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Also putting externalities aside... Really great that economics, innovation and competition have driven down the cost of shipping (larger containerized ships,

Also putting externalities aside... Really great that economics, innovation and competition have driven down the cost of shipping (larger containerized ships, better fuel efficiency, smaller crews / labor component) and oil extraction down so low that there's now a cheaper option than that imposed by the canal folks. It's not merely an expensive toll that has brought this situation about, it's also cheap shipping.

rosser 11y ago
The major contributing factor to this practice being economically viable is that the big oil producers are trying to undercut one another. That isn't an "advance" in economics, or innovation, or fuel efficiency, or anything else.
- oatmale 11y ago
  I like how you put the word advance in quotes implying that the poster you're responding to used that word, when in fact they did not.
- ArkyBeagle 11y ago
  It's a bizarre case where the House of Saud is paring all other factors back to only their lift cost and the rest be damned. It has the flop sweat of desperation to it. The more that happens in That Region, it just makes the people who live there harken back to the Caliphate under the Ottoman Empire only even moreso.