TIL that for the average price of a car in the US, you could buy 5 cars in China

Yeah, there are people who are living outside of the city because its affordable… Or, you know, you can plant trees in the yard. However… Nearest Costco is 100 years away walking, and or you might not make it a couple of blocks during winter.

The thought is the simple carbs from rice, noodles, and high sugar sauces in a lot of takeout-style Chinese food gets digested quickly, so while one can eat that until they feel stuffed, the body will quickly break it down, and with the volume of fiber and protein in the meal being relatively low to the volume of starches and sugars, your stomach will soon be wanting more due to the low satiety provided. One could eat a smaller amount of, say, steak and broccoli, and remain fuller for much longer, due to the better nutritional balance and higher protein and fiber content which takes the body much longer to digest than starches and sugars.

It is played as a joke since a large number of people experience this overeating, yet soon hungry again situation, and attribute it to the food, although probably not in a way of understanding they’re eating a different kind of junk food than what they’re used to. My understanding is all this stuff is westernized and not really reflective of what Chinese food actually is.

This is also why people talk about Asians getting a “secret menu” at Asian restaurants. It’s not as though Westerners are forbidden to order real Asian dishes, they’re just a completely different taste profile than what a lot of Westerners are accustomed to, whether dishes be too spicy, too salty, or not sweet/saucy/cheesey/etc enough. One time I went fishing in the ocean and got way too many fish. I offered them to the guys in the Chinese takeout place attached to where I was working. They offered me some of what they made for themselves with it but gave me a heads up that I may not exactly enjoy it. I took a bite and it tasted sooooo salty, and I got surprised it still had the soft fish bones in it, and it wasn’t bad but was not what my palette was ready for at the time and I could not finish it, meanwhile they were all grateful and fully enjoying it.

They’re implying that you could eat 5 Chinese cars and not be full, unlike when you eat one massive McGMC

Have you eaten Americanized “Chinese” food? I eat it every on every last Tuesday of the month. I order two meals for myself every time, because without fail, I will be hungry again within less than 2 hours. Yesterday (4/28/2026), I had a pint of General Tso’s Chicken with a pint of beef lo mein. That’s an entire quart of food. If I ate a quart of spag bol for my lunch, I’d be done for the night. I’d be asleep. But after my big ol’ “Chinese” lunch, I was hungry ~90 minutes later, so I ate my pint of Szechuan Chicken and my pint of pork fried rice. Wonton soup was also involved. Yes, I added the fried noodles.

And even after that, I got a large pizza (pepperoni, pineapple, and extra cheese) at 10:30pm, just to cover the late night munchies. I only ate 4 slices out of 8, so I had some left for breakfast today. The stuff we sell as “Chinese food” in the USA is not very filling.

YMMV, I am a large man, and I am very active. I’m 6’4", I lift weights, and I run 6 miles a day. My TDEE is ~3800 calories. If you’re one of those folks who only need 1200-1600 calories a day, a simple lunch from the “Chinese” spot would be a lot of food for you. My wife is small, and she can easily live off 1600-1800 calories a day. Our gf is tiny and lives off of 1200 calories a day most days. A “splurge” day for her is 1500-1600 calories.

Not only did I not understand the joke, I didn’t even know it was a meme.

American-chinese takeout is all carbs, sodium and sugar. It provides little long term fulfillment, leaving you hungry even though they sell comparatively large servings.

Still getting cigarettes bud

Yes, but do you want 5 cars?

And if you haven’t tried 5 cars, how will you ever know?

10 seconds on Google shows 3 under $25k, and 9 under $26k. I spent longer typing this comment than finding cheap cars XD

Wuling Hongguang

omg it’s so cute

As much as I appreciate the charger “nose”, that’s a bad place to have it if you park close to the wall

100% agree, I too could get a car with no speed and range for cheap. Why compare that with something decent, and then brag about price?

US average income being 6x China’s was my first thought too, but then I got so fucking angry at how they fudge the numbers they’re looking at for the headline.

Someone’s gotta pay for all that extra tech that the US Government is going to use to spy on you.

Football football or rugby with padding and helmets to avoid hurting the children football?

:( can I have a 5th of a car?

I want that too, but im super rural, so no mass transit option for me

And the oil industry and builds the roads and fights the wars to acquire oil.

Not to the same degree, or with the same goals.
US subsidies are simply about corporate profits. China’s are about over-producing and lowering prices to incentivize global adoption.

Forks and knives are both silverware, but very different.

My guess is that manpower share is probably not that significant in the price of an EV.

I occasionally watch an American YouTuber married to a Chinese man, living in china, and they can’t afford a car (my observation, she claims they don’t need one). They have recently upgraded to a bigger electric scooter as their family car.

I assume you meant “dominate”

Wow they really are turning communist after all!

Sorry, option not recognized. Listen carefully as our options have recently changed (weekly). Please choose from the following available ones:

1. Kidnap foreign leaders we don’t like and other threats to independent governments.
2. Fund genocide.
3. World wide inflation with this one simple trick (Strait of Hormuz).
4. Look ma! No diapers (includes diapers).
5. 1st amendment (billionaires only).
6. Insider trading (WH friends & family only).
7. All of the above (includes special bonuses and 1 meme coin!)

Are they attempting to control the market?

Absolutely!
A competitive product isn’t the problem. It’s the fact that they’re intentionally pricing the cars below cost, loosing money on every vehicle. Once there’s no real competition, they can leverage that market monopoly to to gain others, or simply increase prices well beyond what they naturally would be. Just like Amazon did with diapers and other markets.

It’s not. They aren’t doing it for charity.
It’s just like when Amazon sold diapers at a loss. Once all the competition is gone, and China has the global monopoly they want, they’ll use it to inflate prices even higher, or for leverage on other markets.

Most sold model could still be like 3% of total cars sold. There’s a lot of models.

It’s interesting but still not a very good stat. Average or median price would be better

mode != median

I mean five cars for the price of one? It’s so tempting. Unfortunately i think they’re only subsidised to chinese nationals so it wouldn’t even work.