Another Way EVs Will Cost Us

Lost in the fatuous fake news juggernaut about the supposed misdeeds of the relentlessly besieged Orange Man has been real – and important news – about the longest nationwide strike by autoworkers in almost 50 years.

The target of the strike is General Motors. The United Auto Workers haven’t been working since September 16. Almost all GM plants have been idled since then, with the exception of the truck plant in Silao, Mexico. But a shortage of parts caused by the idling of the plants north of the border will almost certainly cause the truck plant to go silent soon, too.

The closures are costing GM about $25 million per day in lost profit, according to analysts.

But they could cost autoworkers – and us – much more.

The UAW is wangling with GM over several things, including some of the usual things such as wages, health care and job security.

That last item is italicized to emphasize something brewing that’s extremely newsworthy but isn’t being reported much by the general press, probably because it almost never reports anything that is alarming about the EV juggernaut. Amazon.com Gift Card i... Buy New $10.00 (as of 08:25 UTC - Details)

One of those things is what the force-feeding of electric cars will do to car industry jobs – and not temporarily.

An EV is a transportation module with fewer parts that is much easier to assemble than a non-electric car. It requires fewer workers to manufacture – and maybe not any at all. It is likely that an EV production line could be almost completely automated.

Many plants – not just GM’s – will be closing and not temporarily, because of a labor dispute.

Also plants that used to build engines and transmissions (EVs don’t have them) as well as all the peripheral systems, many of which EVs also do not have. The EVs themselves are largely disposable, too. Like a smartphone.

This has happened before, of course – but very differently.

The horse-and-buggy industry gave way to the car industry at the beginning of the 20th century – but organically. Because cars were functionally superior to the horse and buggy. When they became much cheaper than a horse and buggy – the breakthrough achieved by Henry Ford with his assembly line technique and mass production of the Model T – almost everyone except the Amish gave up their horse and buggy – and they kept theirs for religious reasons.

Today, we’re being forced for religious reasons to give up our cars in favor of the modern analog of the horse and buggy.

Read the Whole Article