Originally posted by Th_m_s:
I've heard a theory that Wal-Mart is to blame. The theory goes: Wal-Mart sells stuff from China. China has a steel shortage and they need more fuel. Fuel is used to ship Items from China and to ship steel to China. I don't mind paying higher gas prices as long as I get the low Wal-Mart prices. How many miles away is China?



Utter crap.

Distance doesn't mean nearly as much as Means of Transport.

It costs more to ship something by truck from Chicago to LA than to ship the same item by ship from China to LA.

With just gas alone, a ship can move 8 times as much freight as a truck can with the same gallon of gas. Then there's the decreased operating costs of a ship versus a truck. It takes 1 or 2 guys to get a truck across the country -- it only take a couple dozen to get an entire ship of thousands of containers across the ocean. Their fuel isn't refined as well as standard truck diesel, so it's cheaper. And the taxes on the fuel aren't as great either.

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