Education schmeducation

Posted on an essay in The Conversation:

What Australia has right: the TAFE system is great for employment preparation. Except due to their clout, potential employees are required to first get a certificate in hand washing. Does this mean that "higher education" is totally an elitist institution for those who can get paid all their lives to just sit around and shoot the shit (excuse me; pontificate on the greater questions of life)?

The US has swung to the opposite extreme - promoting the notion that one should acquire a bachelors in handwashing. This means that the vast majority of bachelor graduates in the US are barely qualified to wash their hands, while Australian institutions are graduating bureaucrats who don't think their hands ever need washing.

Dentist

Beginning to wonder if my dentist is price-gouging. Since I only go every six months (not counting any emergencies), it's a long process to "shop" for a new one. I saw a different one in an emergency situation, and prefer the one I'm seeing to that one. Here's a list for a routine visit - Sydney; $AUS.

Separate charges:
• Oral exam Insurance: $24 Patient: $33 Total: $57
• Removal of calculus Ins: 50 Pat: 65 Total: 115
• Topical Fluoride Ins: 16 Pat: 29 Total: 45
• Photo record Ins: 0 Pat: 40 Total: 40
• Grand total Insurance: $91 Patient: $166 Total: $257

Video stores

Video stores have been holding out in Australia, but it looks like the future has arrived.

The screw that went 'round the world

Global trade boggles my mind. I'm on the back deck in Sydney, Australia, working on a project and realizing that I'm about to use screws that came from a hardware store (going out of business sale) in San Francisco, but were probably made in China... Meaning these screws have likely been across the Pacific twice before being put to use. And that, to me, epitomizes the state of modern global trade.

How could it possibly make sense for these screws to travel across the Pacific twice? Why, when moving to a new country, would I bring a packet of screws? As with global trade, overall it seems ridiculous, but the individual steps all make sense. The reality of the situation though is that we're all burning a lot of energy in absurd ways that could probably be eliminated, but it's easier to just keep going than to sort out what would maximize efficiency. Would / will the market sort it out? "The market" is what compelled these screws to travel twice across the Pacific! (presuming they were made in China - the insert says only "packaged in USA" meaning they were undoubtedly made elsewhere).

To explain my part of the insanity... I found out late when moving here that since my household goods were going by ship, weight did not matter. It was whatever would fit into a specific size shipping container. My future wife wanted to ship some furniture. In hindsight I could have added my motorcycle to the container. So when it came to my box of tools, of course, a packet of screws was entirely insignificant. We all know the economics that moved steel production from the US to China (it's all about cheap labor, and maybe pollution laws and cheap Australian coal); the economics that would allow me to bring a packet of screws back across are now easier to understand. The coal used to fire the steel that made those screws may have actually come from Australia.

I was surprised to find that the degree of global trade goes back as far as it does. The Balclutha is the last of great sailing ships - with a relatively modern steel hull made in 1886, Glasgow, Scotland, and now sitting at the Maritime Museum in San Francisco Bay. This graphic explains the various lives of that once-mighty ship.

Free trade?

When you hear arguments related to free trade, it's usually about protecting local laws / sovereignty (tobacco restrictions in Australia) or local jobs / labour. The truth is, only the insiders know what's truly being negotiated, and the negotiations take so long because each component is haggled and traded off.

As a consumer who has moved to Australia from the United States, what I see are many consumer goods that are not available in Australia, or that are available in a very limited range at extremely inflated prices. When the goods are made in China anyway, and the only difference is whether they're shipped to the US or shipped to Australia, then it's not about protecting jobs or laws, but purely about protecting the profit margins of a small cadre of business operators with connections to the inside track.

These business operators perpetuate the notion that things are more expensive in Australia because it's a small, remote market. I call bullshit. Shipping something from China to Australia instead of the US would not account for the absurd price difference - and Australian businesses have negotiated agreements to prevent outsiders from undercutting their profit margins. I'm a consumer who doesn't shop purely based on price - I prefer to support local business and will pay a slight premium to do so. But I have a great resistance to being fleeced by profiteers who have a lock-down on the market.

Example: Security camera from Jaycar in Australia $179
Security camera from Amazon $57 - current exchange rate = $81 CANNOT BE SHIPPED TO AUSTRALIA