Biden spent 12 minutes on the UAW picket line. “You guys, the UAW, you saved the automobile industry back in 2008 and before,” he told the striking automotive workers.
“Wall Street didn’t build the country. The middle class built the country.”
And then he flew off to San Francisco for a fundraiser at Atherton, California, the most expensive area in the Bay Area, for a fundraiser at the $33 million home of Mark Heising: a Democrat megadonor who is also the Chair of the Environmental Defense Fund. Heising’s Medley Partners manages funds for his father-in-law and Renaissance Technologies founder Jim Simmons who has been described as “the greatest modern day moneymaker on Wall Street.”. So much for the pretense of choosing the “middle class” over Wall Street.
Biden may spend 12 minutes and speak for 87 seconds at the UAW picket line, but he spent hours raising money in the Bay Area which is the force destroying the automobile industry. In Michigan, Biden pays tribute to the middle class, but elsewhere, he bows to Wall Street.
The UAW didn’t save the American automobile industry in 2008, it helped nationalize it. And the Obama and Biden administrations used that leverage over the automobile industry to promote the Silicon Valley and environmentalist agenda of eliminating cars and replacing them with EVs.
Electric vehicles mark the death knell of the middle class. For Wall Street, EV companies like Tesla, funded by government fines on ordinary car manufacturers and buyers, offer the promise of getting in on the ground floor of a booming stock. Tesla has been followed by a series of other tech EV firms like Rivian (heavily backed by George Soros) that are not financially viable. Rivian, at one point, was spending $220,000 to make cars that it sold for $81,000.
But environmentalists are in love with EVs because they will end mass ownership of automobiles. The Biden administration, following the lead of Democrat states, is moving to end most sales of real cars by the 2030s. By 2032, 67% of cars are meant to be electric. And since 53% of Americans can’t afford EVs, that means most of the country won’t be able to own cars.
That’s bad news for automobile owners, it’s also bad news for automobile workers.
The UAW strike is a direct response to the growing investments by Ford and GM in EVs. These investments are deeply misguided and a complete disaster for shareholders. Ford loses an estimated $32,000 on every EV it sells and lost $3 billion in total on EVs in 2023. But don’t get the idea that Ford is selling many EVs. It only sold 61,575 EVs in 2022 and yet its projections say that it will sell 2 million in 2025. This is implausible without a government car ban.
But if Ford were to sell 2 million EVs, who’s going to cover the $64 billion in losses?
At the heart of Ford’s strategy are the ‘joint venture’ battery plans that are also the cause of the EV strike. These include a joint venture with SK Innovation, a massive South Korean company, and China’s CATL. While Biden promised that his disastrous ‘Inflation Increase Act’ would lead to the manufacturing of EV batteries in the United States, it has actually led to American automakers cashing in on subsidies through joint ventures with foreign companies. What domestic manufacturing means is American taxpayers subsidizing Ford’s $3.5 billion plant using China’s CATL battery technology. It also means the end of American cars.
The UAW is going on strike to demand that the workers assembling foreign tech in the foreign ‘joint venture’ plants should be unionized. Its demands include a four day work week. All the theatrics won’t change the fact that a full EV transition will eliminate many UAW jobs.
The American automobile industry will become even more of a government subsidized scam where a dwindling number of union workers install foreign tech in cars Americans can’t afford.
The industry is being squeezed on one side by the Biden administration to convert to EVs and squeezed on the other side by the UAW to maintain a pre-EV workforce. The only outcome will be more local, state and federal subsidies (the joint venture battery plants are already backed by billions in subsidies at every level) and the complete collapse of the American car industry.
The Biden administration wants Ford and GM to make EVs that Americans don’t want and can’t afford. The UAW wants a four hour work week that car manufacturers can’t afford. With lots of costs and no viable business model in sight, the subsidies will run out and the crash will come.
The quasi-nationalization of the automobile industry made it over on the model of subsidized British car companies that were unable to pursue their own business models, but had to shift with erratic government policies until they were hollowed out by American car companies. Now it’s the turn of government subsidized American car companies trying to meet the insane demands of Democrat administrations to be hollowed out by Chinese and Korean companies.
Ford and GM don’t exist to offer value to their shareholders, but to promote the political agendas of the Biden administration which simultaneously orders the automakers to meet the green mandates of San Fran tech elite class and the four day work week demands of the UAW.
