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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Keith Feral who wrote (147680)	10/12/2004 9:27:05 PM
From: Michael Watkins	Respond to of 281500

I would really like to see what percentage of export costs are directly tied to fuel. There are plenty of studies out there, freely available for those that care to look. You'll be surprised at what you find.

To: Keith Feral who wrote (147680)	10/12/2004 9:36:37 PM
From: jttmab	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

When I imagine the process of shipping, customs, and record high prices for energy, the competitive advantage begins to shrink. I would really like to see what percentage of export costs are directly tied to fuel. Customs = tariffs ? If we tariff Canadian soft lumber, US soft lumber is more competitive. That increases the cost of soft lumber to the building industry; which in turn raises the cost of housing prices, which...... I'm not sure about where you live, but I can't find Canadian butter in the US. Not that I'm dying for Canadian butter, but why isn't it in the US markets? I can find some Irish butters in the "imported" sections of the supermarket, but it's priced 4 times higher than it is in England/Ireland. On the other hand, I know a person in England that was doing a restoration project and it was cheaper to purchase imported stone from China than it was to purchase local stone to match the original roof. The competitive advantage shrinks only if you're importing and comparing it to local production. But you're local production wants an overseas market as well and they have to pay those higher shipping charges going out of the US. The US is losing jobs. But as American centric as we are, we don't notice that nearly the entire world is losing manufacturing jobs. The most common refrain is that the US is losing manufacturing jobs to China....you would think that means that China is gaining manufacturing jobs.... China Losing More Manufacturing Jobs Than U.S. But Adding Service Jobs at a Rapid Pace July 8, 2004 China is losing more manufacturing jobs than the United States. For the entire economy between 1995 and 2002, China lost 15 million manufacturing jobs, compared with 2 million in the U.S., The Conference Board reports in a study released today. “As its manufacturing productivity accelerates, China is losing jobs in manufacturing – many more than the United States is – and gaining them in services, a pattern that has been playing out in the developed world for many years,” concludes The Conference Board study.... conference-board.org The globe is accelerating into a service economy with a decreasing percentage of the world's population needed to actually produce anything. It's worth leaning back in your chair with a glass of wine and thinking about the long term implications of what happens when there are far more people than there are jobs. jttmab