Perth City Analysis

Perth has a population of about 1.9 million.  On a U.S. scale, this would place it above Philadelphia, but below Houston.  Within Australia, Perth is larger than Adelaide, but smaller than Brisbane.  This makes Perth a rather large city.  It is the capital of, and only major city in, Western Australia.  This isolation makes it the largest gathering place in the western half of Australia.

Being a higher order city, Perth offers quite a bit that smaller cities would not have.  Perth has sporting teams in the major Australian sports leagues.  Perth offers museums, concerts, and other arts which are not offered in any smaller city around.  Perth is missing out on the highly specialized offerings of an even larger city, such as Sydney.  Sydney has an even wider selection, and is the more popular tourist attraction.

Junkyard Planet by Adam Minter

China has an advantage over India to receive US scrap metal because the scrap is shipped on the backhaul to China.  There is a larger demand for goods exported from China compared to India.  Additionally, it costs less to transport the metal from the US to China, since it is geographically closer.

The chapter discusses the great difference in imported versus exported containers in China: 90% of containers are for exports.  This is a stark illustration of how globalization can lead to huge trade imbalances.  Goods are produced where production costs are low.  This concentrates the production.

Jared Diamond's article (reviewed earlier) examined how human history unfolded.  His themes centralized around the ability to adapt and innovate to exploit the resources available.  Modern transportation is a huge adaptation by society to enable further spread and easier exploitation of resources.

The Box: How the Shipping Container Made the World Smaller and the World Economy Bigger

1)  I found the quote " 'It is better to assume that moving goods is essentially costless than to assume that moving goods is an important component of the production process.' Before the container, such a statement was unimaginable" quite interesting.  This quote really demonstrates to potency of the shipping container to bring the world together.

2) The author states that the shipping containers contributed to globalization by greatly reducing the time and money spent transporting and transferring goods around the world.  The containers make large scale shipments easy and fast, and support a wide variety of goods.  They also reduce terminal costs by allowing containers to be moved between modes of transportation quickly and easily without unpacking and repacking the supplies.

3)  Smaller businesses who do not have the manufacturing capacity to ship internationally are the largest losers in the shipping container revolution.  Specialty shops which only produce small quantities have no opportunity to fill a shipping container, and thus do not gain from cheap mass shipments.  Large companies that can fill large orders to all corners of the globe benefit the most.  Consumers also gain because prices are driven down since manufacturers can take advantage of the cheapest production costs without sacrificing much for additional transportation costs.  Workers lose for the same reason, since jobs can be shifted away from the demand.

Current Event: Trade Surplus Falls

Trade surplus falls but still bodes well for economic growth

Australia saw an unexpected monthly drop in exports, with imports remaining steady.  Actual exports fell 2% from expected value, corresponding to a 42% drop in trade surplus.  This change was largely caused by drops in prices of common goods, making it less profitable to export.


GDP = C + G + I + (Ex - Im)

Since exports fell, and imports stayed the same, monthly GDP fell as well.  However, Australia only recently has a trade surplus at all, so the GDP is still growing compared to previous years.

Since international prices of goods exported by Australia fell, demand for goods from Australia fell.  This made Australian exporters less likely to export goods.  Australia recently signed free trade agreements, which reduces the cost of international transactions.  This makes it more profitable to export, even if prices dip slightly.

Transportation

Water Transportation:

Inland waterways are unreliable and do not compete with land and air travel.  However, being an island, there are major ports for external water transportation scattered all around the country.  This provides great opportunities for international exchange of goods, as well as transporting goods within Australia.  Most major cities lie on the coast, providing easy access to water transportation.  There are also ferries running between the mainland and Tasmania.

Land Transportation:

Australia is amongst the leaders in per capita car ownership and usage.  There is an extensive network of highways at a federal and state level which facilitate high volume traffic between major cities.  Roads, both paved and unpaved, are the most common way to transport goods within Australia.  Railroads are available, but more commonly goods are shipped using road trains. Road trains are semi tractors towing two or more trailers.

Map of Major Interstate Highways

Railroads are also commonly used to move goods such as ore and sugar cane, in addition to transporting people.  

Within cities, extensive public transit systems of busses, trains, and watercraft provide transportation to locals and visitors.

Air Transportation:

There are over 300 airports with paved runways in Australia, and more than 100 additional with unpaved runways.  The largest of the airports serve the largest cities: Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, and Adelaide.  Australia is home to several airlines including Quantas, Virgin Australia, and Tiger Airways Australia.

International Australia

Australia's primary trading partners are Asian markets nearby, European Union countries, and the United States.

