So THAT'S why there were no potato chips at Family Mart yesterday.
The Great Japan Potato-Chip Crisis
31–40 of 159 posts
Re: The Great Japan Potato-Chip Crisis
#32Earlier 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 guess as a democratic state they can decide to restrict imports. But then don't ask anybody to give two shits that that there's a shortage.
Well, when they ask you to care, you can tell them that. I wouldn't hold my breath, though.
Re: The Great Japan Potato-Chip Crisis
#33Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't see it as totally outlandish to protect domestic industry at the cost of not being able to get produce as cheaply or easily as you could otherwise. It's not as though Japan is suffering from starvation.
There are government subsidies being given to every farmer, iirc no matter how small or inefficient your operation. Given that the country is heavily in debt, it's pretty fiscally irresponsible to continue with such a handout.
vs. what? Having no domestic production? And what happens if China decides to start WWIII and they face a prolonged siege with no domestic food production capabilities?
Or should they leave the feeding of their entire population up to the whims of the US government? I think the last election should make obvious the folly in that line of reasoning.
Re: The Great Japan Potato-Chip Crisis
#34Re: The Great Japan Potato-Chip Crisis
#35I was thinking, "this is ridiculous; why can't they just import more potatoes?" and then I found this: "She also cited regulatory hurdles, which limit the amount of imported potatoes that can be used in products, as partly responsible for the shortage." No, it is primarily responsible for the shortage.
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.
The regulations can be changed without putting domestic farmers out of business. For example, they could add tariffs to imported potatoes to make them cost as much as (or even more than) domestic potatoes, and use the revenue to help Hokkaido farmers rebuild their farms. No need for a hard limit on the imported amount.
Re: The Great Japan Potato-Chip Crisis
#36Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you regulate against selling potato chips at the market rate, a likely outcome is a shortage of potato chips. Grandparent didn't suggest a problem with protectionist regulations - simply that the regulation is the probable cause of the shortage. There is a link.
Actually what he said is that regulation is "primarily responsible" for the shortage, which seems contentious -- what about the failed crops, after all -- but it seems to me that he probably had some motivation for saying that beyond pedantry.
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Re: The Great Japan Potato-Chip Crisis
#37I was thinking, "this is ridiculous; why can't they just import more potatoes?" and then I found this: "She also cited regulatory hurdles, which limit the amount of imported potatoes that can be used in products, as partly responsible for the shortage." No, it is primarily responsible for the shortage.
Regulatory hurdles in the import/export market are like a person trapped in a sphere at sea. Even when you run out of drinking water inside the sphere, you still don't want the sphere to let in saltwater. It's all water but you shouldn't drink it. Your position makes sense where the sphere is floating in clean fresh drinking water. However, like an ocean is much larger than a lake, there is much more toxic crap on th…
You'd think that in a world of dynamic scaling system resources, we'd have figured out how to scale other supply chains.
Tariffs and such are a virtual constraint, designed to limit intake.
Too bad that governance and enforcement is far too clunky to temporarily relax artificial limits on external foreign products, in a way that permits domestic producers to expand back into the gap that opened up during the shortage.
Lots of systems exist that exhibit this sort of behavior, but international trade falls short in modeling temporary conditions to maintain alignment with changing trends and incidents. It's just hard failures and lock-downs all around.
Re: The Great Japan Potato-Chip Crisis
#38I was thinking, "this is ridiculous; why can't they just import more potatoes?" and then I found this: "She also cited regulatory hurdles, which limit the amount of imported potatoes that can be used in products, as partly responsible for the shortage." No, it is primarily responsible for the shortage.
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.
Re: The Great Japan Potato-Chip Crisis
#39I was thinking, "this is ridiculous; why can't they just import more potatoes?" and then I found this: "She also cited regulatory hurdles, which limit the amount of imported potatoes that can be used in products, as partly responsible for the shortage." No, it is primarily responsible for the shortage.
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.
> 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.
Good, they can do something more useful with their time because Japan does not have a comparative advantage in farming. Having farms in Japan is very inefficient, since there are better regions to grow these crops.
Sure, you can't displace these farmers tomorrow, but slowly increasing the imports is a good idea. For one thing, it would decrease the cost of living for the average Japanese person, even if farmers are negatively affected.
Why is a farmer more important than a city dweller?
Re: The Great Japan Potato-Chip Crisis
#40Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you regulate against selling potato chips at the market rate, a likely outcome is a shortage of potato chips. Grandparent didn't suggest a problem with protectionist regulations - simply that the regulation is the probable cause of the shortage. There is a link.
Actually what he said is that regulation is "primarily responsible" for the shortage, which seems contentious -- what about the failed crops, after all -- but it seems to me that he probably had some motivation for saying that beyond pedantry.
No amount of failed crops would cause a shortage if trade were free since there's a region in the world SOMEWHERE that's having a good year.