ANOTHER THING I DON'T UNDERSTAND AND WHAT I FIND DISTURBING ABOUT IT

GUANGZHOU, CHINA - a plastic toy exhibition booth during the 110th China Import And Export Fair . (Image credit: Getty Images via @daylife)

            The other day I heard a report on the radio that said that the biggest U.S. export to China is--are you ready for this?--the biggest export to China is garbage.  That's as in literal trash.  Waste products.

             We ship tons of our waste to China.  They recycle it back into new products and ship those products back to us for us to turn those into more trash to ship back to them.   The upside is that at least less of our trash is going into landfills.  But what does this say about us as far as our productivity?

            In my research on this topic I found a correlation between the United States and the Roman Empire. According to Economy In Crisis, as the Roman Empire reached its fall Rome was importing everything and its only export was garbage.  The U.S. still produces a lot of goods to keep it self-sustaining, but we seem to be heading toward the day when we are totally dependent on other countries.  Would this be a wise thing to allow to happen?

            In all fairness, my research also showed that the United States still exports plenty of goods such as aircraft, automobiles, agricultural products, and many other goods.   We are not a non-productive country by any means, but we are becoming less productive.  The high unemployment figures are probably a good indicator of this.

           Then there is the market anomaly of our largest export on the worldwide scale--fuel and petroleum products.  And our largest import?  Fuel and petroleum products.  Here we Americans sit burdened with high fuel prices in hard economic times and the corporations in control of it all are playing a shell game with the commodities.  

            I'm sure there is a reasonable explanation to all of this back and forth chicanery and I'm certain that it all has to do with money.   But it's money that will mostly not end up in most of our pockets and most of us will never see the benefit of those profits.

             Don't get me wrong.  I'm all for capitalism, but I'm not sure this system should be synonymous with greed.   I can understand the need for businesses to cut operating costs, but at what cost to society?   I think of all of the textile and furniture companies that used to be in North Carolina and other places.  Many of those products are now being produced overseas and the American factories are shuttered.   I look at the "made in" labels and stamps that appear on so many products in the stores.  Not many of those say "Made in the U.S.A."

             My rant could continue for many more thousand words, but since I try to keep my posts relatively short I need to stop.  And like I've said before, there's a lot I don't understand and I'm no economic expert.  I don't know that any one person out there can adequately address all of my concerns to appease me totally, and I might not believe them anyway.  Besides this is not the biggest thing that is disturbing me at the moment.

             Let me get back to the Facebook issue that I was talking about on Monday.  One of the sources of income for Facebook and other such companies is the sale of virtual goods.   These virtual goods include clothing and accessories for avatars and assets such as tractors and equipment for Farmville or other such games or virtual worlds.

             Okay, fun is fun, but escaping into a virtual world might be inclining toward something more scary than we might normally think.  If we start letting China make our real tractors while some U.S. internet company is making imaginary tractors that we buy and sell to work imaginary fields on an imaginary farm with---well you get the picture.   In fact, you can go to Facebook and get on Farmville and you can see the picture.  And if you want, you can become your avatar and do imaginary work.

            Whew!  That opens a whole can of worms that I won't even get into here.  It all just makes me wonder where we are heading.   We have been reduced to data, trends, and demographics.

             What industries have disappeared in the area where you live?   How is your local job market?  What is your favorite virtual world?   Or do you avoid virtual play?   What is your favorite form of escapism?   What do you think the economic future is of the United States or where you are located?

Related articles

• Behind the Strong U.S. Export Numbers (businessweek.com)
• Selling Into China: The New Wave (chinalawblog.com)
• ORBIS - Google Maps For The Roman Empire (eoghann.com)
• We Are All Greeks (adamcollyer.wordpress.com)
• How did Rome last so long? (oup.com)
• Following Garbage's Long Journey Around The Earth (wnyc.org)
• This Family Hasn't Thrown Out A Garbage Bag In 20 Years (businessinsider.com)
• Garbology: How our everyday trash eventually becomes our food (mnn.com)
• The Zero Waste Trash Challenge: The 5 Step Program for Better Recycling (ecosalon.com)
• Chart: Chinese export by destination (businessinsider.com)

Blog Boggled: Tending Your Garden

          Do you see your blog as a living growing thing?  Think about it.  It starts with a seed--a germ of an idea or some plan of action, one part of your business platform, or just a way to express yourself or vent your gripes. You plant your seed in the blogfarm and stand back and wait for something to happen.  But wait!--You don't see results and growth unless you do something.

          A farmer doesn't just throw out a bunch of seeds and leave them to start growing.  The land must be prepared and the planting planned.  After the seeds are in the ground, the plot must be watered and weeded. Perhaps growth will need to be trimmed, thinned, and pruned.  A garden requires attention and work. And so does your blog or any other writing endeavor.

         I saw this in action over the past couple weeks of my vacation.  As some regular readers of this blog may recall, I had set a goal of reaching 100 followers by the end of 2009.  Didn't happen.  Close, but no cigar.  When I left my blog on auto-post 2 weeks ago I had about 80 or so followers.  Now it stands at 96 followers as I write this.  Mostly there was no activity because I was not as attentive to my blog as I had been over the past few months.  There were, however, spikes which can be directly attributed to active work on the pursuit of gaining followers.

          Most hotels that cater to business travelers now have business centers that provide computer access to guests.  I was fortunate to be at one such establishment on the first few days of my vacation.  The Staybridge Suites Hotel in Eatontown, New Jersey offered a comfortable area in the lobby area with 3 computer stations that had very fast internet access.  For five days I was not only able to tend to my blog, but also to take time to seek out new blogs on which to comment.  During this period I added a few more followers as I tended my garden.

         At a few of the social gatherings I attended, I handed out business cards that I had had printed up at my local Staples before embarking upon my trip.  I made every attempt to explain thoroughly about my blog and the process involved in signing up as a follower.  This also brought a few more followers.  I am hoping that some of the other card holders will sign up later.  Those are seeds planted on my blog farm that might take root eventually.

        Now this brings me to the problem that I think many non-bloggers may encounter:  I think they sometimes don't understand the sign up process or lack the patience to follow through.  Some people have told me that they didn't understand what they were supposed to do after they clicked the "Followers" button.  Then there are those who tell me that they don't have the time.  These are often the same people I see playing FARMVILLE on FaceBook with great intensity.  They are too busy with their farms to indulge me, while I am too engrossed in my Blog farm to do whatever they keep asking me to do with that Facebook Farm stuff. Give me a break!  And I'm not going to play MAFIA WARS or any of those other games either.

        And I'm still posting daily.  Cultivating, sowing, and harvesting in my blog farm.  Somewhere during my vacation time I passed the 100 post mark and now I'm working toward my next 100 posts. Some of the followers probably don't read my posts regularly, if ever. While others have surprised me.  My dear friends Jim and Deb Dunlap in Maryville called me while I was in Tennessee because they had seen on my blog that I was in town. We had a great visit and they told me how they read my blog fairly regularly.  This really made me feel good and that my work is not totally in vain.  Likewise for all of the wonderful readers who comment on my posts.  It's work and if I don't work I don't see the results.  And I appreciate the work that the readers put in with their comments.

           How about you?  How much work are you putting into your blog?  What is the harvest you are expecting to reap?   Have you printed up business cards or done anything to call attention to your blog?  Have you found that non-bloggers sometimes have a difficult time "getting it"?  What do you think of FARMVILLE and MAFIA WARS and all those other Facebook diversions?