The income stream would disappear, their operations would collapse and that would just be the end. There would not be another manufacturer that would flourish in the void left behind. Without the institutional know how and the existing structure, supply chain the current car manufacturing industry would never be able to restart if it ever stopped.

The social darwinism of the globalist free market is meant for crushing the spirit and bargaining power of individual workers, they are replaceable, disposable, interchangeable. General Motors and Ford aren't.

I will strongly disagree with “over engineered”. Why a car company with all their money and bailouts that they can’t compete with Apple/Android on touchscreen features and responsiveness is the whole reason why Chinese cars will kill American car companies. Chinese cars support Android auto even when Google play services isn’t even available in China (last I checked).

Maybe the USA should heavily invest in the industry of the USA, just like China does, in order to keep up? No, then USian companies would have oversight & have to meet expectations, and we all know that they wouldn’t want that.

Mourning the loss of the Saturn in the world.

Also labor price is unmatched. Nobody would work for the wage they give to children in China, so you can't really go that much cheaper while not sacrificing safety.

Not saying Chinese cars are that well made.

Sure, but the US has a lot of well-educated people (e.g. see the Education Index), as well as a lot of opportunities for well-educated people to get in-demand jobs that pay well.

Literacy rates are interesting, but they don't translate to well-paying jobs like education attainment rates.

It won't be them living the reality though, it will be their subordinates and employees. The same ones already being crushed to death by production metrics, stagnation of wages and inflation. The people involved in these decision making processes are too well shielded from the actual consequences, beyond maybe driving past and seeing the ruins of what used to be towns/cities/neighbourhoods destroyed by the free market and social policies.

Like we don't have child labor here in the good ol' USA.

Right? The only thing on the market for EVs in the US right now is "luxury" crossovers and trucks. What people really want is an electric civic hatchback.

Not an American, but it's worth saying that despite their labour market's galling shortfalls, they don't have a culture of 12 hour days for 6 days per week. Many work much less, and those who do pull those kinds of hours are typically tradesmen/women who make pretty good bank. Those types of jobs are being systematically eliminated by corporations, but I digress.

Hold on, in advanced education here in my area of the states, almost half the population of students in classes I see are of Chinese or Indian backgrounds and most are here on foreign visas.

If the education is so shit, why are there so many foreign students studying here and paying insane amounts of money to do so.

Well, this is where specific targetted protectionist policies can work, provided they are used just to buy time to catch up, deploy industrial policy, subsidies, to differentiate and for RnD and not just to bury your head in the sand and keep making expensive shit products.

Good? Also is the american car sector not already dead from the us becoming a tariff issueing pariah state?

I don't give two cents for the american auto brands but spare me the drama: try and make a proper car.

Looking at Ford: try importing a few models from the european line and offer it in the states. Small, economic, somewhat reliable, fuel efficient cars.

Stellantis has a slew of models that could be brought into the american market. They make good cars.

And I'm willing to bet GM as a few models they build and market overseas that would be guaranteed sucesses.

Sure, but the US has a lot of well-educated people (e.g. see the Education Index), as well as a lot of opportunities for well-educated people to get in-demand jobs that pay well.

There are more Indian Engineers in the USA than American ones... and Trump is destroying all of it

The way things are going for you, nobody with a half a choice would decide to migrate to the USA for work

They're being pretty ruthless about grabbing all the world's resources to make them as well.

Right, and that's completely brain-dead. We should be wanting to attract more talent, because more people able to take high-end jobs usually ends up creating more high-end jobs. We want more immigrant engineers, doctors, etc, because that encourages greater investment since the labor pool is deeper.

But no, we'll instead block cheap imports and encourage more blue-collar work, and if we take that too far, we'll end up in a similar situation as we did back in the Great Depression when demand just evaporates.

We should let developing countries develop and focus on what developed countries are better at: innovation. Attract top talent and keep investment dollars flowing so the R&D jobs stay.

Meanwhile, instead of trying to compete they cripple all EV advancement to make a quick buck on fossil fuel.

China has compulsory education for children just like America. There's no child labor in China.

They pay adult workers less in China, but these yuan has 7x buying power than the dollar in China

No the rest of the world has been sleeping when China silently bought all the mines and harbors in the past decades.