Episode Transcript
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0:20
Welcome, friends, to another edition
0:22
of Economic Update, a
0:24
weekly program devoted to the economic
0:26
dimensions of our lives and those
0:28
of our children. I'm
0:30
your host, Richard Wolff. I
0:33
want to remind you as usual that
0:35
our volunteer, Charlie Fabian, is
0:37
ready and willing to receive your
0:40
emails with whatever suggestions, documents, topics
0:42
you would like to have us
0:45
consider for the design of this
0:47
program in the months and years
0:49
ahead. You can reach him
0:52
by email at charlie.info
0:58
438@gmail.com. Once again,
1:00
charlie.info 438@gmail.com. Today's
1:07
program is especially interesting, I
1:09
think. It will
1:11
have its first half around three
1:14
topics—the exploding global market
1:16
in Chinese electric
1:18
vehicles and what that's
1:20
about, the class
1:23
struggle between employers and employees,
1:25
which never stops, but has
1:27
now got a new area
1:29
for struggle that's between working
1:31
at home, working remotely, and
1:33
working in the office or
1:35
at the work site. And
1:37
finally, the revelations by
1:40
the Reuters News Service in
1:42
England of a
1:44
program by the American military to
1:47
persuade people not to get
1:50
vaxxed against COVID,
1:53
spending your and my tax dollars
1:55
to do that, in
1:57
the Philippines because they were
2:00
using Chinese vaccines.
2:03
The same government that was
2:05
pushing vaccines on Americans
2:08
was pushing the opposite way
2:11
in the Philippines. Something
2:13
to think about. In the
2:15
second half, we're going to have a special
2:17
guest. Her name
2:19
is Kristin Gonzalez. She's
2:22
a socialist, and she's
2:24
also the senator from the
2:26
59th district of New York
2:28
State, the youngest woman ever
2:31
to be elected to the New
2:33
York State Senate. And she'll
2:35
be our guest, and we'll have interesting things
2:38
to share with us. So let's
2:40
get started. For
2:43
the first time in history, in the
2:45
year just ended, 2023, Chinese cars, that is cars
2:52
produced by a Chinese producer,
2:55
sold more cars around the
2:57
world than all
2:59
U.S. brands combined.
3:02
Chinese car sales
3:05
13.4, both
3:07
fossil fuel and electric, U.S.
3:10
brands worldwide 11.9 million. Why
3:15
do I bring this up? Because
3:18
it is evidence of the changing
3:20
world economy, which is a central
3:22
topic of this program and always
3:25
has been. The
3:27
role of the United States,
3:30
which was once the absolutely
3:32
dominating force in the
3:34
global economy, keeps shrinking,
3:38
while that of China keeps
3:40
rising. And
3:42
you know, we have become used to for
3:44
the last century and a half
3:48
that there's one industry that's kind of
3:50
a marker for
3:52
the importance any country
3:54
has, and that
3:56
industry is the automobile industry. It
4:00
got its start in the Western
4:02
European and North American
4:04
markets, which were the
4:07
overwhelmingly dominant economic players
4:09
in the world economy
4:12
when automobile production became
4:14
an important industry. And
4:18
that continued until another
4:21
country figured out a way to
4:23
become a powerhouse in the world,
4:25
and the automobile was for them
4:28
the key. That's
4:31
Japan, as you all know, when
4:34
Toyota and Nissan and all
4:36
the others began to muscle
4:39
out the former dominance
4:41
of GM, Ford, Chrysler, and
4:44
so forth. And
4:46
now there is a new player who's
4:49
in the process of muscling Europe,
4:53
America, and Japan out
4:56
of the way as it becomes
4:59
the dominant player. And
5:01
the number one brand you might want to get to know,
5:03
BYD. They
5:08
produce the dominant,
5:10
they are the dominant automobile producer
5:14
in China. Okay.
5:18
Not only are the Chinese
5:21
producing globally competitive
5:23
cars, but they are
5:25
especially competitive, as I have
5:27
noted before, in the electric
5:29
automobile and the electric truck,
5:32
which is likely the wave
5:35
of the future in private
5:37
vehicles. There
5:39
they are so dominant, even
5:41
more than they are in the gasoline
5:44
powered vehicle, that
5:46
the United States and Europe, trying
5:48
desperately to hold on in
5:50
the face of this competition, have
5:53
now levied enormous tariffs, 48% in
5:55
Europe, 100% in the United States.
6:00
here in the United States against
6:02
China. And you know the Chinese
6:04
have reacted, and their
6:07
reaction teaches us another lesson. The
6:10
Chinese have focused on selling cars
6:12
in the rest of the world. Asia,
6:16
Africa, Latin America,
6:19
that's where they're putting their energy,
6:21
and they're becoming the dominant automobile
6:24
producer. And sooner
6:26
or later, industries
6:29
in North America and Western
6:31
Europe and Japan are
6:35
going to suffer competitively in
6:37
the world because they're having
6:39
to buy automobiles and trucks
6:41
at the high protected price
6:44
given their tariffs. And
6:46
they're not going to be able to
6:48
compete successfully with companies in Asia, Africa,
6:51
and Latin America that can get cars
6:53
and trucks that
6:55
are better in quality and
6:57
cheaper in price. It won't
6:59
survive. It never does historically.
7:02
What the Chinese automobile reality
7:05
has already become is
7:08
a mechanism for
7:10
economically isolating the
7:12
United States and Europe. It's not
7:14
just anymore a question of those
7:17
parts of the world no longer
7:19
having the dominance they had in
7:21
the previous two or three centuries.
7:24
They've lost that dominance already.
7:28
What's happening now by
7:30
their protective defensive reaction
7:33
is that they're becoming the
7:35
isolated part, and
7:37
that will wreak havoc on the
7:39
standards of living of those
7:41
parts of the world that try to play
7:43
that game. You'd be
7:45
far better off working something
7:48
out with China to
7:50
share the world economy before
7:53
you lose the capacity to
7:56
be a partner in such a
7:58
sharing. vaccines
14:00
from the United States bought
14:04
the less expensive Chinese vaccines,
14:06
as many countries did. I
14:10
don't know what happened in others,
14:12
but thanks to Reuters, we know
14:14
that the United States military used
14:16
your taxes and mine to
14:20
fight against COVID vaccinations.
14:22
That's the US military
14:24
whose boss... ...
14:28
whose boss... ...
14:31
was arguing that Americans have to get vaccines,
14:34
was imposing vaccines on large
14:36
numbers of Americans. Imagine
14:39
it. That's how the
14:41
Cold War mentality, which
14:44
Reuters says cost the lives
14:46
of how many Filipinos subjected
14:49
them to the disease and
14:52
raises the whole question. What
14:54
is the behavior of the United States?
14:58
And everyone in the Philippines
15:00
now knows this story. This
15:03
is a very serious
15:05
expose. Stay
15:08
with us. We've come to the end of the first half.
15:11
We're going to have a fascinating interview
15:13
with Kristin Gonzalez when
15:15
we return. Friends,
15:20
I don't want to insult your intelligence.
15:23
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15:25
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15:27
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15:29
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15:35
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15:37
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15:39
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15:41
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15:43
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15:59
you.
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