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Higher Oil Prices Are Starting To Bring Jobs Home
penguin_dance notes a report up at ABC News that high oil and gas prices in the US may be moving jobs back home in a trend that some economists are calling "reverse globalization." It's becoming more and more expensive to ship finished product from other countries, so some companies are moving the manufacturing back to the US. The article hints that this trend may spill over soon to raw materials such as steel. One economist is quoted: "It's not just about labor costs anymore. Distance costs money, and when you have to shift iron ore from Brazil to China and then ship it back to Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh is looking pretty good at 40 bucks an hour."
My dad has worked in steel for the past 38 years and he says they are busy as hell because the fuel cost and weak dollar has been making US steel cheaper for a while now.
The EU is doing just fine dealing with $5+ for a gallon of gas,
Are you kidding? So far Europe has had truck drivers go on strike against fuel tax, fuel delivery drivers go on strike for a 14% pay increase, annual electricity/gas bills rising at 40%/year threatening to push a quarter of all households (5 million families) into fuel poverty, councils raising the cost of school meals due to the expense of transportation. Even the police are having to cut back on front line staff due to the additional expense. Food bills have risen by 20% since the start of the year.
The advertisements on the sides of public transport buses read "Fed up of paying fuel duty to go nowhere, take the bus instead and stop your wallet from going empty". Otherwise many people are choosing to cycle in to work, especially university staff.
All of this is predicted to send house prices down by at least 10%, and then one minister tells people that should stop being so miserable about the rising cost of living.
Vintage computer adverts: http://www.vintageadbrowser.com/computers-and-software-ads
I think telecommuting only works if your entire team telecommutes because if you stay home and your teammates go to the office you will gradually suffer the appearance of declining performance, at no fault from you.
I've seen that happen because if you're not there when the execs ask the team for advice, you don't get asked and don't get a boost in perceived value. You won't get invited to adhoc meetings and you'll miss all those water-cooler conversations. You also don't get invited to lunch with the team or the management, which often spread news regarding the project, so when you actually do show up to a planned meeting, you'll appear extremely unprepared because you missed all those casual details. You also don't get the special projects handed out at a moment's notice, which generally saves someone's ass gaining you another supporter. Volunteering for those special projects makes you look like a go-getter, but you'll be completely bypassed because you weren't there to raise your hand. Also, if your teammates work late, it's assumed you're not. If they can't see you putting in extra time, you gain no benefit from doing such. You will watch helplessly as your teammates slowly rise in ranks. They will receive the flagship projects to work on, while you get handed the maintenance projects, which only buries you deeper because you have no chance to shine on those projects. Your teammates will be recognized every time they complete something, which will never happen on on your crappy maintenance project.
I worked at a job in which every member of the team was remote, and it worked out very well, but once the team was consolidated in the office, the stragglers had a difficult time proving they were working as hard as the ones showing up in person. I watched previously great workers drift off into mediocrity because they suffered declining perceived value by management.
But, like I said earlier. I think it works if everyone does it, but not if 1 or more teammates don't.
Camping on quad since 1996.
Who cares about the environment, it can recover in 20-40 years.
Where do you get this crap? Take a look at the island of Crete. This island used to be almost completely covered in forest. Then the Minoans began clear-cutting it for lumber to build ships. This continued for several generations. When the forest was clear cut, there was no longer any mechanism for the top soil to be held in place. It washed into the sea. The isle of Crete is now a wasteland in terms of the ability to grow forest -- solid forest has not grown there in thousands years.
You are naive, ignorant, short sighted, and have an offensive disregard for the natural world.
"You can either have software quality or you can have pointer arithmetic, but you cannot have both at the same time."
Actually Canada isn't just talking about it, they're furiously producing it. We've quietly become your primary supplier of crude.
Yet with all this new supply pouring in from the north the price of oil hasn't dropped a bit.
> we haven't figured out what to do with the tons of nuclear
> waster we have NOW,much less if we did like McCain wants and
> added 45 new plants.
Of course ``we'' have:
http://www.eoearth.org/article/Fast_neutron_reactors_(FBR)
Prohibited by the Carter Administration in the USA, but used
throughout the World. Breeder reactors use the output of
conventional fission plants as fuel and the resultant waste,
once reprocessed, has a half-life of a few centuries instead
of hundreds of millenia.
Check out this article which details exactly what this lease and usage entails.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121391719487790187.html?mod=rss_opinion_main
In other words, the politicians are using word play to infer that the oil companies are drilling on the lands relying on public ignorance that a lease of oil producing lands does not equate to a guarantee of oil.
So basically, the process is.
1. Secure the lease
2. Get the permits to do test drilling
3. Do test drilling
4. Determine if its economically feasible to recover the oil
5. Get permits to actually to set up a site to manage it
6. Get permits to drill on the site
7. Go to court to keep your permits after being sued by every other environmentalist group
8. Drill for oil
9. Profit?
Remember the first rule : If a Congressman's lips are moving he is 99% of the time telling you a lie or a falsehood by omission.
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.