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

To: jttmab who wrote (147696)	10/12/2004 10:59:29 PM
From: Keith Feral	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 281500

There is a serious lack of supply for manufacturing. Even more so, there is a serious lack of supply for commodity goods. I can eat a steak at a restaraunt and buy a bottle of wine for about the same price I would pay at the store - minus the tip. The margins from commodity goods have shifted from the glut of service businesses to the relatively few meat and wine suppliers. The commodity suppliers are jacking up their prices at the expense of retail businesses which are locked into leases they cannot afford to break. Hell, I paid $28 for 2 ribeye steaks at Whole Foods the other day. Why bother with the dishes? Service business at the small business level is agonizing. Went for pizza with the wife and kids tonight. Spent $5 a head for the 4 of us. Would have been more expensive to go to kroger and buy all the meat, vegetables, milk and bottled water. Switched to bourbon at $18 bottle which lasts a week vs. a $10 bottle of wine which lasts 1 night. Hell, just the environmental impact of 1 bottle of booze a week vs. 2 or 3 six packs (12 to 18 bottles) or 3 or 4 bottles of wine has decreased the weight of our garbage that I have to drag out every week. Our economy is regressing back to Economic 101 definitions of supply and demand. We need to apply quick logic to reaIize the substitution effects that will let us recognize our greatest economic benefit. Why not eat Chinese food for $6 at lunch full of tofu and vegetables vs. $5 value meals from BK or Mickey D's full of grease and carbs. (Did anyone notice that General Mills is introducing whole grains into all of it's cereals?) $1 for the health content of Chinese food vs fast food is well worth the value. The $3.25 tip for a $16.75 meal (including iced tea) for two is better than having to worry about the post Big Mac Attack. Not to mention, the changes have left me 30 pounds lighter in 5 months and my wife thinks my table manners are no longer reprehensible. (Didn't say she liked me yet.<gg>) I swear to God, the consumption of carbs have the worst dietary effects for Americans. I totally love the positive influences of foreign cultures in our society. How long would I have to wait for MCD to introduce non carb based menus. Conversely, I refuse to dwell upon the negative threat of terrorism by State sponsored terrorists to have any influence on my life. When I think about Soros statements that the US is hated by every country in the world, I think of all the wonderful influences I witness from Asian and Indian people in our society. South American influence is growing faster than any other group. I can't imagine the Chinese getting too bent our of shape about our efforts to contain the influence of OPEC based terrorism. Germany and France are not going to do anything to challenge the status quo. Russia has their own war against Chechnyan Muslims about ready to rage. Who in the hell does Soros really think that is against the policy of Western democracy other than the Islamic terrorists? How many different nations have been insulted by Islamic beheadings and kidnappings?