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Y'think? Most east coast Americans eat salad that comes from the west coast. Now, driving ~2,600 miles in a truck with an efficiency of ~12mpg will cost $736 a

by trebor 15y ago

Y'think? Most east coast Americans eat salad that comes from the west coast. Now, driving ~2,600 miles in a truck with an efficiency of ~12mpg will cost $736 at $3.40/gal. That's just transportation of SALAD. Add that up for everything we ship around, and you get large expenses that "spread out" over every consumer. I am convinced that if we ate locally for more and had lower gas prices most this financial crisis, except with the stupid mortgage crisis, would evaporate.

saalweachter 15y ago
The US DOT limit on tractor trailers is 40 tons. If your average salad-carrying tractor trailer is hauling 10 tons of salad, and the average serving size of salad is 1/2 pound, then you will haul 40,000 servings of salad per tractor trailer. In this case, your stated fuel costs will add about 1.8 cents to the cost of each salad.
- trebor 15y ago
  I personally think the cost is 3x that (I doubt a fully loaded Semi gets 12mpg), but when you tack that on top of everything you buy it does affect market prices. I think the biggest cost is in commuting/personal travel. I drive ~19mi to work, 5x weekly, and get 33.55mpg on average (highway&town). This costs me about $19.28/wk just commuting; driving to church 3x costs me $13.37/wk; going to a Bible study in the same area costs me $5. This is $37.65/wk just for scheduled driving in a given week, or about 4% of my net income per pay period (at $3.40/gal which is lower than average prices here at home). Dropping gas prices to $3.27/gal costs me $36.26/wk (barely no change). But if that dropped more steeply, say to $2.50, it'd be $27.71 or 2.95% of my net income. I think that a major drop like that would free up ~2% of everyone's net income. Most people would spend more which would help our consumption-based economy; hopefully others would save it rather than spend it and turn our negative savings rate around.
polymatter 15y ago
But its presumably cheaper[1] to grow salad in the east coast and pay that $3.40/gal than it is to grow the same salad in the west coast. Otherwise a smart farmer would make salad in the west coast and saturate the west coast market with his own offerings. There are great arguments for eating locally. One of the main reasons for those agriculture tariffs that stop poorer countries flooding the markets with cheap produce, which allows local farmers to compete. Otherwise your salads would be even more ridiculously sourced from China or something. [1] admittedly it could still be more expensive but happen anyway due to comparative advantage that I can't explain well enough this late.

by trebor 15y ago

saalweachter 15y ago

The US DOT limit on tractor trailers is 40 tons. If your average salad-carrying tractor trailer is hauling 10 tons of salad, and the average serving size of salad is 1/2 pound, then you will haul 40,000 servings of salad per tractor trailer. In this case, your stated fuel costs will add about 1.8 cents to the cost of each salad.

trebor 15y ago
I personally think the cost is 3x that (I doubt a fully loaded Semi gets 12mpg), but when you tack that on top of everything you buy it does affect market prices. I think the biggest cost is in commuting/personal travel. I drive ~19mi to work, 5x weekly, and get 33.55mpg on average (highway&town). This costs me about $19.28/wk just commuting; driving to church 3x costs me $13.37/wk; going to a Bible study in the same area costs me $5. This is $37.65/wk just for scheduled driving in a given week, or about 4% of my net income per pay period (at $3.40/gal which is lower than average prices here at home). Dropping gas prices to $3.27/gal costs me $36.26/wk (barely no change). But if that dropped more steeply, say to $2.50, it'd be $27.71 or 2.95% of my net income. I think that a major drop like that would free up ~2% of everyone's net income. Most people would spend more which would help our consumption-based economy; hopefully others would save it rather than spend it and turn our negative savings rate around.

polymatter 15y ago

But its presumably cheaper[1] to grow salad in the east coast and pay that $3.40/gal than it is to grow the same salad in the west coast. Otherwise a smart farmer would make salad in the west coast and saturate the west coast market with his own offerings. There are great arguments for eating locally. One of the main reasons for those agriculture tariffs that stop poorer countries flooding the markets with cheap produce, which allows local farmers to compete. Otherwise your salads would be even more ridiculously sourced from China or something. [1] admittedly it could still be more expensive but happen anyway due to comparative advantage that I can't explain well enough this late.