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Abstract
The
central premise of this project is to highlight the
problem andto offer a solution as a guideline. The
final solution may differ in details from what’s
suggested below; nevertheless, it is the spirit of
this initiative that will remain true to its purpose
and its principles and it will inspire ideas that
are in line with the goals needed to be attained.
The world
is an unfair place and while it will remain unfair,
we have the responsibility to reduce the level of
unfairness that exists in today’s international
trade relationship. Fair trade proponents do very
little to help marginalized farmers in South America
who are a productive part of our global population
yet they continue to struggle to survive.
The world is an unfair place and while it will
remain unfair, we have the responsibility to reduce
the level of unfairness that exists in today’s
international trade relationship. Fair trade
proponents do very little to help marginalized
farmers in South America who are a productive part
of our global population yet they continue to
struggle to survive.
In the oil pumping countries they have abundance of
oil that is pumped out of the ground with pump
meters that literally converting instantly barrels
to dollars just like in the gas stations when you
see gallons pumped and dollars charged. With oil
approaching $200 per barrel these countries might as
well be pumping money from the ground and lots of
it. The oil price is climbing because the world
needs it. All they have to do is pump it out right
from the ground and there is no expiration date on
it, no processing is involved prior to selling it as
crude oil and no spoilage to worry about. It is sold
well before it is even pumped out and with fewer
middle men to profit from any mark up. Most of the
profits go directly to the oil well owners who have
taken the ownership of their countries and its
natural resources – crude oil.
The oil prices have been rising and they will
continue to rise to new levels of unfairness year
after year until someone does something about it and
this is exactly what this article brings forth. It
is true that the world needs oil but the world also
needs food more than it needs oil, yet food is dirt
cheap when compared to crude oil. This is very
unfair to the farmers who do not pump food from the
ground; they work very hard to produce it. Farmers
have to plan, plant, protect from elements, water
and fertilize their farms, wait for their plantation
to grow and ripen; they must harvest and pack their
produce before they can expect any financial rewards
for their hard work. And to make things worse, many
times they loose their harvest to natural and other
elements they have no control over and receive
nothing for all their hard work. Even worse, when
they loose their harvest they still have to clean up
the mess if they plan to start all over again. When
the harvest is lost lots of hard work and effort
goes waste with no compensation for the invested
time, effort, labor and expenses. This is the nature
of the game for farmers and they take it with pride.
Farmers are our heroes. Many farmers do insure their
harvest and get insurance settlement far below what
the harvest would have brought them and their
premiums usually go up after every incident; further
when the farmers loose their harvest the nation
loses the GNP that would have been associated with
the harvest.
We need to regain the global respect for America. We
are loosing jobs to the global market. We need to
create many new jobs and very quickly. We can do
that by going back to basics, farming, farming and
farming. We need to create lots of jobs in
farming. The world is starving and they will
need our harvest. Farming is the best way to compete
with oil demand and oil price increase. We need to
level the fields and show more appreciation for our
farmers. We need to encourage and support our
farmers for they are the true Men of Honor.
We need to ensure that they are well rewarded for
their efforts. We have the most fertile soil and
natural resources in the world. We must go back to
farming.
When we say farming, we are not suggesting that we
all leave our office jobs and go work in the farms;
however, for those who would prefer to work in the
farms, the farms offer a healthier environment than
the office. Increasing or expanding farming in the
US could create millions of new jobs in a variety of
fields which include technological advancements,
capital investments in equipment and machinery,
marketing, packaging, transporting, manufacturing in
farming supplies and machinery, food manufacturing
for domestic consumption and export and a slew of
other areas not to mention the trickle down economic
effects that will lift the economy in the US in
every aspect.
We have to educate Americans and teach them to think
in long terms. Short term thinking is a luxury and
long term thinking is a necessity. After educating
Americans thru ads, slogans, campaigns, booklets and
most importantly thru schools by introducing new
classes that will teach our kids a little about
global marketing, jobs, farming and the fact that we
have the best natural resources in the world.
Finally, we need to take some tough actions.
The Oil producing countries have OPEC (Organization
of Petroleum Exporting Countries) which allows the
oil exporting countries to engage in price collusion
and/or on collective limit on quantity of oil to be
exported – effectively exercising a legal monopoly
to keep the oil price high. Say hello to OFDEC
(Organization of Food and Drug Exporting Countries).
Perhaps it is the right time for America to
introduce OFDEC to counter balance OPEC. Given that
OPEC already exists it must clinch the argument for
OFDEC. OFDEC can be the answer for OPEC. This should
be very good news for the American continents
especially South America. The American continents
can export enough food to feed the entire world
population. Our next president should push for OFDEC.
