Forum Overview :: American McGee's Honda Civic :: The CHIPS act is corporate welfare for companies that don't need it.

[quote name="blackwater"][quote]Many conservative Republicans aren't informed enough to understand that the United States has an adversarial relationship with China.[/quote] Republicans understand very well that China is a rival. We understood that <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1996_United_States_campaign_finance_controversy">back when the Clinton campaign was taking huge donations from China.</a> We also understood that back when the media was getting hysterical about how Donald Trump would crater the economy by starting a "trade war" with China. Like a lot of stuff from the run-up to the 2016 election, it's been memory-holed now. [quote]As computer processors are critical to the continued security of the United States and its supply lines, it was obvious that manufacturing of these chips needed to come back to US soil.[/quote] We produce plenty of computer processors on US soil. The military and the government would be fine without TSMC. What wouldn't be fine is the pocketbooks of a few big companies, that would have to find an alternate supplier for what they need. I guess the threat to Apple and Intel's bottom line is now a core concern of the government. And you and I have to pay for it. [quote]I will differ with the bill in one respect. I would have advocated coercing Intel to move manufacturing back to the US on their own dime, and if they didn't get it done in a year, nationalize the company and throw its leadership in prison.[/quote] Making arbitrary decrees and stealing assets is a great way to kill and industry. If you could get an advanced semiconductor industry that way, every tinpot dictatorship would have one. But tinpot dictatorships, like Russia and China, don't have a TSMC, because socialism and cronyism can't produce a TSMC. (China does make a lot of cheap junk, though, at enormous environmental cost.) [quote]To be honest, their inability to stand behind their products, leaving consumers to hopefully (not) figure out that they got a trash CPU should have the executives and board in prison anyway.[/quote] "To be honest?" I thought we already were being honest. If you are even capable of that. I'm glad that you recognize that Intel's conduct here is bad. We can agree on that. Another thing we can agree on is that they were one of the big recipients of the CHIPS act dollars. So this is, in a real sense, what you got for your tax dollars. Enjoy.[/quote]