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Science Forum Index » Energy Forum » $114/bbl and It's Getting Ugly Out There
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| Guest |
 Posted: Wed Apr 16, 2008 11:41 am |
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http://wsws.org/articles/2008/apr2008/food-a15.shtml
Amid mounting food crisis, governments fear revolution of the hungry
By Bill Van Auken
15 April 2008
Last week’s meetings in Washington of the International Monetary Fund,
the World Bank and the Group of Seven were convened in the shadow of
the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s.
While Wall Street’s turmoil and the deepening credit crunch dominated
discussions, leaders of the global financial institutions were forced
to take note of the growing global food emergency, warning of the
threat of widespread hunger and already emerging political
instability.
The seven major capitalist powers in the G-7—the US, Japan, Germany,
Britain, France, Italy and Canada—made virtually no mention of the
global food crisis, referring in only one brief reference to the risk
of “high oil and commodity prices.” Instead, they focused on the
stability of the financial markets, promising measures to shore up
investor confidence.
The IMF and World Bank, however, felt compelled to acknowledge the
emerging worldwide catastrophe, in part because while these agencies
are instruments of the main imperialist powers, they must posture as
responsive to the needs of all countries. It would be too revealing
for them to focus exclusively on the fate of major finance houses,
while ignoring the fact that hundreds of millions across the planet
are being threatened with starvation.
More decisive, however, is the realization that this crisis
confronting the most impoverished countries and poorest sections of
the world’s population is threatening to unleash a revolution of the
hungry that could topple governments across large parts of the world.
Even as the IMF and World Bank were meeting, the government of Haiti
was forced out in a no-confidence vote passed in response to several
days of demonstrations and protests against rising food prices and
hunger that swept all the country’s major cities. Clashes between
protesters and United Nations occupation troops left at least five
people dead and scores wounded and saw crowds attempt to storm the
presidential palace.
Food prices in Haiti had risen on average by 40 percent in less than a
year, with the cost of staples such as rice doubling.
The same essential story has been repeated in country after country,
from Africa to the Middle East, south Asia and Latin America.
* In Bangladesh, on Saturday, some 20,000 textile workers took to the
streets to denounce soaring food prices and demand higher wages. The
price of rice in the country has doubled over the past year,
threatening the workers, who earn a monthly salary of just $25, with
hunger. Scores were injured in clashes with police, who used gunfire
in an attempt to disperse the crowds.
* In Egypt, protests by workers over food prices rocked the textile
center of Mahalla al-Kobra, north of Cairo, for two days last week,
with two people shot dead by security forces. Hundreds were arrested,
and the government sent plainclothes police into the factories to
force workers to work. Food prices in Egypt have risen by 40 percent
in the past year.
* Unions and shopkeepers staged a two-day general strike in the West
African nation of Burkina Faso last week to protest high prices. The
strikers demanded a “significant and effective” cut in the price of
rice and other staples.
* Several hundred demonstrators marched on parliament in Phnom Penh,
Cambodia April 6 to protest food price hikes. The cost of a kilogram
of rice has risen to $1 in a country where the average income is
barely 50 cents a day. Police armed with cattle prods broke up the
protest.
* Earlier this month, in the Ivory Coast, thousands marched on the
home of President Laurent Gbagbo, chanting “we are hungry” and “life
is too expensive, you are going to kill us.” The country has seen food
prices soar by between 30 percent and 60 percent from one week to the
next. Police broke up the protest with tear gas and batons, injuring
over a dozen people.
Similar demonstrations, strikes and clashes have taken place in
Bolivia, Peru, Mexico, Indonesia, the Philippines, Pakistan,
Uzbekistan, Thailand, Yemen, Ethiopia, and throughout most of sub-
Saharan Africa.
With terrifying rapidity, hundreds of millions of people all over the
planet have been confronted with the inability to obtain the basic
necessities of life. The global capitalist market is dictating
intolerable conditions for masses of people on every continent,
provoking a worldwide eruption of class struggle.
It is the concern that this struggle will spin out of control that
found expression in the statements of concern issued by the IMF and
World Bank leaders together with finance ministers and central bank
chiefs gathered in Washington.
“If food prices go on as they are today, then the consequences on the
population in a large set of countries, including Africa, but not only
Africa, will be terrible. Hundreds of thousands of people will be
starving. Children will suffer from malnutrition, with consequences
all of their lives,” Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the International
Monetary Fund managing director, told an April 12 press conference in
Washington.
