=- Group Owner: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/8674936/21656/1316126222/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
