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0 pointslikeabatterycar1y ago0 comments

> Why has there never been serious Western alternatives to JLCPCB, PCBWay, JLCCNC etc.?

Because the West has to actually follow environmental and safety regulations. As opposed to write them down on paper and wipe your ass with it when the West isn't looking.

Evidence: I watched a tour video from one of these Chinese PCB houses and some of the workers were wearing surgical masks.

Not for COVID mind you, for presiding over open vats of boiling poison that would need a chemical respirator in any responsible country.

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7 comments · 2 top-level

PeterStuer1y ago· 4 in thread

"Because the West has to actually follow environmental and safety regulations"

... that can only exist because they can circumvent them by offshoring all their production to the East and South. If they actually wanted to comply rather than bypass said regulations they would have to curb consumption for which there would not be support.

themaninthedark1y ago

Why would there be no support for products if they were made in compliance with environmental and safety regulations? Or why would people not be able to consume them?

likeabatterycarOP1y ago

Next you're going to tell me that the cobalt used to make batteries for the electric vehicles literally saving the environment right now in the West is being mined by enslaved children in the Congo with archaic hand tools and no PPE under inconceivable conditions.

LinXitoW1y ago

No, I'd tell you that the cobalt for electric cars is only a tiny fraction of the total cobalt used, and that combustion engines also need a lot, AND that there's less un-ethical sources of cobalt that many manufacturers use.

But that's the nitpicker in me. The general point that our over-consumption drives like 80% of the bad things in the world still stands. The only real solution is to consume less.

jdietrich1y ago

BYD and CATL are using cobalt-free chemistry in most of their batteries. I suppose that makes the Chinese evil for stealing the bread from Congolese children's mouths.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithium_iron_phosphate_battery

Freedom21y ago· 1 in thread

Given how much the US wants to deregulate everything, perhaps it can become the Shenzhen of the West. And not in the good way.

ab5tract1y ago

*A handful of oligarchs and their useful idiots in the US.

Fixed that for you.

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