He warned that governments “will see what they have done totally
destroyed and their legitimacy facing the population destroyed also.”
Strauss-Kahn added: “So it’s not only a humanitarian question. It is
not only an economic question. It is also a democratic question. Those
kind of questions sometimes end into war.”
“In just two months,” World Bank President Robert Zoellick said in an
opening speech to the meeting of finance ministers, “rice prices have
skyrocketed to near historical levels, rising by around 75 percent
globally and more in some markets, with more likely to come.
“In Bangladesh, a 2-kilogram bag of rice,” he said, holding up such a
bag, “now consumes about half of the daily income of a poor family.”
He added that wheat prices had increased by 120 percent, more than
doubling the cost of a loaf of bread.
“If food prices go on as they are today, then the consequences on the
population in a large set of countries ... will be terrible,” said
Zoellick.
The “international community will also need to take urgent and
concerted action in order to avoid the larger political and security
implications of this growing crisis,” United Nations Secretary-General
Ban Ki-moon told international finance and trade officials at a UN
meeting following the weekend talks in Washington.
The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food Jean
Ziegler offered among the bleakest prognoses for the continuing
crisis. “We are heading for a very long period of rioting, conflicts
(and) waves of uncontrollable regional instability marked by the
despair of the most vulnerable populations,” he told the French daily
Liberation Monday.
He pointed out that, even before the present crisis, hunger claimed
the life of a child under the age of 10 every 5 seconds, and 854
million people in the world were seriously undernourished. What was
now posed, Ziegler warned, is “an imminent massacre.”
While finance ministers from the US and Europe indicated agreement
that the crisis was severe, there was no indication that the major
capitalist powers have any plan to mount the kind of effort needed to
stave off a humanitarian catastrophe.
The White House announced Monday that it is releasing $200 million in
emergency food aid in response to a World Bank appeal for funding to
make up for the shortfall in food assistance caused by soaring prices.
The amount—roughly what the US spends in half a day on its war to
conquer Iraq—is less than a drop in the bucket in the face of the
looming global catastrophe.
<snip>
http://wsws.org/articles/2008/apr2008/food-a15.shtml |
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| Guest |
| Posted: Wed Apr 16, 2008 12:56 pm |
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| Guest |
| Posted: Wed Apr 16, 2008 1:12 pm |
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On Apr 16, 3:56 pm, knews4u2c...@yahoo.com wrote:
Quote: On Apr 16, 2:41 pm, knews4u2c...@yahoo.com wrote:>http://wsws.org/articles/2008/apr2008/food-a15.shtml
And:http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/apr/15/food.biofuels
'Let them eat cash."
The Madness of Ben Bernanke
By Gabor Steingart in Washington
The dollar is in a tailspin, the trade deficit is growing and a
recession is on the horizon. The American way of life is in serious
danger. But the head of the Federal Reserve keeps on pumping easy
credit into the system -- a crazy policy that will worsen the crisis.
http://www.spiegel.de/international/business/0%2C1518%2C547317%2C00.html |
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| Real Patriot |
| Posted: Wed Apr 16, 2008 1:42 pm |
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Guest
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On Apr 16, 6:12 pm, knews4u2c...@yahoo.com wrote:
Quote: On Apr 16, 3:56 pm, knews4u2c...@yahoo.com wrote:
On Apr 16, 2:41 pm, knews4u2c...@yahoo.com wrote:>http://wsws.org/articles/2008/apr2008/food-a15
And:http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/apr/15/food.biofuel
'Let them eat cash."
The Madness of Ben Bernanke
By Gabor Steingart in Washington
The dollar is in a tailspin, the trade deficit is growing and a
recession is on the horizon. The American way of life is in serious
danger. But the head of the Federal Reserve keeps on pumping easy
credit into the system -- a crazy policy that will worsen the crisis.
since the crisis is so bad I'm thinking about moving to Russia. I
hear everything is great over there. Plenty of oil, women, credit,
anything you would want. The land-O-plenty. Or maybe China. That's
the future. Maybe the Great Wall is the ticket to prosperity. |
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| P. Maffia |
| Posted: Wed Apr 16, 2008 8:11 pm |
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Guest
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And next year you will be proclaiming some other cockamamie gibberish as the
end of civilization.
