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The Great Japan Potato-Chip Crisis

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Re: The Great Japan Potato-Chip Crisis

#91

Post by mistermann »

hkmurakami wrote: post #24
yladiz wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I doubt it, especially since you can generally get a much wider range of varieties of potatoes in the US than in Japan, not just organic/non-organic, but different colored potatoes as well. My guess is that the rhetoric coming from the companies that US potato quality is lower is more due to the government being protectionist about national agriculture. It's also probably due to the mentality that producers want spec…

I remember seeing a "food security" campaign where demonstraters wanted the country to achieve 100% food sufficiency as a national security prerogative. Wasn't sure if it was a strange form of nationalism, or a veiled lobbying effort by an interest group (the abundance of very small scale farmers across the countryside)

Security of food supply is now also nationalism? Are we allowed to do anything in our self-interest anymore?

Re: The Great Japan Potato-Chip Crisis

#92

Post by mistermann »

hueving wrote: post #38
emodendroket wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If, as your post seems to be recommending, such regulations were abolished, Japanese farmers would pretty much cease to exist because of their inability to compete with cheaper imports. Maybe you consider that an unacceptable tradeoff for some potato chip shortages but it's not clear that the Japanese share your sense of priorities.

It's not about priorities, it's about the cause. Just be frank and admit a protectionist policy is the cause of a market inefficiency. It's okay to make that tradeoff, just be honest with yourself.

You may find Japan a bit frustrating if you were ever to visit. :)

Re: The Great Japan Potato-Chip Crisis

#93

Post by kalleboo »

When I saw this in the news I assumed it was a PR stunt. I haven't noticed chips being sold out in my corner of Japan, and anywhere they are it could just as well be because people saw "oh chips are being sold out, I should get some".

Re: The Great Japan Potato-Chip Crisis

#94

Post by mistermann »

brownbat wrote: post #45
emodendroket wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If, as your post seems to be recommending, such regulations were abolished, Japanese farmers would pretty much cease to exist because of their inability to compete with cheaper imports. Maybe you consider that an unacceptable tradeoff for some potato chip shortages but it's not clear that the Japanese share your sense of priorities.

I don't think GP was making a political statement, just commenting on the buried lead, but I'll play devil's advocate. I want farmers to have jobs too. I'd still find it sad if that were the rationale here, though, because while protectionist measures can save jobs, they remain one of the worst tools to do so, typically costing several hundred thousand dollars per job. Tire manufacturing jobs saved at $900,000 per jo…

> Sadly there's just no free lunch.

There's such a thing as no lunch though, a situation one may find themselves in if their job is re-accomodated to a global location with "higher economic efficiency".

Re: The Great Japan Potato-Chip Crisis

#95

Post by mistermann »

baddox wrote: post #80
emodendroket wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If, as your post seems to be recommending, such regulations were abolished, Japanese farmers would pretty much cease to exist because of their inability to compete with cheaper imports. Maybe you consider that an unacceptable tradeoff for some potato chip shortages but it's not clear that the Japanese share your sense of priorities.

Japanese farmers are being subsidized by these trade regulations, at the expense of other Japanese workers (namely, any worker who produces something that Japan could trade for foreign potatoes).

My understanding is that Japan has a very flat pay structure across society, with much less diversity in wages. If so, and if the rest of the world is the correct "market" price, then lots of people in Japan are being "subsidized".

In a sense, their society has chosen this structure, in which case it's not even a subsidy, it is the natural price.

Re: The Great Japan Potato-Chip Crisis

#97

Post by jpatokal »

iopq wrote: post #87
emodendroket wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suppose that's why there are no more famines anymore.

If you have money, and trade is fairly free, you would never have a famine unless it's world-wide. I mean, let's say all of your crops failed. So what? Just buy them from another country. It's a little more expensive, but better than starving. So why do people starve? It's when your money can't buy anything from another country because people from other countries don't have faith in your currency. Or when you can't t…

No, they're a political problem. There are no famines in democracies.

Re: The Great Japan Potato-Chip Crisis

#98

Post by jpatokal »

michaelvoz wrote: post #83
mc32 wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, there is also: Rice --domesticated in China Corn --Mexico Wheat --Middle east These are now pretty universal and are more important than either Tomatoes or Potatoes.

Fertile Crescent* not Middle East. The Middle East is not really an agreed upon fixed set of places, theres a not-insigifnicant variance in how one can describe it.

True but irrelevant, as I've yet to see a definition of either that did not include Mesopotamia/Iraq.

Re: The Great Japan Potato-Chip Crisis

#99

Post by Safety1stClyde »

I've just been to Don Quixote and while there weren't that many bags of crisps, they hadn't completely run out of them.

They also had bags of potatoes for sale.

Lots of jagariko and other things which are made from potato powder, which I assume is allowed to be imported.

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