The automakers couldn’t even do one of these things, they certainly can’t do both.
The entire purpose of the EV transition is for automakers to sell fewer cars for more money, but Ford and GM can’t be Tesla. (Since Tesla is funded by carbon credit fines leveled on traditional car companies, it’s not clear that any other company can be Tesla, or that there should even be a Tesla.) Selling fewer cars means that there will be fewer automobile manufacturing jobs. And if the goal is to sell fewer cars for more money, who needs GM and Ford, when Tesla exists?
China’s lock on rare earths and cheaper manufacturing means that whatever passes for an affordable EV will come out of the People’s Republic of China. That is the point of Ford’s joint venture $3.5 billion China plant. American automakers and auto workers are reduced to fighting over how much of a piece of the action they’ll take from the Chinese crap they foist on us.
The right hedge funds will make a good deal of money from the EV transition even as Americans are left with little choice except to take out a second mortgage to buy an EV or to try to keep their old car going. Democrats like Biden will pay tribute to the middle class on their occasional visits to declining auto plants before they cash their checks from San Francisco.
America’s automobile industry, once the envy of the world, will be little more than rusting factories and brands used by Chinese companies with no connection to Detroit.
It does not have to be this way.
The only way to save American car owners, workers and manufacturers is to stop EV mandates. People who want EVs should be able to buy them, but without the carbon credit fines imposed on car owners and makers, and without the bans on the sale of real cars. And automakers should not be forced to sell out their shareholders and customers to push EVs.
The UAW is selling its members the lie that they can have a four day work week and an EV transition. The only thing an EV transition means is the death of the American autoworker.
Autoworkers should not expect to have jobs when American can no longer buy cars.
Biden spent 87 seconds talking to UAW members and then hours pandering to the tech industry elites who are killing their jobs. The UAW shouldn’t be going on strike against Ford or GM, it should be going on strike against their car-killing bosses in the Biden administration.
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Thank you for reading.
“Wall Street didn’t build the country. The middle class built the country.”
Biden may spend 12 minutes and speak for 87 seconds at the UAW picket line, but he spent hours raising money in the Bay Area which is the force destroying the automobile industry. In Michigan, Biden pays tribute to the middle class, but elsewhere, he bows to Wall Street.
The UAW didn’t save the American automobile industry in 2008, it helped nationalize it. And the Obama and Biden administrations used that leverage over the automobile industry to promote the Silicon Valley and environmentalist agenda of eliminating cars and replacing them with EVs.
Electric vehicles mark the death knell of the middle class. For Wall Street, EV companies like Tesla, funded by government fines on ordinary car manufacturers and buyers, offer the promise of getting in on the ground floor of a booming stock. Tesla has been followed by a series of other tech EV firms like Rivian (heavily backed by George Soros) that are not financially viable. Rivian, at one point, was spending $220,000 to make cars that it sold for $81,000.
But environmentalists are in love with EVs because they will end mass ownership of automobiles. The Biden administration, following the lead of Democrat states, is moving to end most sales of real cars by the 2030s. By 2032, 67% of cars are meant to be electric. And since 53% of Americans can’t afford EVs, that means most of the country won’t be able to own cars.
That’s bad news for automobile owners, it’s also bad news for automobile workers.
The UAW strike is a direct response to the growing investments by Ford and GM in EVs. These investments are deeply misguided and a complete disaster for shareholders. Ford loses an estimated $32,000 on every EV it sells and lost $3 billion in total on EVs in 2023. But don’t get the idea that Ford is selling many EVs. It only sold 61,575 EVs in 2022 and yet its projections say that it will sell 2 million in 2025. This is implausible without a government car ban.
But if Ford were to sell 2 million EVs, who’s going to cover the $64 billion in losses?
At the heart of Ford’s strategy are the ‘joint venture’ battery plans that are also the cause of the EV strike. These include a joint venture with SK Innovation, a massive South Korean company, and China’s CATL. While Biden promised that his disastrous ‘Inflation Increase Act’ would lead to the manufacturing of EV batteries in the United States, it has actually led to American automakers cashing in on subsidies through joint ventures with foreign companies. What domestic manufacturing means is American taxpayers subsidizing Ford’s $3.5 billion plant using China’s CATL battery technology. It also means the end of American cars.