You are truly THE VILLAGE IDIOT OF MORON TOWN. You and the mayor, that
tax-free boob in Canada make a truly laughable pair.
<knews4u2chew@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:5be7d1dc-d700-4bb0-b091-b8173fbfac9c@e39g2000hsf.googlegroups.com...
Quote: On Apr 16, 3:56 pm, knews4u2c...@yahoo.com wrote:
On Apr 16, 2:41 pm, knews4u2c...@yahoo.com
wrote:>http://wsws.org/articles/2008/apr2008/food-a15.shtml
And:http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/apr/15/food.biofuels
'Let them eat cash."
The Madness of Ben Bernanke
By Gabor Steingart in Washington
The dollar is in a tailspin, the trade deficit is growing and a
recession is on the horizon. The American way of life is in serious
danger. But the head of the Federal Reserve keeps on pumping easy
credit into the system -- a crazy policy that will worsen the crisis.
http://www.spiegel.de/international/business/0%2C1518%2C547317%2C00.html
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| Paul Thomas |
| Posted: Wed Apr 16, 2008 8:55 pm |
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Guest
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<knews4u2chew@yahoo.com> wrote
Quote: governments fear revolution of the hungry
No they don't.
Hungry people don't put up much of a fight.
--
"Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent."
Isaac Asimov (1920 - 1992), Salvor Hardin in "Foundation"
Paul A. Thomas, CPA
Athens, Georgia |
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| Bob Brock |
| Posted: Wed Apr 16, 2008 9:15 pm |
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Guest
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On Wed, 16 Apr 2008 21:55:46 -0400, "Paul Thomas"
<paulthomascpa@bellsouth.net> wrote:
Quote:
knews4u2chew@yahoo.com> wrote
governments fear revolution of the hungry
No they don't.
Hungry people don't put up much of a fight.
Starved people don't. Hungry people can. Look up the recent unrest
in Hati for an example. |
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| Paul Thomas, CPA |
| Posted: Thu Apr 17, 2008 7:09 am |
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"Bob Brock" <bbrock@i-americia.net> wrote
Quote: Look up the recent unrest in Hati for an example.
They just have nothing to do. Boredom set in. |
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| Guest |
| Posted: Thu Apr 17, 2008 3:29 pm |
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On Apr 17, 5:09 am, "Paul Thomas, CPA" <paulthomascp...@bellsouth.net>
wrote:
Quote: "Bob Brock" <bbr...@i-americia.net> wrote
Look up the recent unrest in Hati for an example.
They just have nothing to do. Boredom set in.
Yes.
They are bored watching the prices of staples get out of their reach.
Rice hit $1000/ ton today.
The Philippines can't get enough.
Look for riots there soon.
All those "Customer Service" reps for Verizon gotta eat. |
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| Guest |
| Posted: Fri Apr 18, 2008 6:38 am |
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On Apr 18, 5:04 am, "Paul Thomas, CPA" <paulthomascp...@bellsouth.net>
wrote:
Quote: knews4u2c...@yahoo.com> wrote
They are bored watching the prices of staples get out of their reach.
Rice hit $1000/ ton today.
The Philippines can't get enough.
Look for riots there soon.
All those "Customer Service" reps for Verizon gotta eat.
So you are saying that they're worried about having to ask for more of a
paycheck, then run the risk of losing jobs to the US of A where labor is
cheap.
No.
I'm saying that even if they have the money they cannot import enough
food to feed everyone.
The staples just are becoming unavailable. More countries are stopping
their own exports in order to feed their own population. |
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| Paul Thomas, CPA |
| Posted: Fri Apr 18, 2008 7:04 am |
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Guest
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<knews4u2chew@yahoo.com> wrote
Quote: They are bored watching the prices of staples get out of their reach.
Rice hit $1000/ ton today.
The Philippines can't get enough.
Look for riots there soon.
All those "Customer Service" reps for Verizon gotta eat.
So you are saying that they're worried about having to ask for more of a
paycheck, then run the risk of losing jobs to the US of A where labor is
cheap.