This is not a typical trade agreement where
Americans stand to lose jobs like some trade
agreements may have done. Boldly put, this is simply
a price collusion agreement that says we deserve
more money for our food and drug that has been
serving the world. If they can quadruple their price
on oil then why can’t we quadruple our price for
food and drugs that they have been depending on for
long time?
To help rebuild America and to keep it as the world
leader we must make some tough decisions like
introducing under OFDEC new tariffs on food and
drugs export aimed at increasing (adjusting to oil
prices) the fair compensation for food and drugs
that countries like America export to OPEC
countries. Basically, OFDEC would offer non OPEC
nations a leverage against OPEC. Without something
like OFDEC, OPEC could transfer out the US wealth
that took us centuries to build and accumulate thru
hard work. All this wealth could be transferred in a
very short time if OPEC is left unchallenged by
something like OFDEC. The best part of OFDEC is that
many nations from South America, Europe Asia and
Australia would have everything to gain by joining
and everything to lose if they don’t. Who could turn
down a leverage against the giant and unfair OPEC?
If they could pump money from the oil fields why
cannot we get a more fair compensation for our hard
work to bring the world food and drugs that is more
demanded and more necessary for life than fuel?
South American farmers work very hard and long hours
all year round to make far less than $10,000 a year
while their counter partners in Saudi Arabia make
$10,000 per hour or even per minute doing nothing
more than watching the gas/dollar meter as it pumps
out crude oil from the ground. It is time to correct
the exchange value of what is more essential to life
than crude oil, food and drugs. By all measures,
food and drugs should be worth a lot more than crude
oil not only because they are more essential to life
than crude oil but also because of the amount of
work and care that goes into producing them. Drugs
take years of study, research and testing before
they are perfected and proven to cure or save lives.
It is time to rebel against this unfair value for
exchanged goods set by one sided OPEC with no
counter organization that demand equal value for
food and drugs. This is where OFDEC comes in and
creates a balance for the value of exchanged goods –
oil vs. food and drugs. Food and drug exporting
countries should dump their excess food in the see
rather than accepting an insulting offer that could
be a tiny fraction of that it is worth. We must
challenge OPEC and show them that OFDEC could be
bigger, more important and more essential to life.
It may be necessary to endure the loss of some
excess food supply that must be dumped in the see if
necessary (if the compensation for it is not equal
it its value or worth). Soon enough, rather thbadly
food exporters have been cheated by the unfair value
for their food supplyan starving, they will offer
ten or even twenty times the previous compensation
for our food and drug supply and it will still be
cheaper than crude oil. That is how.
The units and the tariffs can be studied thoroughly
and adjusted as needed and perhaps in response to
crude oil price changes; when oil prices go up the
tariffs should go up and visa versa. Obviously, this
would create a double whammy for the countries that
need to import both, oil and food; this issue will
be discussed shortly. The success of OFDEC will
depend on how many food and drug exporting nations
will participate or join OFDEC. Wisdom dictates few
rules that are in favor of OFDEC; for example if the
US is alone in OFDEC the introduction of OFDEC
tariffs by the US and for the US export may
discourage nations from importing from the US in the
short term only. The shortage that will be created
by the lack of US export that will be created by
OFDEC tariffs will add to the global food shortage
(global food shortage already exists and it is
rising) and contribute significantly to global food
price increase. In due time, the global food price
increase will make the US food prices which include
tariffs a bargain when compared to higher global
prices. This will be the first victory for OFDEC and
it may make OPEC retaliate and raise the crude oil
prices further. Canada decides to join OFDEC after
recognizing the viability of OFDEC and soon South
America will join too seeking an edge in the global
market. Europe will have everything to gain from
joining OFDEC and it is very likely to join in due
time. OPEC and other nations will have to face the
reality and make some concessions which may include
submitting to OFDEC tariffs, reduce oil prices or do
both. China is an agricultural giant that needs oil
and it will either join OFDEC or recognize that it
is not in their favor to compete with OFDEC to lower
food prices – China will be one of the biggest
beneficiary of the food price increase caused by
OFDEC as they it will have more leverage against
OPEC and oil. China and other nations may join OFDEC
or possibly form their own version of OFDEC due to
political and regional reasons. Whichever way China
decides to go it will not conflict with the West or
OFDEC as it is very unlikely that it will work
compete with OFDEC and lower their food prices
giving up a badly needed leverage against OPEC or
oil. It would be like Kuwait selling the US oil for
$40.00 per barrel when the global market price is at
$120.00 per barrel – this has not and is not likely
to happen.
