If our companies are going bust because of China’s subsidies, what should we do?
A NICE little conundrum: if all our solar panel companies are going bust because of Chinese competition then what should we be doing about it? And our solar companies, the US and the European ones, are all going bust. And they are going bust because of competition from Chinese companies, those slant eyed devils getting lots of support, lots of subsidy, from the Chinese taxpayer.
So, clearly, we must protect our boys by raising tariffs against the dastardly and wily orientals, and subsidise our boys to help then survive, right?
If the Chinese want to subsidize the production of solar panels, far be it from me to stop them. Consumers around the world can benefit from China’s beneficence-and stupidity. There is no reason for us to imitate it.
Actually, no, we don’t. Such subsidies are in fact a transfer of money from those Chinese taxpayers to us. And when someone gives you free money the correct answer is, why, thank you very much. Please do come again.
After all, what we actually want to have is those solar panels as cheaply as we can. So if they’re cheap because of better technology, or cheap because of subsidy, or cheap because of dumping and unfair competition, makes no damn difference to us. We get the cheap solar cells and we also have more money to spend on other things.
Hurrah and trebles all round. And we certainly don’t start being stupid and subsidising just because people on hte other side of the world are being stupid and subsidising.
Posted: 16th, August 2012 | In: Money Comments (5) | TrackBack | Permalink