--
Two Reasons Why It's So Hard To Solve A Redneck Murder:
1. All the DNA is the same.
2. There are no dental records.
--------------------------
Paul A. Thomas, CPA
Athens, Georgia |
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| Guest |
| Posted: Fri Apr 18, 2008 7:11 am |
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On Apr 16, 7:15 pm, Bob Brock <bbr...@i-americia.net> wrote:
Quote: On Wed, 16 Apr 2008 21:55:46 -0400, "Paul Thomas"
paulthomas...@bellsouth.net> wrote:
knews4u2c...@yahoo.com> wrote
governments fear revolution of the hungry
No they don't.
Hungry people don't put up much of a fight.
Starved people don't. Hungry people can. Look up the recent unrest
in Hati for an example.
Update:
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/04/17/news/Haiti.php
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti: Hunger bashed in the front gate of Haiti's
presidential palace. Hunger poured onto the streets, burning tires and
taking on soldiers and police. Hunger sent the country's prime
minister packing.
Haiti's hunger, that burn in the belly that so many here feel, has
become fiercer than ever in recent days as global food prices spiral
out of reach, spiking as much as 45 percent since the end of 2006 and
turning Haitian staples such as beans, corn and rice into closely
guarded treasures.
Saint Louis Meriska's children ate two spoonfuls of rice apiece as
their only meal two days ago and then went without any food the
following day. His eyes downcast, his own stomach empty, the
unemployed father said forlornly, "They look at me and say, 'Papa, I'm
hungry,' and I have to look away. It's humiliating and it makes you
angry."
That anger is palpable across the globe. The food crisis not only is
being felt among the poor, but also is eroding the gains of the
working and middle classes, sowing volatile levels of discontent and
putting new pressures on fragile governments.
In Cairo, the military is being put to work baking bread as rising
food prices threaten to become the spark that ignites wider anger at a
repressive government. In Burkina Faso and other parts of sub-Saharan
Africa, food riots are breaking out like never before. And in
reasonably prosperous Malaysia, the ruling coalition was nearly ousted
by disgruntled voters who cited food and fuel hikes as their primary
concerns.
<snip>
(Page 3 of 3)
In Haiti, where three-quarters of the population earns less than $2 a
day and one in five children is chronically malnourished, the one
business booming amid all the gloom is the selling of patties made of
mud, oil and sugar, typically only consumed by the most destitute.
"It's salty and it has butter, and you don't know you're eating dirt,"
said Olwich Louis Jeune, 24, who has taken to eating them more often
in recent months. "It makes your stomach quiet down."
But the quiet does not last long. And the grumbling in Haiti these
days is no longer confined to the stomach. It is now spray painted on
walls across the capital and shouted by demonstrators.
The outrage has been manipulated by Haiti's political spoilers, those
who profit from the country's chaos. In recent days, Préval has
patched together a response, using international aid money and price
reductions by importers to cut the price of a sack of sugar by about
15 percent and trimming the salaries of some top officials. But those
are considered temporary measures.
The real solutions will take years. Haiti, its agriculture industry in
shambles, needs to better feed itself. Haitians need jobs other than
pushing wheelbarrows or scrounging scrap metal for pennies. Outside
investment is the key, although that requires stability and not the
sort of widespread looting and violence that the Haitian foot riots
have fostered.
Most of the poorest of the poor suffer silently, too weak for activism
or too busy raising the next generation of hungry. In the sprawling
slum of Haiti's Cité Soleil, Placide Simone, 29, offered one of her
five offspring to a stranger. "Take one," she said, cradling a
listless baby and motioning toward four rail-thin toddlers, none of
whom had eaten that day. "You pick. Just feed them."
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/04/17/news/Haiti.php?page=3 |
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| Guest |
| Posted: Fri Apr 18, 2008 9:25 am |
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In misc.survivalism Paul Thomas, CPA <paulthomascpapc@bellsouth.net> wrote:
Quote: Let's see.....Vietnam......full of rice paddies. I suspect they will make a
bundle selling rice to the newly employed telephone tech support folks in
Haiti.
Your point seems to be that there is little problem with food production,
but that the real problem is with distribution, caused in large part by
poverty.
Is that correct?
I remember decades ago, when some country or another was starving, the
blame was placed on cash crops substituting for food crops. Was it
Bananas? Or coffee? When the commodity morkets corrected, suddenly
nobody had a job, and despite acres of farmland, little food was grown
domestically. And everybody was starving.
Is that scenario at all similar to what is happening today? What accounts
for the recent rise in demand/drop in supply?
--
The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so
certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts.
