At the end of the article I sounded like a socialist to myself though I am not,
- WHAT CAN WE PRODUCE AND WE DO NOT NEED FROM OUTSIDE?
- WHAT CAN WE NOT PRODUCE AND WE NEED FROM OUTSIDE?
- WHAT OTHERS NEED FROM US THAT THEY CANNOT PRODUCE?
- WHAT OTHERS DON'T NEED FROM US AND THEY CAN PRODUCE ON THEIR OWN?
Globalisation has moved us from the simple CAN vs CANNOT to so many complications by supporting the "economies of scale" type of production, which leads to one country or group holding the "highest scale of production" of one thing and trying to dump the surplus production to other countries using "trade"
Governments on both sides are the benefactor in "trades" due to the various taxes low are high. Owners of the means of production are a benefactor since higher volumes means lower unit cost and profit percentage higher.
Does not "economies of scale" also mean "efficiency at its greatest"?
Don't we need 'economies of scale" to lower costs?
As a common man does not lower cost means a lot to me? say these footwear I am wearing.
We have to remember a trade deficit the other guy made us a little poorer, a trade surplus means we made the other guy a little poorer.
Does that mean trade is not good?
Free Trade Vs "Controlled" trade
Trade was there since time immemorial, Trade cannot be eliminated in whatever type of society. Trade is good if the above principles are followed
Should trade be free from control and regulation? Imagine, you cook food at home and take it to the Mcdonalds and eat your food there (because your kids wanted to play in the play area) now who is the loser? Did Mcdonald's lose anything?
Another example, pop the popcorn in your home, sneak some bottle of cola and go to the movies, now here you have saved $10 , now did the theater owner lose?
Yes, control is necessary for trade no need to explain further i believe.
Governments wants to "increase" trade with other countries which may or may not be necessary, increased trade always does not translate into "jobs" or "wealth" the most important thing for a common man.
Sometimes government's approach each other with an hidden agenda to "dump" their production surpluses or capacity surpluses. Corrupt governments may try to "push" or export those goods that will favor certain businesses and in return will "accept imports" the other government which if also corrupt will "accept the surpluses" and push its export.
CORRUPT EXPORTER Vs GENUINE IMPORTER
CORRUPT EXPORTER Vs CORRUPT IMPORTER
GENUINE IMPORTER Vs CORRUPT IMPORTER
GENUINE IMPORTER Vs GENUINE IMPORTER
There are many dynamics which the common man will not attempt to understand
But one thing we should understand is that "Governments may do a favor" to some entity and this what we do not want to the government do and WATCH
My point is, sometimes the government does trade deals that are not at all necessary, same thing like "wars that are not necessary"
The common man does not have time to go into each and every aspect of government and it is then left to the opposition parties, but the opposition party is also part of the system so cannot watch.
WE NEED WATCHDOGS who are in no way associated with the government or with the parties or with businesses and should be fully funded by donations from the public.
Let us all - the employable people, unemployable people, blue collar, white collar, brown collar, collarless workers etc etc etc - Let us all accept that the "economic landscape" of Alberta is permanently changed or s undergoing a permanent fundamental change.
In 2014 The Alberta energy sector's share of the economy was
29.98% hand in hand Industrial production was also at its highest at 35.19% totalling a 65.17% share in economy by 2015 both brothers shared only 51.08% of the economy
The province's economy itself shrunk by $11.4 billion between 2014 and 2015. The
average jobs in 2014 were 2.72 million which shrunk to 2.3 million by 2015
Conclusion is we lost
- 420,000 Jobs
- $11.4 economy
Magnitude
In 2015 2.72 million people produced $311 billion dollars worth of economy that is a monthly production of $9,528 per job
Imported Furniture - Ban?
Let us take the example of IKEA
In 2015 total Canadian economy stood at $1134 Billion,
IKEAs 2015 sale stood at $1.795 billion that is 0.15% of Canadian economy, IKEA reports a 10.4% growth whereas the Canadian economy grow by a mere 1.80% between 2014 and 2015
We can say IKEA grew 5 times more than the Canadian economy or we can say the Canadian economy did not grow as much as IKEA grew. I will let the reader judge for my focus is elsewhere, IKEAs growth is IKEAs growth.
IKEA says it is the leader in the $22 billion home furniture industry. It is reported to have a 8.5% market share (CANSIM tables put the market at
$16.6 billion)
Imports data reveal that in 2015 $7.31 billion worth of furnitures were imported, now let me stop talking about IKEA here, let us talk about imported furniture that is 44% of the Canadian furniture market.
Banning Imported Furniture
Can 100% of imported furnitures be banned? definitely not, there may be some designer furnitures, business furnitures like sales fixtures, however most (needs a study) of the items maybe beds, cabinets, storage and stools
Even if we can ban 80% of the imported furnitures (and tax the remaining 20%) that is $5.8 billion let us say that based on population Alberta consumes 15% of the imported furnitures that is $870 million of imported furniture.
Assume that we (we means government and industry) develop the home furnishing in Alberta and just for Alberta's consumption then that is a $1 billion annual sales (this assumption has several sub-assumptions, it is not that easy but that is what for a governments and think tanks are)
A $1 billion industry (0.32% of the economy) plus we are not even talking about exports (and we do not want to talk about it since we are banning imports, let us be fair to globalisation)
Cautions
Now how this "ban" will impact federal and other international trade policies, WTO, NAFTA, TPP etc are unknown
It may be possible that Alberta is a "nett exporter" with trade surplus and this suggestion may even dwarf the nett exports.
But this is a right way start re-thinking our provinces economy
- WHAT CAN WE PRODUCE THAT WE DO NOT NEED FROM OUTSIDE?
- WHAT WE CANNOT PRODUCE THAT WE NEED FROM OUTSIDE?
- WHAT OTHERS NEED FROM US THAT THEY CANNOT PRODUCE?