This is the part that hit me. In America we have no idea how much we are overpaying for things. There are plenty of reasons, sure, but at the end of the day things are wildly expensive with little to no acknowledgment from the government.
[1]: https://www.hrw.org/news/2024/07/02/hrw-urges-european-commi...
[2]: https://www.scmp.com/business/article/3232456/your-made-chin...
And for what it worth, China is leading the way in green energy transition. They are pushing it much faster and adopting it way better than anything the US has historically tried. Remember they only have a few decades into their own industrial revolution compared to the West's hundreds of years and they had already exceeded most if not all other countries in terms of progress.
The US doesn't even have a functional high speed rail system yet. Meanwhile, China built its own national rail network in less than 2 decades.
But I agree, the massive amounts of cheap solar panels and EVs has and will continue to make a significant impact. It sucks that they're built on such lousy foundations though...
This isn’t even getting into the regulatory capture which prevents foreign products from being used/sold in USA.
If we allowed Chinese autos into the country free of tariffs, prices would almost certainly decline materially in real terms over the next few years.
These are a few issues of goods from China being an issue in the past:
A) Toys with lead paint being recalled.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S02697...
B) Dog Food linked to China killing pets.
https://truthaboutpetfood.com/how-many-pets-have-ingredients....
Nor will a sub-$10k Chinese car compare to the build quality of even a $20k American car.
As with Temu, there's a reason Chinese EVs are super cheap.
It's the $5000 Chinese cars that are missing the safety features.