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Thread: Comparative Advantage and the Tragedy of Tasmania

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    Comparative Advantage and the Tragedy of Tasmania

    Basic economics of division of labor, specialization and trade. Key definitions of comparative advantage and opportunity cost.



    Matt Ridley, The Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves, also discusses how isolation from trade, which also involves exchange of ideas and technology, results in devolution.
    Tradition is not the worship of ashes, but the preservation of fire. ― Gustav Mahler

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    donttread's Avatar Senior Member
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    Yes, however the value of comparative advantage is squandered by transporting daily goods thousands of miles with fuel we cannot replace and becoming dependent for our live on systems totally beyond our control. Besides if you haven't noticed we don't need to be more efficient as we don't have enough good jobs as it is.
    That's why we need to localize not globalize and why your video made sense half a century ago, but not now

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    Midcan's solution to energy.

    Plowing not Drilling


    A somewhat tongue in cheek solution to high energy costs - somewhat because America has become the can't do nation under our useless congress and the corporatist scotus.


    Commodity prices are rising: food, heating, and transportation costs affect all Americans and have global impact. Energy cost is considered by most the major cause, so in a effort to resolve these issues with a single policy and process, 'Plowing' is the answer. Plowing will render off shore drilling unnecessary. Plowing will allow us to rebuild our infrastructure in a less wasteful way and put America back to work.


    Plowing is a solution everyone can agree on as it is obvious and transparent. Urban and suburban sprawl have contributed to a loss of farm land and forest. The cause is, well us, not all of us. (I have always used public transportation or a bicycle.) And there is no need to even debate global warming as Plowing alone will help our environment survive far into the future.


    What we propose is plowing over houses that are too large and too far from public transportation. Houses that have taken over land once farmed and forests that create byproducts that keep our planet healthy. Exceptions of course would be functional houses: farm homes and barns, worker quarters, and some recreational homes provided they are clustered near the recreational location.


    Once plowed the land could then be returned to farming, reducing energy needs, and providing healthy work and fresh food for the locality near the farms. Lots will be raffled off to those willing to engage in this work. Certain areas will be left as forest. Short trips to market would save an incredible amount of energy. And with food prices reduced locally, mega-farms could feed the world cheaply. Better health will be another plus.


    Transportation systems would be created similar to the Paris or the Washington Metro, in a hub spoke formation. Taxes would be levied on citizens based on distance from a Metro station. Ruining our world requires cost and the wasteful need to pay those costs. Any development that extends too far will require a consensus vote by the local people. People using energy cause a situation that only leads to more need and no sensible equilibrium of resources. Growth will be in doing the green thing and not the easy thing.


    The work involved in plowing the houses and returning the land to farming and forests would create numerous job opportunities as housing pieces are recycled to manufacturing campuses at a spoke of the transportation hub. Recycling of these many materials will reduce their costs.


    The housing and manufacturing industries would blossom again as we created homes that are friendly, livable, and people can walk to the corner store. Squares and parks would be required. Plus you can hop on the rail to the city for its many amenities. Homes would be similar to original city row or townhouse designs with more space for people and vehicles and privacy yards. Leaving more space would create work opportunities (customers would be nearby) and a friendlier community.


    Excessive non-perishable material, stone in particular, from the plowed homes would be shipped by rail to fill in mines and other places where our destruction of the earth is too obvious. Recycling of these materials as we build smaller more efficient homes and communities would be an additional industrial base. Emphasis would be on natural products as opposed to created products that eventually end up in landfills.


    Tax structure would be modified so the wasteful in our society, with large houses, those with too many cars, who live far from work, would pay extra taxes. This only seems fair if we want a nice place for our grandchildren to live.


    Well folks are you with me, it going to be a long trip, but FDR did it, let's get started.




    Footnote: Areas that posses these qualities exist now. Transportation, see the Washington Metro, or any big city subway system. Disney world's monorail is a good model. Princeton New Jersey is an example of a place that maintains it open spaces and its quaint city. Certain shore area have the housing examples and the proximity to neighbors creates a friendly atmosphere. Pennsylvania has a train stop with parking areas that is a preliminary example of the transport hub to the city model. No more bowling alone. It will take time but we can do it, we can save our earth and a child one hundred years from now will still marvel at wilderness and a sea horizon that stretches forever.
    Wanna make America great, buy American owned, made in the USA, we do. AF Veteran, INFJ-A, I am not PC.

