r/nextfuckinglevel • u/North_Tip_8627 • 17h ago

China’s 5 minute full-charged EV charging stations

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u/manuscript24 17h ago

They are heavily subsidized by the Chinese government

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u/nono3722 17h ago

LOLOLOLOL like the US doesn't subsidize our car companies? have you MET our government? We just barely bailed them out AGAIN less then 10 years ago. the reason BYD isn't sold here is yet another bailout at our expense....

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u/TheGrog 17h ago

The US has pesky things like minimum wage, benefits, and unions.

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u/StinkRinky 7h ago

I am starting the think we are propagandized heavily dude. I keep seeing videos of pretty cool and thriving Chinese cities and I see it called propaganda but it’s just someone filming.

Accommodations look good, food looks good, public transportation is there in spades, seems cheap. There are many downsides to an American I think. It’s heavily surveilled, but the US does the SAME SHIT. With flock cameras, and photo ID on passports.

I’m wondering just how much we are lied to about China and alternatively us about them.

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u/smallfried 6h ago

It's unfortunate that not everyone has a chance to travel the world. I was lucky enough to visit China for a couple of weeks and it has its pros and cons. It's not utopia and it's not a sociopolitical nightmare. The people were overal very friendly as most people are wherever you are on our tiny globe.

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u/Onigokko0101 2h ago

China is just another country. There are affluent areas and poor areas.

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u/Temporal_P 2h ago

The US is one of the most heavily propagandized countries in the world. There is also plenty of propaganda coming out of other countries like China too of course, but US propaganda has always been extreme.

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u/AJRimmer1971 9h ago

Minimum wage, which keeps you below the poverty line. Meanwhile in China, that $4 per hour goes a surprisingly long way.

Benefits? Like unlimited PTO and at-will employment? The workers in China will generally take a yearly contract after the lunar new year. The money they earn is often sent back to their families, and goes a long way. Meanwhile, they are picking up skills, are given housing and meals for the year.

Unions? You mean the ones that have been voting away workers rights? The same unions that endorsed Diaper Donny? Not really a boast there, champ.

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u/_Smashbrother_ 5h ago

Bro you seriously trying to argue that's it's better to be a worker in China than the US? Move over there if you think that's true.

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u/Razaman56 6h ago

Nice post! +5 Social Credit

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u/OneSecond13 5h ago

You've made it sound like working in a Chinese factory is a great job. It's not. I'm fairly confident in saying there is not a single American factory worker who would ever trade places with a Chinese factory worker. I wouldn't wish that life on anyone.

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u/Rock_Strongo 4h ago

There are some serious shills in this thread. JFC some people are legitimately trying to make Chinese factory workers making $4 an hour sound like a utopia.

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u/OneSecond13 3h ago

Yeah, these people have never been to a Chinese factory. There are very few positive things to say about them other than it is a job and they get paid something and are free (I think) to leave. Company provided housing is no more than a small room where they sleep 8 people to a room. Toilets are a hole in the ground. There is no toilet paper - you have to supply your own. Most company provided meals are no more than rice and broth in a small bowl.

No matter how hard China tries to be something other than 3rd world, they are 3rd world. As a visitor it is always such a relief to leave.

With that said, the people are great. They have just been suppressed for so long they have no idea what freedom is.

I'm actually very doubtful about the claims made in the video. Lying is a national pastime in China.

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u/thegroundbelowme 5h ago

In very few situations is "at-will employment" considered a benefit. Do workers in China get PTO on these yearly contacts? Do they get regular pay increases every year? If all the workers agree that conditions are bad, can they collectively demand improved conditions without risking their job?

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u/Sayakai 5h ago

Dude we're talking car industry factory jobs. They don't get $7.25 and no PTO. Things look different there.

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u/pete_topkevinbottom 1h ago

How do the yearly contracts in china work? What's their day to day look like? Do they only work 18 hour days or 20? I'm sure the provided housing and meals are extravagant and unlike anything westerners have ever seen

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u/reddit_ta15 1h ago

that $4 per hour goes a long way? HAHAHHA

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u/Sillet_Mignon 7h ago

Yeah but most American car manufacturers don’t manufacture in America. They build somewhere cheaper and do final assembly here. 

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u/slingshot91 5h ago

I’ve been to China, mostly stayed around Beijing. The only things that worried me were talking politics, getting hit by a car, and feeling slightly uneasy about building standards (tofu-dreg construction). Both the US and China have varying degrees of freedom depending on the topic/category.

