As someone familiar with Big Rapids, this was a fascinating read. Really reinforces the idea that these people aren’t looking for an economic revolution, but a cultural one. They will gladly reject new, high paying industrial jobs if they are the wrong sort, e.g Chinese and/or EV, while still decrying that they are the “forgotten man”. It’s a lesson for Democrats and probably liberals more broadly, that no amount of investment will bring these people back, at least in the short term
bigwang123 on
‘For some No Gos, the concern over Gotion was tied to anxiety about the potential environmental impact of battery production. “My daughter will be riding the bus to school on an electric vehicle over my dead body,” Marjorie Steele, an environmentalist who opposed the Gotion plant, told me, arguing that EVs were dangerous and unreliable, especially during Michigan winters.’
Seems a little odd
stav_and_nick on
Man, this is missing my favourite part, where one of the major anti-factory people said that it makes you less reliant on China if you import things from them than if they open a factory in the US to make stuff
Like just genuinely stupid behaviour
Loves_a_big_tongue on
This reaffirms my belief that the US will never be the leader in EV, that’s clearly a Chinese win. Half this country opposes it out of fear, anger, and pure spite, the guy who made EVs synonymous with his company poisoned that association for the other half of the country. It seems EVs are destined to be a niche market in the US for wealthy liberals and Musk-riders.
>Then, Thelen opened the jar again, this time dipping his index finger inside. “This is my finger,” he said, putting his finger in his mouth. A sucking sound was heard across the room. He raised his finger up high. “That’s how non-toxic [lithium iron phosphate] is.”
>The No Gos were not impressed.
This shit reads straight out of a *Parks and Rec* script
College_Prestige on
“why don’t the Chinese companies set up shop in the US?” Well here’s your answer
Harmonious_Sketch on
Manteno IL probably has a future. It’s on the rural margins accessible to the Chicago metro area and everything that’s grown up around that. Now it also has $2 billion of foreign investment. Big Rapids had a minor-even-within-the-state state college, and just about nothing else. Now it also doesn’t have a Gotion factory. The young will leave if they have even a milligram of drive or self-interest, leaving this old woman to die in place alongside everyone who didn’t meet that low bar, until there isn’t a Big Rapids MI.
Chinese investment in US factories puts their stuff and their manufacturing here, to the extent that it happens! Everyone got mad when they did the reverse! The whole failed premise of globalization was that there would eventually be flows of investment going both ways so it would be fine. Taking offered investment back from them is fair and good how do you fumble that.
As for national security, history demonstrates, I think, that the bigger threat is US investments and people in China under much closer control by the CCP (and subject to IP theft etc) and with the potential to influence big shots back in the US. Chinese investment in the US is much less of a concern because it is physically located in the US and should be encouraged. Possession is nine tenths of the law etc.
6 Comments
As someone familiar with Big Rapids, this was a fascinating read. Really reinforces the idea that these people aren’t looking for an economic revolution, but a cultural one. They will gladly reject new, high paying industrial jobs if they are the wrong sort, e.g Chinese and/or EV, while still decrying that they are the “forgotten man”. It’s a lesson for Democrats and probably liberals more broadly, that no amount of investment will bring these people back, at least in the short term
‘For some No Gos, the concern over Gotion was tied to anxiety about the potential environmental impact of battery production. “My daughter will be riding the bus to school on an electric vehicle over my dead body,” Marjorie Steele, an environmentalist who opposed the Gotion plant, told me, arguing that EVs were dangerous and unreliable, especially during Michigan winters.’
Seems a little odd
Man, this is missing my favourite part, where one of the major anti-factory people said that it makes you less reliant on China if you import things from them than if they open a factory in the US to make stuff
Like just genuinely stupid behaviour
This reaffirms my belief that the US will never be the leader in EV, that’s clearly a Chinese win. Half this country opposes it out of fear, anger, and pure spite, the guy who made EVs synonymous with his company poisoned that association for the other half of the country. It seems EVs are destined to be a niche market in the US for wealthy liberals and Musk-riders.
>Then, Thelen opened the jar again, this time dipping his index finger inside. “This is my finger,” he said, putting his finger in his mouth. A sucking sound was heard across the room. He raised his finger up high. “That’s how non-toxic [lithium iron phosphate] is.”
>The No Gos were not impressed.
This shit reads straight out of a *Parks and Rec* script
“why don’t the Chinese companies set up shop in the US?” Well here’s your answer
Manteno IL probably has a future. It’s on the rural margins accessible to the Chicago metro area and everything that’s grown up around that. Now it also has $2 billion of foreign investment. Big Rapids had a minor-even-within-the-state state college, and just about nothing else. Now it also doesn’t have a Gotion factory. The young will leave if they have even a milligram of drive or self-interest, leaving this old woman to die in place alongside everyone who didn’t meet that low bar, until there isn’t a Big Rapids MI.
Chinese investment in US factories puts their stuff and their manufacturing here, to the extent that it happens! Everyone got mad when they did the reverse! The whole failed premise of globalization was that there would eventually be flows of investment going both ways so it would be fine. Taking offered investment back from them is fair and good how do you fumble that.
As for national security, history demonstrates, I think, that the bigger threat is US investments and people in China under much closer control by the CCP (and subject to IP theft etc) and with the potential to influence big shots back in the US. Chinese investment in the US is much less of a concern because it is physically located in the US and should be encouraged. Possession is nine tenths of the law etc.