More minding p's and q's
More Minding Your P’s and Q’s
Although we think we live in a fast moving world, some things don't change much at all, as I discovered when I read one of our newsletters from early 2004....
A few weeks ago the keyboard of my laptop computer started playing up and I found myself with the choice of sending it off for a few days to be fixed at a cost of US$ 120 or of buying an external keyboard for US$ 9. With our focus on saving costs, we had no hesitation in opting for the cheaper approach.
But, as my fingers roamed the shiny new keyboard, I found my mind wandering off and starting to do some calculations. Nine dollars. Deduct one dollar for tax and another dollar so the store owner can pay his rent and his salespeople. Then, remembering how much it cost me last time I sent a parcel by regular mail, it seemed eminently reasonable that even the cheapest tramp steamer would need a further dollar to pay for low-grade fuel oil and a crew hired from the Philippines or West Africa.
That leaves six dollars. The case and keys were of a robust plastic which I imagined being made from natural gas in one of those belching chemical plants which cost a mint to build, while under the keys is an intricate network of wires forged from metals dug from deep under the earth by burly miners. And of course the keyboard came in a cardboard box, the product of another belching factory. So, allocating a dollar each to the plastic, wires and box and we're left with just three dollars, one for the taxman in the countries of origin, one for the manufacturer to pay for his factory and the intellectual property and one for the workers making the keyboard.
At this stage, I found myself having a nightmare where I was on the 6 am to 6 pm shift where all day long keyboards moved past on a conveyor belt and I had to insert the P key in the right slot and company rules forbade me even greeting the lovely girl at the next station inserting the Qs. For every P I inserted, I was paid one cent but I knew that if I worked hard, one day, maybe, I would be promoted to inserting the Shift key for two cents a key or even to putting in Space bars at three cents each. I woke from this reverie in a sweat wondering what to do. Should I return the keyboard? Should I buy five more keyboards and stack them in the corner? Or should I give the storekeeper an extra 50 dollars and tell him to distribute it down the chain, taking particular care to ensure the couple minding the Ps and Qs got at least their fair share?
Of course, my understanding of the workings of the global economy might be all wrong and maybe the keyboard was made by a fancy machine from recycled materials just down the street from our offices. I was just starting to breathe a sigh of relief at this thought when I realised that then half of people in my imaginings would be unemployed.... It just shows, making purchasing decisions is not as easy as it looks!
When I reviewed the article in October 2007, I commented that “the price of crude oil has trebled, as have metal prices, wages in China have risen, the Chinese currency has appreciated against the US$ and we are all much more aware of the environment and recycling. However, the cost of a keyboard has hardly changed at all!”
Ten years later the price is much the same. The big change, apart from the reduced crude oil price, is that the Chinese factory owners have probably replaced their keyboard plant workers with robots. Another couple of years and I will be able to use 3D printing to create my own keyboard. Of course by then that probably won’t be necessary as a host of new IO devices will allow me to speak or even “think” to the computer.
Although we think we live in a fast moving world, some things don't change much at all, as I discovered when I read one of our newsletters from early 2004....
A few weeks ago the keyboard of my laptop computer started playing up and I found myself with the choice of sending it off for a few days to be fixed at a cost of US$ 120 or of buying an external keyboard for US$ 9. With our focus on saving costs, we had no hesitation in opting for the cheaper approach.
But, as my fingers roamed the shiny new keyboard, I found my mind wandering off and starting to do some calculations. Nine dollars. Deduct one dollar for tax and another dollar so the store owner can pay his rent and his salespeople. Then, remembering how much it cost me last time I sent a parcel by regular mail, it seemed eminently reasonable that even the cheapest tramp steamer would need a further dollar to pay for low-grade fuel oil and a crew hired from the Philippines or West Africa.
That leaves six dollars. The case and keys were of a robust plastic which I imagined being made from natural gas in one of those belching chemical plants which cost a mint to build, while under the keys is an intricate network of wires forged from metals dug from deep under the earth by burly miners. And of course the keyboard came in a cardboard box, the product of another belching factory. So, allocating a dollar each to the plastic, wires and box and we're left with just three dollars, one for the taxman in the countries of origin, one for the manufacturer to pay for his factory and the intellectual property and one for the workers making the keyboard.
At this stage, I found myself having a nightmare where I was on the 6 am to 6 pm shift where all day long keyboards moved past on a conveyor belt and I had to insert the P key in the right slot and company rules forbade me even greeting the lovely girl at the next station inserting the Qs. For every P I inserted, I was paid one cent but I knew that if I worked hard, one day, maybe, I would be promoted to inserting the Shift key for two cents a key or even to putting in Space bars at three cents each. I woke from this reverie in a sweat wondering what to do. Should I return the keyboard? Should I buy five more keyboards and stack them in the corner? Or should I give the storekeeper an extra 50 dollars and tell him to distribute it down the chain, taking particular care to ensure the couple minding the Ps and Qs got at least their fair share?
Of course, my understanding of the workings of the global economy might be all wrong and maybe the keyboard was made by a fancy machine from recycled materials just down the street from our offices. I was just starting to breathe a sigh of relief at this thought when I realised that then half of people in my imaginings would be unemployed.... It just shows, making purchasing decisions is not as easy as it looks!
When I reviewed the article in October 2007, I commented that “the price of crude oil has trebled, as have metal prices, wages in China have risen, the Chinese currency has appreciated against the US$ and we are all much more aware of the environment and recycling. However, the cost of a keyboard has hardly changed at all!”
Ten years later the price is much the same. The big change, apart from the reduced crude oil price, is that the Chinese factory owners have probably replaced their keyboard plant workers with robots. Another couple of years and I will be able to use 3D printing to create my own keyboard. Of course by then that probably won’t be necessary as a host of new IO devices will allow me to speak or even “think” to the computer.
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