Comments on: Big Gulp

By: Kryten42

Kryten42 — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 03:49:34 +0000

The Chinese are better capitalists than American’s these days. It IS cheaper to buy their stuff via the USA then direct here, because they know we can afford higher prices here. They learned the pricing strategy of *what the market will bear* rather than *fair pricing* very well from the USA I think. There is also the fact that the Chinese can dump far more product on the USA because even with a severe lack of spending in the USA, you still have a far larger buying population than we do. They learned about *economies of scale* well from the USA also. 😉 Of course, the avg citizen in the USA is ultimately paying the penalty for teaching the Chinese how to get away with economic murder. They proved to be master students, and the student usually overtakes the teacher. There’s that horrible *history lessons* thing again! Ooops… my bad. 😉 LOL

By: Bryan

Bryan — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 02:28:51 +0000

In reply to Kryten42.

So, you’re saying that it is cheaper to buy Chinese stuff after it gets shipped to the US and then shipped back to Asia, than just buying direct from China. The world is weird. This free global market that people keep talking about does not make a lot of sense.

Well, don’t wait forever, or Lady Min will be the one with the Gulf front property.

By: Kryten42

Kryten42 — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 00:50:19 +0000

Sorry to disappoint Guy’s… I didn’t mean physically travel to the USA. As much as I would love to meet up (and spend time with kitties also)… I have no inclination to put up with the crap. Plus, the money I’d spend on the airfare will pay for a new ‘puter. 😉 No… Internet shopping. I order online, and they ship to me. Much less hassle and cheaper. 🙂 Alternatively, LadyMin has been my local (USA) shopper/shipper. Though, I don’t want to abuse that privilege.

(Also… I do have a little issue of travel restrictions due to past work, which makes travel OS a nuisance for me as I have to get all travel plans sanctioned upon high).

One day, however, when the insanity finally dies down, should I live that long… I’ll visit. I’ll bring kitty treats. 😉 That’s definitely my kind of boring place to visit Bryan! 😀 One day…

By: Bryan

Bryan — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 17:28:19 +0000

You are preaching to the choir here, Kryten, as we are a tourist destination. The Shrubbery’s War on Terror™ has killed us with the decline in foreign visitors. Even the Canadians are annoyed with the garbage and some of them own condos down here.

All we have is the sugar-white sand of beaches, and turquoise water of the Gulf of Mexico. Between trying to pollute that with oil drilling, and making it nearly impossible for tourists to enter the country, we were hurting even before the melt down in the mortgage industry.

If you make the trip, just be sure you are renting a place and not buying it. They might try to unload a condo on you, so read the fine print.

By: hipparchia

hipparchia — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 16:03:23 +0000

Then I’ll go on a spending spree in the USA!

well, stop by and say hi to all the cats in this part of florida. also, spend money. we need the touri$t$.

By: Kryten42

Kryten42 — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 07:54:48 +0000

The simple fact that for the first time i can remember the AUD is reaching parity with the USD, and may even go further! :O That tells me more about how screwed the US economy is. From a purely selfish perspective, I really hope it get’s to something like 1AUD = .9USD! Then I’ll go on a spending spree in the USA! LOL I priced a high-end PC for a friend last week, to buy here will cost about $7k, to buy in the USA right now will cost about $4k, even with shipping it’d be cheaper to buy in the USA. Given that, you may find that a lot of spending will come from outside the USA rather than from inside. Of course, the US Gov is dumb as lemmings. If there were any intelligence there, they would make it FAR easier for tourists to travel to the USA as they will have a lot of spending money. But no… they insist on making the USA less desirable as a destination than Iran.

A-mazing. 😉

By: hipparchia

hipparchia — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 06:48:45 +0000

You let a Republican take control for 8 years and banks fail, yet bankers still vote for Republicans. You really have to question their sanity. they're all gamblers now. they much prefer the roller coaster ride to a slow, steady, boring chug chug chug i think i can little engine that could.

By: Bryan

Bryan — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 05:13:51 +0000

In reply to Kryten42.

No, his mother’s people were English, Dunham, but his administration, especially the Treasury is definitely Republican in nature.

The facts say that Democratic Presidents are better for the economy and the stock market, but that doesn’t stop the financial types from voting for the rhetoric rather than the facts.

If they would actually regulate the financial industry, and fine the management personally, as well as the companies, we might see an improvement, but no one in the administration has the guts to do that.

One good quarter based on a couple of the stimulus programs and the pundits are shouting that the recession is over. Well, their recession may be over, but the GOPression of the rest of the country isn’t, and isn’t likely to be any time soon. No Jobs = No Spending = No Recovery It really is a fairly simple concept, but the talking heads can’t grasp it because they still have jobs.

By: Kryten42

Kryten42 — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 04:47:11 +0000

Sorry… Obama. For some reason… I was thinking he was Irish! 😆

By: Kryten42

Kryten42 — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 04:45:59 +0000

That assumes that bankers give a rats about whether banks fail or not. Bankers only care about how much personal wealth they can accumulate before the bank fails. Historically, the biggest chance they had to get wealthy was under a GOP administration. I don’t think it matters any longer which party is in power. In fact, given what O’Bama’s done so far for the banks, I’d say the bankers stand a better chance under the Dem’s now. The GOP Poli’s want too big a slice of the pie for themselves, Dem’s are stupid by comparison and give the biggest slice to the bankers. 🙂