Australia's top 10 export markets (A$ million)
                                       Goods         Services Total       % share Rank
China                             77,973         6,662              84,635    28.1 1
Japan                             46,481         2,101              48,582    16.1 2
Republic of Korea        19,116         1,698              20,814      6.9 3
United States                 9,022          5,507              14,529      4.8 4
India                            11,418         1,844 13,262 4.4 5
New Zealand                 7,309         3,559 10,868 3.6 6
Singapore                      6,420         3,584 10,004 3.3 7
United Kingdom            5,520         3,927 9,447 3.1 8
Taiwan                          7,531         647 8,178      2.7 9
Malaysia                 5,197         1,663 6,860      2.3 10
Total exports                 249,088     52,411 301,499 100.0

Australia's top 10 import sources (A$ million)
                                 Goods      Services Total %      share Rank
China 44,478 1,864 46,342 14.5 1
United States 27,980 11,375         39,355 12.3 2
Japan 18,346          2,302 20,648 6.5 3
Singapore 14,329 4,626 18,955            5.9 4
Thailand                    11,129 2,433 13,562 4.2 5
Germany 10,930 1,465         12,395            3.9 6
United Kingdom 6,365 5,201         11,566 3.6  7
Malaysia                     8,936 1,274 10,210 3.2 8
New Zealand 7,068 2,980 10,048           3.1 9
Republic of Korea 9,214             454           9,668           3.0 10
Total imports 255,391        63,959 319,350 100.0

Australia's top 10 imports, goods and services (A$ million)
Rank Commodity                                             2012-13
1   Personal travel (excl education) services 21,990
2   Crude petroleum                                     20,187
3   Passenger motor vehicles                         17,330
4   Refined petroleum                                       16,854
5   Freight transport services                               9,144
6   Telecom equipment & parts                           8,916
7   Medicaments (incl veterinary)                       8,051
8   Goods vehicles                                             7,698
9   Passenger transport services                          7,151
10   Computers                                                   6,650

Australia's top 10 exports, goods and services, (A$ million)
Rank Commodity                                         2012-13
1 Iron ore & concentrates                              57,082
2 Coal                                                         38,640
3 Gold                                                        15,301
4 Education-related travel services        14,461
5 Natural gas                                               14,271
6 Personal travel (excl education) services 12,583
7 Crude petroleum                                          9,719
8 Wheat                                                        6,750
9 Aluminium ores & conc (incl alumina)         5,565
10 Copper ores & concentrates                        5,352

Source: http://dfat.gov.au/publications/tgs/index.html

The Current exchange rate is $0.93 AUD for $1 USD.  This value has fluctuated between about 0.86 and 1.04 over the last year.

Australia is one of two countries to have over 25% of current residents born outside of its borders.  Immigrants make up 26.8% of the population, at a total of 5,993,945.  Most of the immigrants come from nearby countries like China and New Zealand, but there are a large number of Europeans, especially from the United Kingdom.

Largely, those leaving Australia were born in a different country, and are returning to their country of origin.  In 2012-2013, 91,737 people left Australia. of these, only 43,423 were Australian-born.  Most of these people went to the United Kingdom, United States, and New Zealand.

Australia's main ally is New Zealand, through the ANZAC agreements, with the United States in second.  Australia is also a member of the United Nations.  Economically, Australia has free trade agreements with China, South Korea, the United States, New Zealand, and Chile.  

Australia has had little by way of military conflicts, though they have sent troops to aid in the United States, and other military actions.  

A Fez of the Heart Prologue Response

Locals showed apprehension towards the traditional, now outlawed hat of Turkey.  When asked, one shopkeeper said "'My Boss like me to wear it... He think to bring tourists.'  From his disgruntlement, it was apparent that he was an unwilling fez wearer."  Later he commented that outside of tourist applications, wearing a fez is a big problem in Turkey.  From an American perspective, it is hard to imagine being arrested or killed by the government for a simple article of clothing.  The fez's only offense was being popular in the past, and not being seen as modern.


The text shows a stark example of how economics can rapidly change a culture.  The entirety of the values and customs of the town of Pomegranate changed within one generation.  They went from a highly traditional, agricultural community, where muslim traditions including women hiding their faces ruled the culture to a modern tourist attraction where topless women were a common sight.  These changes were largely because the inhabitants found they could make money from the Europeans who passed through their town.  Economics drove the transition from ploughs and manual work to fax machines and business suits.

Beyond this example, any tourist destination will have some degree of this conflict.  When economics dictates how a culture progresses, parts may be lost or shuttered away.  Tourists have a different perception of the location than the locals, and thus will emphasize or manufacture different parts of the culture.  Older cultures have economics, but do not compete on the scale of modern countries.  The world is constantly becoming smaller, and these old cultures interact with the new.  They meet, see that comparatively they are lesser economically, and seek to compete.  In order to compete, they replicate the new culture, leaving behind their own.