-- Bertrand Russel |
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| Guest |
| Posted: Fri Apr 18, 2008 11:39 am |
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On Apr 18, 1:01 pm, "Paul Thomas, CPA" <paulthomascp...@bellsouth.net>
wrote:
Quote: EskWI...@spamblock.panix.com> wrote
Your point seems to be that there is little problem with food production,
That's not what I said. Food production is down, maybe, for various reasons
if it is, but as prices to the farmers go up, more people will go out and
farm as their primary source of income.
but that the real problem is with distribution,
That's your assumption.
caused in large part by poverty.
Poverty is caused by a lack of employment, or the lack of ability to earn
enough to support yourself.
I remember decades ago, when some country or another was starving, the
blame was placed on cash crops substituting for food crops. Was it
Bananas? Or coffee? When the commodity morkets corrected, suddenly
nobody had a job, and despite acres of farmland, little food was grown
domestically. And everybody was starving.
So we need more farmers and less tech support people.
Pay the farmers more and you'll get what you want. More food.
Pay more for tech support call center employees and you get less farmers.
Tech support is cheap, food is expensive.
Are these people rioting in poverty land because they just can't get access
to food, or becaause it's pricier than a call to tech support for their cell
phone, PDA or laptop computer program?
I think you'll find that they just can't aford food (ie: it's expensive
related to their income), not that it isn't available at all.
http://news.scotsman.com/world/Global-food-crisis-looms-as.3996034.jp
Global food crisis looms as Asia's rice bowl empties and world price
soars
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By Raju Gopalakrishnan in Manila
THE crisis over rice showed no signs of easing yesterday as the price
of the world's benchmark jumped 10 per cent in just one week, fanning
fears that millions across Asia will struggle to afford their staple
food.
In a clear sign of the strain on output after major exporters began to
curb exports earlier this year, a tender from the Philippines, the
world's top importer, attracted offers to sell only about two-thirds
of the half a million tonnes it sought.
In Bangkok, Thai 100 per cent B grade white rice, considered the
world's benchmark, hit $950 (£482) per tonne, three times its price at
the start of 2007.
"There's been a popular misconception that the world can produce as
much food as it likes. Well, it obviously can't. And Asia can't feed
itself at the moment," Gerry Lawson, the chairman of Sunrice, a major
Australian rice producer, said.
Increased food demand from rapidly developing countries, such as China
and India, the use of biofuels, high oil prices, global stocks at 25-
year lows and market speculation are all blamed for pushing prices of
staples such as rice to record highs around the globe.
The unprecedented surge, which some analysts said is going to
continue, posed a growing threat to regional governments worried about
the prospect of hoarding and social unrest.
Governments in top producer countries, such as Thailand and the No2
exporter, Vietnam, are urging farmers to grow extra crops, although it
will be several months before the additional supply hits the market.
Meanwhile, demand from other big importers, such as Iran, which is
expected to try to buy up to one million tonnes of Thai rice this
year, will keep the upward pressure on prices.
The Philippines is the hardest hit of the Asian nations in the current
crisis – although secretive North Korea is likely to be in a worse
position.
As a measure of the seriousness of the problem, Manila has temporarily
halted conversion of agricultural land for property development,
hoping to ring-fence paddy fields to meet the food needs of the
country's 88 million people.
Soldiers guard sales of subsidised rice by the state National Food
Authority, and the government has filed charges against 13 people
suspected of hoarding.
The global turmoil is such that the US secretary of state, Condoleezza
Rice, yesterday said the United States hopes to announce fresh steps
to alleviate food shortages around the globe. "The rapid rise in
global food prices is an urgent concern," she said.
Soaring rice prices have come as fears about tight world supplies led
governments to hoard and ignited protests in places like Haiti, where
five died in food riots last week.
"You've been drawing down the world stocks since 2000. You're down to
the bottom of the barrel," said Ed Taylor, an analyst with
Firstgrain.com.
The US government projects world stocks of rice to be 77 million
tonnes by 1 August, the start of the new marketing year. That is up
slightly on a year ago, based on projections for a five million tonne
rise in world production. But world stocks will still be 48 per cent
below 2000.
This season's world production could also still be hurt by the
weather, leaving countries in need of imports at a time when many
countries are already holding back on exports. India and Vietnam have
banned exports.
India shut off the supply valve in October, when it banned exports of
non-basmati rice to its Asian neighbours. Thailand stepped in to fill
the gap, but soon found that it, too, was running short of rice.
