[michaelmior]

> Do you see what I mean? Technology doesn't change the relative costs, which matter, even if it changes the absolute costs, which don't.

I get what you're saying, and I somewhat agree. But I think it does leave out the desire some consumers have to purchase domestic. For example, I might be willing to buy a domestically made vehicle if the price is under $25K even if it's more than a similar vehicle made overseas. But if the price is over that, I'm going with the cheaper import.

[doctorpangloss]

The idea of the domestically manufactured vehicle is just that, an idea.

There's the fiction of quota and part manifests.

Then there's the reality that, well I assemble a thousand parts in China into one "part" then I import that one "part."

There are a ton of people employed by the autos industry in the US but that's so broad. It basically means there are a ton of people employed by organizing our life around cars. While some are involved in some kind of manufacturing, relative to the amount of manufacturing and manpower in China, it is small.

So every way you look at domestic, it seems less and less like it really means "domestic," and more and more like it's a form of vague but powerful storytelling.

I don't think it's good for anyone to be so wedded to storytelling. And anyway, you could try e-biking in weather, it's fine, sometimes it's even fun, and then suddenly you're like, well do I need more than the occasional rented car?

[michaelmior]

That's a fair point. Personally, I don't want a car at all but it's highly impractical for me not to have one where I live. I didn't own a car until my 30s and before that I biked or took the bus everywhere. However, where I am now public transit is severely lacking and the weather is often not conducive to biking.