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A Barrel's Silver Lining
Globalization worked because transportation was so cheap it allowed businesses to leverage foreign labor for domestic goods. Now that transportation ain't cheap, globalization is slowly reversing. It's happening slowly and without as much dislocation as, say, protectionist policies advocated by labor unions and various watermelon environmental groups.
It really does make sense that this would be happening. Oddly enough, it happening this way without any gov't interference will probably have the most overall value to the country.
Because the gov't could screw up a wet dream - and this is just the thing they like to screw up.
Is it wrong that I want a Presidential candidate who says that he's going to lower taxes and not interfere?
Posted by: Ron on June 25, 2008 12:33 PMRonno, you sound more Libertarian every day. ;-)
But yeh, ABC Evening News had a feature on this very thing last night. I remember thinking that maybe the current fuel 'crisis' may well be one of the best things to happen to us after all!
Posted by: Mark on June 25, 2008 12:51 PMAs much as I don't like paying the higher prices, I at least see the system working to make things cheaper.
1 - new technologies to replace the oil coming forth
2 - greater focus on efficiency weeding out some of the poorly performing companies, which makes the entire economy more robust
3 - now this
I don't think I'll ever quite make it to Libertarian, though. I like a nice, strong military.
Posted by: ron on June 25, 2008 02:06 PMAgreed. The further we get from our dependence on foreign-obtained fossil fuels, the better off everyone is.
Let the Indians and the Chinese worry--for a change--about the vicissitudes of Middle Eastern politics/religion, and whether the current leader of Venezuela is a total dickhead asshole!
Posted by: Mark on June 25, 2008 05:33 PMnot so much. the shipping (by ship) of items across the ocean is the cheapest part of the transportation. see
http://www.bimco.org/Corporate%20Area/Seascapes/Maritime_Matters/Putting_the_case_for_the_ship.aspx
especially the 2nd-to-last paragraph.
True, but the transportation costs on the overall are different. First and foremost, the goods have to be transported to the ship, from the ship across the ocean, then from the dock to the local store. If all three of those increase, even if the increase on the shipping line is marginal, it can become cheaper to ship from a local spot rather than outsourced and cheaper labor.
Especially for items of low dimensional weight as that generally means that there's less units to spread those shipping costs over.
Posted by: ron on June 26, 2008 10:32 AM