3 ms·
My impression is that the majority of global trade is either in the form of services, which involve only transporting bits (e.g., a US hospital emailing X-rays
by sethg 15y ago
My impression is that the majority of global trade is either in the form of services, which involve only transporting bits (e.g., a US hospital emailing X-rays to an Australian radiologist); capital, which involves even fewer bits; and physical goods that can be transported cheaply by ocean freight and rail. (Shipping a standard cargo container from Asia to the US costs less than US$2000; think of how many iPhones can fit into a box that size.)
- jberryman 15y ago> Shipping a standard cargo container from Asia to the US costs less than US$2.00 That's amazing, can you point me to a source for that?
- sethg 15y agoSorry, US$2000. (Which is still amazing, given the size of the box, but not so much.) I got it from the “Recent liner freight rates” table on Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Container_ship#Freight_market http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Container_ship#Freight_market) and misread the caption.