Look at the big Tesla factory Musk is building outside Berlin. Why? Hundreds of millions if not billions in subsidies plus the open threat that Tesla would be shut out of the EV market to help German companies if he didn't produce there.
All those jobs and secondary economic benefits should be going to Americans.
There are no Free Markets.
As long as China and other such nations want to cheat in the marketplace, then the US will be at a global disadvantage so long as we seek the purity of “free markets”.
We need tariffs, protectionism, and Autarky — but we won’t get anything like that under the current administration.
When a nation can produce its own goods, its yeoman middle class grows and thrives.
And without a middle class, what do we have?
Bueller, Bueller, Bueller.....
In another generation there won’t be competency enough to run electric grids, and the government will demand that electric wires be shielded with biodegradable surfaces.