unions helped kill the car companies

This does not necessarily follow. Car companies in Germany are heavily unionised and they’re not exactly struggling (at least no more than the entire industry).

Unions have a very different culture in the US as compared to Germany. American unions are in a highly adversarial relationship with their employers. This is compounded by a further adversarial relationship between certain political constituencies in the public and unions.

A lot of this can be attributed to the history of the 20th century and the different effects of communism in these respective countries. This may even be reflected in the differing attitudes towards tertiary education and vocational school.

It’s a very complicated issue with a lot of history.

That is because Western Europe has restrictive tariffs on car imports.

If you want to put high tariffs on imports in the IS, then the IS industry would re-emerge also - though the price of cars would double.

A car or any other motor vehicle imported to Germany from outside the EU is normally subject to a 10% import duty and a 19% import value added tax.

Worth noting regarding VAT: if one has a VAT number, it is not a cost. It simply gets passed on and the business claims it back. Different story for an end consumer.

VAT refunds are not available in all locations for the purchase of a car: https://informi.co.uk/finance/how-can-i-reclaim-vat

this is at best an incomplete assessment and at worst ahistorical

others [1] would argue that it was american auto manufacturers' anti-union zealotry (and the decisions they made in the production process to combat the unions) that lead them to shoot themselves in their own foot.

[1] Schwartz, Michael, and Joshua Murray. Wrecked: How the American Automobile Industry Destroyed Its Capacity to Compete. Russell Sage Foundation, 2019.

I love HN

So did the leadership, and every other circumstance that makes the US an expensive place to live and work compared to budding economies.

And this even though we've outsourced inflation.

Thinking about this more the next level up organisation elected to represent (most of) the workers at Tesla is in fact Alameda County ....