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    Quote Originally Posted by donttread View Post
    Yes, however the value of comparative advantage is squandered by transporting daily goods thousands of miles with fuel we cannot replace and becoming dependent for our live on systems totally beyond our control. Besides if you haven't noticed we don't need to be more efficient as we don't have enough good jobs as it is.
    That's why we need to localize not globalize and why your video made sense half a century ago, but not now

    Those would be the opportunity cost one has to weigh against.
    Tradition is not the worship of ashes, but the preservation of fire. ― Gustav Mahler

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    @midcan, your plan sounds somewhat similar to Keynes' grand scheme to make work by paying people to dig holes and then cover them up again:

    "If the Treasury were to fill old bottles with banknotes, bury them at suitable depths in disused coalmines which are then filled up to the surface with town rubbish, and leave it to private enterprise on well-tried principles of laissez-faire to dig the notes up again (the right to do so being obtained, of course, by tendering for leases of the note-bearing territory), there need be no more unemployment and, with the help of the repercussions, the real income of the community, and its capital wealth also, would probably become a good deal greater than it actually is. It would, indeed, be more sensible to build houses and the like; but if there are political and practical difficulties in the way of this, the above would be better than nothing."

    Book 3, Chapter 10, Section 6 pg.129 "The General Theory.."


    Not sure what it has to do with the topic though.
    Tradition is not the worship of ashes, but the preservation of fire. ― Gustav Mahler

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    Quote Originally Posted by midcan5 View Post
    Midcan's solution to energy.

    Plowing not Drilling

    How about plowing down the urban blight and turning it in to farm land

    A somewhat tongue in cheek solution to high energy costs - somewhat because America has become the can't do nation under our useless congress and the corporatist scotus.


    Commodity prices are rising: food, heating, and transportation costs affect all Americans and have global impact. Energy cost is considered by most the major cause, so in a effort to resolve these issues with a single policy and process, 'Plowing' is the answer. Plowing will render off shore drilling unnecessary. Plowing will allow us to rebuild our infrastructure in a less wasteful way and put America back to work.


    Plowing is a solution everyone can agree on as it is obvious and transparent. Urban and suburban sprawl have contributed to a loss of farm land and forest. The cause is, well us, not all of us. (I have always used public transportation or a bicycle.) And there is no need to even debate global warming as Plowing alone will help our environment survive far into the future.


    What we propose is plowing over houses that are too large and too far from public transportation. Houses that have taken over land once farmed and forests that create byproducts that keep our planet healthy. Exceptions of course would be functional houses: farm homes and barns, worker quarters, and some recreational homes provided they are clustered near the recreational location.


    Once plowed the land could then be returned to farming, reducing energy needs, and providing healthy work and fresh food for the locality near the farms. Lots will be raffled off to those willing to engage in this work. Certain areas will be left as forest. Short trips to market would save an incredible amount of energy. And with food prices reduced locally, mega-farms could feed the world cheaply. Better health will be another plus.


    Transportation systems would be created similar to the Paris or the Washington Metro, in a hub spoke formation. Taxes would be levied on citizens based on distance from a Metro station. Ruining our world requires cost and the wasteful need to pay those costs. Any development that extends too far will require a consensus vote by the local people. People using energy cause a situation that only leads to more need and no sensible equilibrium of resources. Growth will be in doing the green thing and not the easy thing.


    The work involved in plowing the houses and returning the land to farming and forests would create numerous job opportunities as housing pieces are recycled to manufacturing campuses at a spoke of the transportation hub. Recycling of these many materials will reduce their costs.


    The housing and manufacturing industries would blossom again as we created homes that are friendly, livable, and people can walk to the corner store. Squares and parks would be required. Plus you can hop on the rail to the city for its many amenities. Homes would be similar to original city row or townhouse designs with more space for people and vehicles and privacy yards. Leaving more space would create work opportunities (customers would be nearby) and a friendlier community.


    Excessive non-perishable material, stone in particular, from the plowed homes would be shipped by rail to fill in mines and other places where our destruction of the earth is too obvious. Recycling of these materials as we build smaller more efficient homes and communities would be an additional industrial base. Emphasis would be on natural products as opposed to created products that eventually end up in landfills.


    Tax structure would be modified so the wasteful in our society, with large houses, those with too many cars, who live far from work, would pay extra taxes. This only seems fair if we want a nice place for our grandchildren to live.


    Well folks are you with me, it going to be a long trip, but FDR did it, let's get started.




    Footnote: Areas that posses these qualities exist now. Transportation, see the Washington Metro, or any big city subway system. Disney world's monorail is a good model. Princeton New Jersey is an example of a place that maintains it open spaces and its quaint city. Certain shore area have the housing examples and the proximity to neighbors creates a friendly atmosphere. Pennsylvania has a train stop with parking areas that is a preliminary example of the transport hub to the city model. No more bowling alone. It will take time but we can do it, we can save our earth and a child one hundred years from now will still marvel at wilderness and a sea horizon that stretches forever.

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    "How about plowing down the urban blight and turning it in to farm land"

    This is about Detroit...

    Tradition is not the worship of ashes, but the preservation of fire. ― Gustav Mahler

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    See Post #3 Above. It dawned on me I already had a 'green new deal' plan (?) in 2008. I have to re-read and edit but thought this kinda funny. I have to check how many reads on my blog. One thread has over five thousand views.

    Home (2009) Full Movie is on YouTube

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