Interesting read from fool.com - 3 Misconceptions That Need to Die
1. Misconception: Most of what Americans spend their money on is made in China.Fact: Just 2.7% of personal consumption expenditures go to Chinese-made goods and services. 88.5% of U.S. consumer spending is on American-made goods and services.
2. Misconception: We owe most of our debt to China.
Fact: China owns 7.8% of U.S. government debt outstanding.
3. Misconception: We get most of our oil from the Middle East.
Fact: Just 9.2% of oil consumed in the U.S. comes from the Middle East.
3 - MENA is interesting for geostrategic regions, making our involvement there decidedly NOT about oil, but about other people's access to oil. It's global power politics.
Nice find, John Q public would be well served to read
Nice post. This is similar to how people complain about paying $4 for gas or $5 per month for the use of their debit card. How much does a gallon of Starbucks coffee cost? Yet they still drink that regularly when there are plenty of affordable substitutes. As for the $5 usage fee on debit cards (which I know has all but disappeared), you have been provided a free service for a long time, but now you have to pay for it...what is so wrong with that?
The post about coffee is funny. I really have no idea why people choose to pay 8 bucks for a cup of starbucks coffee when McDonalds offers $1.00 coffe (any size)
What's this about free refills? I didn't know about this.
These things come right off the top of my head: location, seating, quality of coffee, music, opportunity to stare at hot chicks for hours ... And a regular tall at Sbucks costs you around $2. Can't think of anybody who actually chills out at McD for hours if that's even allowed by management. I've frequented Sbucks for years and just learned of the refill thing too. Though I doubt that my body could handle that much of caffeine in a short amount of time..
good stuff.
Thanks to whatever mod added the quick summary.
Definitely value added.
I'm not sure I totally buy into #1. While the statistic might be true, so many parts of the things we buy (ipad, laptop, cars, etc...) come from there. Hell, you'd be surprised what % of materials for medical equipment come from China/India/etc....
3 is true, but that is meaningless. It's a global commodity. If the Middle East stopped producing oil altogether tomorrow we would lose the 9% that came from them and the other 91% would be severely limited and WAY more expensive.
I didn't read the article, but the author needs to be smarter than to pretend #3 matters. While not all oil is the same, there is finite supply and all of that can be used. Cutting off a large part of the GLOBAL supply would have a huge impact on everyone that uses any type of oil.
agree on #3.
Yup, most people automatically thinks that if it stamps Made in China means its 100% manufactured and assembled in China then shipped to the US. In reality only the really cheap shit we buy like a toilet plunger fits that scenario. Any kind of technology product we buy with that stamp really means it is assembled there and the components are likely manufactured in other developed nations or the US.
Let's not forget a lot of the chips and high tech stuff might not be manufactured in the US, but we are likely to be the ones holding patents, licensing and collecting royalty from those manufacturing it.
That's Econ 101 right here fellas. Once domestic labor cost are too high comparatively to foreign one, market force would move production overseas to maintain profitability. Heck, to put it bluntly, I need to be mentally challenged to hire an American worker for 10 bucks an hour performing manual tasks like assembling an electronic gadget while a Chinese worker would do it for 300 bucks per month. Even if I'm patriotic and want to hire my fellow Americans, no one here will shed a tear if my firm is out of business for having labor cost too high.
Yeap....Even though most of the products are made in China, you have to be aware that the trade is made up of different steps....or links....Chinese factory only make money on the "production part", which is not profitable at all....the more profitable links like logistic, market and sale, product design, etc....are still controlled by US....The situation for Chinese export manufacturing industry is not as good as you think....
These exact %'s are going to come in handy next time I have to shut up one of my parents' redneck friends.
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