In times of grain shortages, the world typically turns to the US, but
US rice stocks have been cut in half the past two years. Rice acreage
is being diverted to soaring corn, wheat and soybeans.
In 2007, the US produced only about six million tonnes of rice, out of
total world production of 425 million tonnes.
"It's just a drop in the bucket," Mr Taylor said. "We don't have
anywhere near enough quantity to bale anybody out."
Bob Papanos, the head of The Rice Trader, a weekly rice marketing
publication, underscored the point. "We've had declining stocks,
declining stocks-to-use ratios for the last 15 years," he said. "It
all came together and slapped the world in the face."
The United Nations' World Food Programme said on Tuesday that the
price it pays for rice to supply food donations jumped to $780 a tonne
from about $460 a tonne at the beginning of March – just after it made
an emergency appeal for an extra $500 million.
Rice could be even more volatile, since governments in many nations –
including across Asia's "rice bowl" – consider rice a national
security priority.
What makes rice supply/demand special is that almost all of the crop
is consumed where it is grown.
Only 6 per cent of world rice is exported, compared with 17 per cent
for wheat, the other main food grain.
VIETNAM
VIETNAM is among the better placed Asian countries – it is at least
able to supply its own domestic needs.
But the world's third-largest exporter of rice has already imposed a
22 per cent cut in the amount of the crop it is willing to put on
world markets – thus making life more difficult for its traditional
customers, such as the Philippines.
Farmers in Vietnam say they have planted a special variety of rice for
their summer crop, hoping that 7.8 million tons will hit the
international market in mid-June, a month earlier than normal.
This rush to feed the market is not particularly a humanitarian one –
with prices as high as they are, a Vietnamese farmer can make a good
profit, enough to send a child to university or improve their
agricultural equipment.
PHILIPPINES
THE Philippines is the world's biggest importer of rice and has been
most exposed to a leap in international prices.
"I do not see any food riots in the Philippines," the defence
secretary, Gilberto Teodoro, told reporters this week. "We don't see
any immediate threats to national security, whether caused by this
rice crisis or otherwise."
The president, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, said an action plan to prevent
rice shortages includes securing rice imports, proper distribution and
cracking down on hoarders and price manipulators. The government has
temporarily halted the conversion of agricultural lands for
development, amid concerns it needs to ring-fence its paddy fields to
meet a growing demand for rice.
Unmilled rice production in the Philippines is expected to reach 17
million tonnes this year, from 16.24 million tonnes in 2007, but the
increase in output is not enough to keep pace with rapid popul
ation growth, one of the highest in the region.
INDONESIA
INDONESIA, the world's most populous Muslim country, has said it
expects to be able to feed its more than 230 million people this year.
Yet it is not unaffected by the rise in rice prices – inflation,
related to the global price surge is hitting all manner of consumer
products.
This week Indonesia became the latest country to impose controls on
rice exports.
BANGLADESH
BANGLADESH is one of Asia's most overpopulated countries and one of
the the poorest. It is particularly vulnerable to rises in the price
of its staple, rice.
Hundreds of poor families are now surviving on one meal a day, and
spending 70-80 per cent of their budget on food.
More than half a million Bangladeshi troops were yesterday ordered to
eat potatoes in an attempt to ease the impact of surging prices.
The full article contains 1275 words and appears in The Scotsman
newspaper.
Last Updated: 17 April 2008 10:22 PM |
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| Paul Thomas, CPA |
| Posted: Fri Apr 18, 2008 11:51 am |
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Guest
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<knews4u2chew@yahoo.com> wrote
Quote: I'm saying that even if they have the
money they cannot import enough
food to feed everyone.
But what you are really saying is that they don't have enough money to feed
themselves.
So their wages will have to go up, meaning that they can't keep taking jobs
away from the rest of the world.
Quote: The staples just are becoming unavailable.
More countries are stopping their own
exports in order to feed their own population.
So now you're saying that they have to stop working telephone tech support
for Intuit and go back to farming.
So?
What does this teach us.
Man can not live on tech support alone.
Now, the more that grow rice, the lower the rice prices will fall.
Problem solved in one growing season.
Don't tell me that no one at Rense saw this one coming five years ago.
--
Have no fear of perfection - you'll never reach it.
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Paul A. Thomas, CPA |
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