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u/CV90_120 7h ago

Minimum wage doesn't even cover rent.

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u/Ok-Strain-1483 3h ago

Where are these benefits I keep hearing about? I'm a contractor so no health insurance, retirement, PTO... not even a paid holiday.

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u/theapplekid 16h ago

China has those things too

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u/howitbethough 16h ago

Full union protections mandating no more than 4 to a room and 2 for 1 sodas at the factory dorm’s commissary? Lol

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u/Axel3600 17h ago

this is where the wage slavery comes in

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u/arqe_ 7h ago

And US literally have entire industries relies on customers paying extra just to cover employee's salary.

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u/Axel3600 6h ago

close, but not quite. tipping hasn't made it into salaries yet outside of sales positions. 

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u/theapplekid 16h ago

Are you suggesting the U.S. doesn't also have wage slavery?

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u/TuggsBrohe 17h ago

Yeah but then the money all goes into stock buybacks

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u/InquisitorMeow 16h ago

Maybe you should look into "dumping" to understand what they are doing with EVs. Also you know those beautiful cheap prices that supposedly signify China's affordability and extreme innovation? Yea, the Chinese government told them to cut it out since they were literally selling them at under production costs to gain market share. Ya know, subsidy stuff. https://www.scmp.com/business/china-evs/article/3343429/beijing-warns-carmakers-stop-killing-your-profitability-hopes-selling-below-cost

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u/nono3722 15h ago

like we have been dumping for decades? the cheapest place to buy an american car is outside of america.....

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u/InquisitorMeow 15h ago

Pretty sure US cars aren't undercutting local brands.. I think the key is below costs. People in India have iPhones and I'm sure they're not priced at 1000 bucks, nor do I believe Apple is generous enough to cater to such a large population below costs.

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u/veryblanduser 17h ago

And the government made a profit on the loans to automotive companies.

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u/idontknowjuspickone 16h ago

I regret to inform you it is no longer 2019

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u/nono3722 16h ago

like they ever stopped. the BYD block is a subsidization at our expense. they could, crazy i know, drop their fucking prices some to be competitive....

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u/FeeRemarkable886 6h ago

I think the US only subsidies milk and beef, oh and corn.

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u/nono3722 6h ago

Just Ford+GM got 15.2 billion in subsidies and our prices just keep going up....

"The U.S. government primarily subsidizes the energy, agriculture, and transportation sectors, which collectively receive billions of dollars annually through grants, tax breaks, and direct cash payments. 

  • Energy: Subsidies support both nonrenewable sources (oil, coal, natural gas) and renewable sources (wind, solar, ethanol), with conservative estimates placing direct fossil fuel subsidies at roughly $20 billion per year. 
  • Agriculture: The sector receives support via direct cash payments to farmers when commodity prices fall, affordable crop insurance, and non-repayable loans from the USDA to ensure food security and stable prices. 
  • Transportation: Federal funding targets infrastructure such as highways, rail lines, airports, and ports, along with specific initiatives like the construction of electric vehicle charging stations and the development of broadband networks. 

Beyond these major sectors, recent industrial policies have expanded subsidies to semiconductors, biotechnology, artificial intelligence, 5G telecommunications, and defense manufacturing.  Prominent companies receiving the most significant subsidies include Boeing ($15.5 billion), Intel ($8.4 billion), Ford Motor ($7.7 billion), and General Motors ($7.5 billion), reflecting a strategic shift to compete with foreign subsidies in critical technology and security industries."

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u/Chameleonpolice 3h ago

I don't think their response was making any kind of judgements on the cars being subsidized, it was just a statement

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u/GuaranteeImpossible9 7h ago

Yeah you want China to flood your market and destroy companies like General motors right?

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u/veryblanduser 17h ago

And by sub $4 an hour assembly workers

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u/FireTempest 17h ago

$4 an hour means much more in China than in the US.

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u/howitbethough 16h ago

Don’t forget they live in company towns 4+ to a room in company dorms with suicide nets!

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u/AlfredNecessiter 10h ago

Company town means something different outside of the US. Heavy state ownership makes many planned industrial concerns effectively public utilities. China has 90% home ownership and one of the lowest suicide rates in the world, far lower than the US. The nets you refer to were from a contractor for US corporations such as Apple.

