touche'

: Next we weill be discussing animal rights, and the need to produce items with
: machine power instead of using animal labor.

: Well, I still eat eggs, and those are produced by cloistered, sexually
: deprived females, (around the world) for the price of chicken feed.

: Face it. It is not low priced labor which is the issue. Certainly it is not
: the availability of low priced items. Everyone loves a bargain. Instead,
: it is the fear that a person might have to alter their lifestyle by taking
: a cut in wages to meet competition from places (or populations) with lower
: employee salaries.

: Economics change all the time. At one time China and Egypt were the major
: cultures on this planet, and didn't know the other existed. At that time
: the western hemisphere was another unknown part of the world. Now we have
: global connectivity, and tough as it is going to be, there is a developing
: global economy which it will be our burden to hammer into shape.

: Of course the easy way to do this would be to have a big war, and let the
: winner decide who got what. In the past we've done things this way.

: Unfortunately, the process starts a series of more wars.

: Hopefully, this time we'll get it a bit better, and not have a war. It should
: be possible for a peaceful change in global economics. One way to do this
: is to embrace the change. And work to make it happen.

: A couple of years ago this board had a visitor from Vietnam who was
: interested in setting up a workshop for boatbuilders. It was to be a
: work/training deal where people would learn new trades. The poster was
: interested in strip-built boats. Last summer, while traveling through the
: southeast, I stopped and talked with a man who had two strip-built kayaks
: on top of his car. He said tehy were built in Vietnam, and that he had a
: hundred of them. He was traveling around trying to sell them.
: Unfortunately he had no details on what designs they were. Also
: unfortunately, I've misplaced his business card.

: Are we now to worry about imports of strip-built kayaks from Vietnam? Is this
: touching too close to home? I don't think so. The economy is incredibly
: complicated. There is room for both high-priced and low-priced items to
: co-exist. Surprisingly, the addition of lower-priced items into an economy
: can stimulate the demand for higher-priced items. Look at wristwatches
: over tha past 75 years. Timex and Swatch haven't knocked Rolex out of
: business.

: The website that Duane links to has a message of boycotting Chinese-made
: merchandise. That is unfortunate. It smacks of racism. If the goal is to
: help the underpaid workers, or to keep highly paid workers from taking
: wage cuts, then it probably is counterproductive, too.

: Years ago my mother told me to clean the plate when I ate dinner, because
: there were starving people in China, and I shouldn't waste food. Well, if
: more of those Chinese can get jobs making kayaks, then my blessings on
: them. Now I can feel good about pushing away from the table a bit earlier,
: and not letting America's abundance go to my waist.

: (Jumping off the soapbox--It's probably filled with soap made in Brazil)

: PGJ