The UAW is going on strike to demand that the workers assembling foreign tech in the foreign ‘joint venture’ plants should be unionized. Its demands include a four day work week. All the theatrics won’t change the fact that a full EV transition will eliminate many UAW jobs.
The American automobile industry will become even more of a government subsidized scam where a dwindling number of union workers install foreign tech in cars Americans can’t afford.
The industry is being squeezed on one side by the Biden administration to convert to EVs and squeezed on the other side by the UAW to maintain a pre-EV workforce. The only outcome will be more local, state and federal subsidies (the joint venture battery plants are already backed by billions in subsidies at every level) and the complete collapse of the American car industry.
The Biden administration wants Ford and GM to make EVs that Americans don’t want and can’t afford. The UAW wants a four hour work week that car manufacturers can’t afford. With lots of costs and no viable business model in sight, the subsidies will run out and the crash will come.
The quasi-nationalization of the automobile industry made it over on the model of subsidized British car companies that were unable to pursue their own business models, but had to shift with erratic government policies until they were hollowed out by American car companies. Now it’s the turn of government subsidized American car companies trying to meet the insane demands of Democrat administrations to be hollowed out by Chinese and Korean companies.
Ford and GM don’t exist to offer value to their shareholders, but to promote the political agendas of the Biden administration which simultaneously orders the automakers to meet the green mandates of San Fran tech elite class and the four day work week demands of the UAW.
The automakers couldn’t even do one of these things, they certainly can’t do both.
The entire purpose of the EV transition is for automakers to sell fewer cars for more money, but Ford and GM can’t be Tesla. (Since Tesla is funded by carbon credit fines leveled on traditional car companies, it’s not clear that any other company can be Tesla, or that there should even be a Tesla.) Selling fewer cars means that there will be fewer automobile manufacturing jobs. And if the goal is to sell fewer cars for more money, who needs GM and Ford, when Tesla exists?
China’s lock on rare earths and cheaper manufacturing means that whatever passes for an affordable EV will come out of the People’s Republic of China. That is the point of Ford’s joint venture $3.5 billion China plant. American automakers and auto workers are reduced to fighting over how much of a piece of the action they’ll take from the Chinese crap they foist on us.
The right hedge funds will make a good deal of money from the EV transition even as Americans are left with little choice except to take out a second mortgage to buy an EV or to try to keep their old car going. Democrats like Biden will pay tribute to the middle class on their occasional visits to declining auto plants before they cash their checks from San Francisco.
America’s automobile industry, once the envy of the world, will be little more than rusting factories and brands used by Chinese companies with no connection to Detroit.
It does not have to be this way.
The only way to save American car owners, workers and manufacturers is to stop EV mandates. People who want EVs should be able to buy them, but without the carbon credit fines imposed on car owners and makers, and without the bans on the sale of real cars. And automakers should not be forced to sell out their shareholders and customers to push EVs.
The UAW is selling its members the lie that they can have a four day work week and an EV transition. The only thing an EV transition means is the death of the American autoworker.
Autoworkers should not expect to have jobs when American can no longer buy cars.
Biden spent 87 seconds talking to UAW members and then hours pandering to the tech industry elites who are killing their jobs. The UAW shouldn’t be going on strike against Ford or GM, it should be going on strike against their car-killing bosses in the Biden administration.
Daniel Greenfield is a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center. This article previously appeared at the Center's Front Page Magazine.
Click here to subscribe to my articles. And click here to support my work with a donation.
Thank you for reading.
Comments
This is one of, if not the best article you have ever written. Extremely insightful and completely honest. Your assessment of EVs is brutally honest and mirrors "Scotty" on youtube, a nuts and bolt mexhanic with 50 years experience. Excuse the vernacular, but you are a damn smart man.
ReplyDeleteThank you. I really appreciate that. I'm amazed more people aren't screaming about it.
DeleteAnd the admin likes that the can be shut off remotely at the next lock-down, and can probably lock you in and drive you to a police station.
ReplyDeleteLoved the point you made about the goal of EV is to disenfranchise citizens the freedom of movement. Hansen alluded to these people as "mushrooms" in the yard in that they always return and are a constant menace. That's far too benign a label.
ReplyDeleteassign everyone a carbon footprint, monitor them and you have a virtual concentration camp (in the classic sense, not the Nazi one)
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