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>heavily protected and faces virtually no competition

Huh? Out of the top 25 vehicles sold in the US in 2024, 16 of them are non-US automakers. Just because the US is actively blocking China from dumping heavily subsidized vehicles into the north american market, doesn't mean they "face no competition". Kia and Hyundai alone show that it's VERY possible to break into the US market if you have even a little bit of interest playing fair.

https://www.caranddriver.com/news/g60385784/bestselling-cars...

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decimalenough 19 hours ago | parent [-]

The only real way to break into the US market is to have factories in the US. Trucks in particular are protected by the notorious 25% "chicken tax", which has been in place since the 1960s.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicken_tax

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tw04 19 hours ago | parent [-]

>Trucks in particular are protected by the notorious 25% "chicken tax", which has been in place since the 1960s.

And yet, that applies to everyone, including US automakers, which is why Ford had to do unnatural things to import the transit from Europe.

They aren't protecting US automakers, they're trying to retain some semblance of manufacturing in the US, which I'm fully in support of.

Both because those are well-paying jobs and because it's a matter of national security.

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warkdarrior 17 hours ago | parent | next [-]

> they're trying to retain some semblance of manufacturing in the US, which I'm fully in support of. > > Both because those are well-paying jobs and because it's a matter of national security.

Why should manufacturing jobs be well-paying? Human productivity has not kept up with business improvements at all. A contemporary robot can assemble car modules much faster than a robot from, say, the 60s. A human now works at the same speed as a human from the 60s.

	▲	mulmen 17 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		I don't think this is true. Yes robot capabilities have increased but those business processes also make people more productive. I recently toured the F-150 assembly line and it is clear a lot has been done to improve worker productivity.
	▲	lelandbatey 15 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		"Manufacturing jobs" doesn't mean doing the same job as in the 60s. Human productivity improves by offloading more to machines/tools/processes while having the humans manage other things. A human making cars now is not moving their limbs twice as fast as humans in the 60s, they're using tools that get the job done 3x faster than the person in the 60s. The jobs are actually quite different across time, but we colloquially call both "manufacturing jobs".

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mulmen 18 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

> They aren't protecting US automakers, they're trying to retain some semblance of manufacturing in the US, which I'm fully in support of.

"The US can't make anything" is an absurd delusion. We are the second most productive economy in the world.

> Both because those are well-paying jobs and because it's a matter of national security.

We are fully capable of meeting our defense needs already. If you really care about reinforcing our military-industrial capability the best way to do it is to arm Ukraine.