Mar 04 2008
Free trade and low death rate = bad business
Published by Jason Welker at 10:16 pm under
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WikipediaHow do Chinese granite quarries and a decline in the US death threaten a family business in rural Vermont?
Listen and find out…
Source: NPR Economy Podcast, 2/29/2008
About the author: Jason Welker is a teacher at Zurich International School in Switzerland, where he teaches Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate Economics. Jason was an international school student in Malaysia before studying economics at Seattle University then earning his Masters in Education. He calls Seattle and Northern Idaho home. In addition to maintaining an economics wiki and this blog for economics student and educators, Jason also gives presentations on using Web 2.0 tools in education at workshops and conferences around the world. His economics wiki won the 2007 "Best Educational Wiki" award from the "EduBlog Awards". 
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First impression: they need to change the music in the beginning. It’s like a throwback to I don’t know when, but I do know I don’t want to be there.
I do feel bad for that little Vermont industry. They can’t keep up with the low prices offered by granite suppliers in China. I can’t say much about the lower death rate though. On one hand, it seems like a good thing, because yay, people aren’t dying as much. On the other hand, crap, people aren’t dying as much and we have too many people.
I just reached the end of the podcast, and they need to change the music at the end, too.
Askjfaldjfbadmusicmakesmyearsbleed.
So basically whats causing trouble for the family business in Vermont is competition posed by cheap imported Chinese granite and the fact that less people are dieing. Learned in micro economics, both of these conditions decrease demand. Cheap substitutes poses great competition to the family business as many rational consumers would choose cheaper products. The other factor, decreases in death rate, is pretty self-explanatory in terms of the nature that when people die less, people need less of the product that the family business has to offer here.