Billions or trillions of dollars previously
unrealized will be added to the US revenues by the
tariffs. Part of the new revenues can be used to
subsidize oil for the American consumers. The crude
oil might be selling for $200 or $300 per barrel
while American will be paying under $3 per gallon
for gas as the difference would be subsidized from
the OFDEC revenues. Part of the revenues can be used
to aid the poor countries which may have suffered
the double whammy as they struggled to pay more for
oil and more for food. These poor counties could
receive humanitarian aid from the US in the for of
limited food supply, financial aid or both – we will
not let poor countries suffer from the global
competition they are unable to participate in due to
lack of resources. Finally, the rest of the funds
will pay for our national debt and other programs.
In a global market, when you have winners you more
than likely have losers on the other side of the
winners. Those trillions or billions of dollars will
come not from a vacuum; rather they will be cutting
into the trillions of dollars that traditionally
went to the oil exporting countries. For the longest
time, these countries received by far more than
their share of the bounty. Some countries receive
more money from oil sale than they knew what to do
with – they have been forced to invent new ways to
spend some, spend some on over indulge themselves
and some use part of these oil revenues to promote
global terrorism. Even after over spending as
described above they still end up with a giant
surplus of revenues. After OFDEC they will probably
continue to receive more than their share of the
bounty doing nothing to earn it, but you can bet
that OFDEC will cut deep into their giant surplus of
revenues.
The US must recruit as many nations that are not
part of OPEC to join OFDEC or these nations will
risk a major decline in standards of living caused
by crude oil price increase that may continue to
rise and it can only be reversed by OFDEC.
OPEC may choose to retaliate and challenge OFDEC by
cutting off the supply of crude oil to OFDEC
nations. If they do this they will only prove us
right in that they need our food and drug supply as
much if not more than we need their oil. Should they
resort to this suicidal strategy then OFDEC should
call their bluff. In due time, days or weeks at the
most, it will create a major panic turning into
major crisis inside the OPEC world and they will be
forced to submit to OFDEC. They will have to
negotiate for a more fair value for the exchange of
goods (food and oil). They will do whatever it
takes to lower the price of crude oil and recognize
that food is worth more than oil. As it stands now
OPEC is working to keep the oil prices as high as
possible. OPEC is emboldened by the global attention
crude oils is getting and they will continue to
accelerate the upward price until we apply the brake
- OFDEC. OFDEC will tell them you cannot do that for
we can do the same thing to our food and drugs that
we supply you. It is time for food to be recognized
as equally important if not even more important than
crude oil. In order for OFDEC to be more effective,
it must encourage non OPEC nations to join OFDEC. My
not too distant ancestors have lived through many
famine times where food was exchanged for gold pound
for pound. The gold becomes worthless when its owner
is about to die from hunger. The stories told about
the importance of food in a famine are surreal. Most
Americans have no idea what famine is or how bad it
could be when it becomes reality.
Nothing is without unintended consequences but we
will soon become desperate. Should many poor
countries suffer further starvation then we can
offer them a limited aid. There have always been
countries that continue to starve even before OFDEC
and we have always offered aid to these countries.
It is time for the OPEC nations to think about the
poor and the starving countries too just like the US
has always done. Starving countries should not be
the responsibility of the US only.
The OPEC countries and the oil corporations will
lobby our congress very hard to prevent the
formation of OFDEC. They will introduce new
theories, new explanations, campaigns and even ads
that will show why we should not promote OFDEC. They
will hire skilled people that will use charts and
statistics to proof their point. We all know how
statistics and charts can be used by skilled people
to manipulate their point of view that will be based
on theories and nothing but theories. The OFDEC can
be so bad to OPEC that they will do everything and
anything possible to confuse and blur the vision for
OFDEC. They will invent political, theoretical,
economical, social and possibly ethical models,
reasons or explanations designed to keep the US from
forming OFDEC. And when all fails they will stop at
nothing to prevent the Congress and/or the house
from voting for it. OFDEC opponents may even resort
to any form of blackmail if it could help prevent
the bill from reaching the floor for a vote. They
know that once it hits the floor it is hard to
convince everyone to vote against a bill that is
good for the nation.
One should ask OFDEC opponents where were they when
OPEC was being formed? What are they doing to
diminish or eliminate OPEC as an international
organization that is designed to monopolize oil?
What can they do to lower the price of oil? Why are
they trying so hard to eliminate OFDEC as the anti
OPEC? Are they trying to defend OPEC? Do they not
want the US to have a strategy that is designed to
counter OPEC?
Opponents of OFDEC know how bad it can be for OPEC
that they will try so hard to keep it from forming.
One measure we can use to see the potential of OFDEC
is through the hard work of its opponents – they
must be so committed to killing it because they will
be afraid of it potential success which could signal
the end of OPEC supremacy. There is light at the end
of the tunnel.
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