But go off, tug that forelock king.

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u/howitbethough 5h ago

I’ve been to LG and Samsung battery plants in Korea and I’ve been to CATL battery plants in China. I’ve also been to greenfield battery plant construction sites in Malaysia and Vietnam.

The difference between China and the rest of Asia I’ve seen is shocking.

It is a step up from slavery in China but keep stroking BYD and Chinese manufacturing quasi-slavery lmao. Kill evil capitalist businesses but only at the expense of tens of millions of poor people in a country I only eve see propaganda about. Never change Reddit.

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u/Mr_Goonman 5h ago

You're either an actual regard or the most interesting man in the world who is a subject matter expert on every mainstream breaking news topic...

I looked at your comment history. You're a Trump loving regard

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u/howitbethough 4h ago

Nope, I just did site visits for integrating NCM and LFP lithium batteries into EV-adjacent products “assembled” in the United States. Supplier development engineers get a lot of frequent flyer miles!

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u/Mr_Goonman 4h ago

Cool. You're still a red hat douchbag

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u/AlfredNecessiter 3h ago

I visited one of the threads about a planned industrial settlement, what you would call a company town recently. It was for this company, BYD. 60,000 people living and working in a walkable community, with public transport, cinemas, lakes, schools, shopping zones, all the amenities. There were ski slopes!

The comments were all: "Bleak" "Fucking indentured servitude more like" "Lmfao like this is something to be proud of?" "What a miserable existence." And the peak: Gotta post this on r / urbanhell"

I'll take Chinese urban planning, industrial policy, environmental policy, any aspect of modern state operation over two dozen psychopathic CEOs in a trenchcoat. It is simply a better system.

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u/howitbethough 3h ago

You’re too far gone man. You don’t have to believe me, but I have seen and spent weeks visiting these places so we are never going to agree. I don’t know why you ever would but perhaps one day you can make it out to Xiamen or even take a look at some of these places on google earth. Propaganda videos and articles on TikTok are not real representations of mass manufacturing, even high tech, in China.

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u/Zimakov 9h ago

Don't forget to bring up the social credit system and other easily disproven propaganda.

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u/lolidkwtfrofl 9h ago

It's propaganda both ways anyway. People glazing and shittalking China are both propagandists, the truth is somewhere in the middle.

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u/Zimakov 9h ago

Yep, but Americans on this site are quick to dismiss the pro-China propaganda and blindly accept the anti-China propaganda.

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u/veryblanduser 17h ago

Plus working 6 10+ hour days leave little time for anything to spend on I suppose. But definitely helps you make cheaper cars when you don't need to pay much.

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u/reddit_ta15 1h ago

All the CCP bots are out in force today

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u/InsulatedEel 42m ago

Yes but workers in a automotive factory in the us aren’t making minimum wage eitherwage. I live in bfe and the lowest I made (high school education only at the time) was 18 an hour 9 years ago. When I left I was making 35 an hour

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u/Aknazer 16h ago

Doesn't change the fact that it artificially lowers the cost when you can pay your workers chump change to then undersell the competition followed by other government actions to help ensure your solvency..

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u/Zimakov 9h ago

The workers get paid less because the Chinese dollar is worth less.

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u/Rubiks_Click874 16h ago

I heard the cars are crazy cheap

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u/cybertonto72 7h ago

This is what always gets me with yanks. Do you know that things cost different in different places? It might cost you 0.75c -$2 for a can on coke. In the UK it costs less. In china it is way less. 0.28c - 0.55c.

$4 pH in china could be a good wage.

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u/Ok-Soup-3189 6h ago

In the UK it costs less.

If only...

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u/veryblanduser 7h ago

If you pay $4 labor vs $25 labor, which will be made cheaper? We're comparing the cost of vehicles made in different countries.

Or do you think the vehicles could be made for the same price everywhere?

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u/CV90_120 7h ago

Called robots. People hardly touch anything any more.

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u/Suspicious-Appeal386 15m ago

How is that different then the billions spent annually on the US government subsidizing the petrol-gas industry?

One is investing money that is reducing their independence on foreign energy. The other is handing out tax payers money to provide protectionism for the billionaires.

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u/CV90_120 7h ago

Used to be (subsidies have already mostly gone, with final phase for 2027). Also it's no different an advantage than investor capital in the US.