This is framed as a bad thing because in the capitalist economic model it is. It’s why Debeers only releases so many diamonds each year. Because if they mined them all theyd be too cheap. The thing is you don’t have to make a profit. And you don’t have to enforce artificial scarcity. China is simply entering into a post-scarcity state for certain things, and it’s freaking the west out. It’s something they could never pull off because they lack central planning. Just like they could never pull off the HSR network China has. They say it’s “Not profitable.” as if it hasnt revolutionized travel in the country. Improved the lives of hundreds of millions of people.
It’s like the solar panels. They say China makes too much. What do they think is going to happen as Africa builds out its electrical grid? Do they not realize it’s population is booming, and it’s conditions are improving at the same time? The production in China is going to be needed to supply them. The west just see’s China as a place that should make the things it wants, and that’s all. When China makes things the west doesnt want suddenly theyre crying.
The whole concept of overcapacity is fundamentally nonsensical. It’s literally a case of supply and demand. China produces things the worlds needs, and countries buy these things from China because they need them. End of fucking story. Overcapacity would be if China produced things there was no demand for, and then it would be a problem for China because they would sit in warehouses collecting dust, it wouldn’t be something the west would be crying about.
What they’re actually complaining about is that Chinese model is able to produce things cheaper and faster than western model. The whole argument for markets guiding the economy was that it would be more efficient than state planning. Yet, now we see that a planned economy is absolutely crushing market driven economies and the west is complaining how unfair it is. If your system can’t compete with alternatives then it’s up to you to do some introspection and figure out what you’re doing wrong. You don’t get to tell other people how to run things.
Well it’s also a fundamental difference in worldview. China see’s producing things people need until people don’t need them anymore as the obvious thing to do. The west sees it as a problem. Because the western economic model relies upon scarcity. Without scarcity it breaks down. It’s why we have the ability to produce way more food than people could ever eat, and yet people still go hungry.
China on the other hand is doing abundance economics. They see no problem having an abundance of goods. That’s a useful, and good thing.
Take gold. Lets say suddenly every person on earth had a big ass bar of gold appear in front of them. The price of gold would plummet, the west would be freaking out trying to do things like confiscate it, and throw it in the sea or something. China would be like “Ok great we can use this for industrial purposes the government will buy it all at a fair price from our people, and store it for when we need it.”
Because the west is fundamentally scared of a post-scarcity economy. Their model breaks down then. It’s why they don’t really like renewable energy too. It’s not just an addiction to oil. Though that is part of it. It’s also the fact that renewable energy doesn’t rely upon some scarce resource they can profit off of. And it’s not centralized. Anyone can have a solar panel. Poor people can produce their own electricity! And not pay for it perpetually! It’s basically their worst nightmare.
For sure, capitalism requires artificial scarcity to keep up prices which is another reason why western industries focused on keeping production at levels where the highest profit can be extracted.
I do think it’s funny how originally the west assumed they would be leading the renewables transition and reap the profit from it. Then as soon as it became clear that renewable energy infrastructure will be built in China, any pretense of giving a shit about the environment evaporated over night. All of a sudden all the western governments are doubling down on fossil fuels and are banning solar panels and windmills from China.
Producing loads of solar panels is inefficient in a certain, wrong sense, in that it doesn’t make GDP go up as much as possible compared to other activities allocated by the market economy. Pay no attention to how it crashes every 5-7 years. That’s actually efficient because it lets rich people buy more of the economy, which lets them drive competitors out of business, form a monopoly, and lay everyone off, which increases efficiency by means of social Darwinism. If you didn’t make it that’s just a skill issue.
Exactly, words like efficiency require context. A lot of people just have this notion that something being more efficient is inherently positive, but you really have to ask what it’s efficient at doing and who benefits from the said efficiency.
It’s even worse today than last year I guess, because of the US tariffs
Edit: my bad, the article is from June 2025, the included podcast is older but they are not the same I guess
