I agree with what PNWRMNM said about the mass media.
It seems like you are making some breathtaking generalizations such as your comment, “This makes conservative beliefs completely incompatible with the mission of the university.”
You say, “Conservatives on the other hand reject rationalism: there are things that cannot be known, and there is no way to verify or compare theories based upon how accurately they describe reality,…&rd
[quote user=“Bucyrus”]
DwightBranch:
PNWRMNM:
First believe nothing you see in the mass media for two reasons. Virtually all of them are shills for the Democratic Party so they have in inbred bias.
Okay, this is one of the most ignorant things I have ever seen on here …
Okay, I hate it when someone posts page-long diatribes but it needed to be said. Mr. PNWRMNM, please stick to spouting off about things you actually know (if anything).
I agree with what PNWRMNM said about the mass media.
It seems like you are making some breathtaking generalizations such as your comment, “This makes conservative beliefs completely incompatible with the mission of the university.”
You say, “Conservatives on the other hand reject rationalism: there are things
How is that different from what conservatives believe?
Some people say that the ultimate explanation lies outside of the rational mind.
I honestly don’t want to get this thread closed for going off track, so this is the last I will say on the subject. But you have answered your own question in your two posts. Who are the “some people”?
Well, I don’t think I have answered my own questions. But that does not mean that I believe the questions have no answers. I have never known of one to believe that a lack of an explanation is an explanation, as you imply in your rationalist aphorism.
[quote user=“PNWRMNM”]
George,
First believe nothing you see in the mass media for two reasons. Virtually all of them are shills for the Democratic Party so they have in inbred bias. Secondly, most reporters know nothing about almost everything. This makes them easy conduits for anyone wanting to get a story out.
That said, there are forces working to shift some manufacturing back to the US. There are also forces driving business out of the US. To the extent manufacturing comes back to the US, it is difficult to make accurate and sweeping assesments of the transportation impact.
Each factory will arrange its transportation to achieve its business objectives. On the input side that will tend to favor low cost carriers such as the railroads. This would be new business to the railroads. On the output side they are likely to be more service sensative, since shorter lead times is one of their competitive advantages vs. a factory in China. That will tend to favor truck distribution, especially within a 500 mile radius. If they are shipping 1000 miles or more they may use intermodal. To the extent the finished goods are now moving by intermodal, there would probably be a net loss to the railroads, but it would all be transaction specific.
There is some excitement about a wider Panama Canal that will allow bigger container ships. Some believe that will encourage shipments to Gulf and Atlantic coast ports from Asia rather than the current norm of West Coast ports, then intermodal to eastern US. Some shift will probably occur. The big question is how much.
That can be got at by thinking of the value of the goods in the box. Someone has their money tied up in that inventory. For expensive items the West Coast/Intermodal route will hold up because the savings in freight rates via the canal will be more than eaten up by the additional carrying costs associated with the longer transit times. For cheap stuff the long and slow route to Atlantic ports may well make sense.
I just knew Rupert Murdoch and all the Fox outlets were closet liberals [/sarcasm]
Reality - We have the best form of government that money can buy.
It is bought and sold daily!
“Manufacturing” is too broad a term to be able to apply even a guess as to its effect on railroad volume. As an illustration, take the two plants mentioned in the Chinese newspaper. A new Caterpillar plant making industrial tractors is likely to want direct rail access for incoming material and perhaps outgoing machines. On the other hand, the manufacturer of LCD’s would receive his incoming material via an occasional truck and ship the outgoing product the same way.
I need a degree in Teleportation…[:-,]
I tried to go for that, but my credits wouldn’t transfer.
Sorry.
Aside from the political conversation, which is completely irrelevant to the question …
Fuel costs are only part of the issue favoring eventual “reshoring” of US manufacturing, perhaps one of the biggest reasons is the increasingly restless Chinese worker, who is getting sick and tired of working thei backsides off so a few oligarchs in the increasingly hypocraphal “People Party” get incredibly rich. They are increasingly demanding a bigger piece of the pie and that is already driving prices for things higher.
Another thing favoring reshoring is that the US consumer is just plain sick and tired of the poor quality of products made in the PRC. couple that with an increasing Green movement in the US where locally sourced products are favored over items that have to be shipped thousands of miles, a surprising overlap with the green movement is with those who push that buying US is patriotic and helps the US ecomony and is in the long run better for the country, leading to a growing “Made in the USA” movement that crosses both politcal parties and idiologies.
How will this effect rail traffic? dunno, if larger manufactures start reshoring in fairly established manufacturing areas, then yes, that would be very good as rail is by far the best way to move large amounts of material effeciently, as long as the factories are reachable by rail service. If it stays centered more around small manufacturers then likely no, as trucks are still the best way to move small material amounts to widely varied locations.
It will be interesting to see what happens when the “Peoples Party” reacts when the workers demand for a bigger bowl of noodles. Will they cave and give in or get cranky and push back on them like Tiananmen?
The premise of this thread is a prediction that manufacturing will return back to the U.S. from China because of falling energy costs in the U.S.
Why should we believe that prediction? It seems pretty fuzzy to me.
This thread has turned into an exchange of personal political views and the agreement or disagreement to those views.
Time to move on.