Author: Fuzzy
Date: 2023-03-01 11:30
A recent thread got me to thinking...
About all machinery and man hours used to mine the ore to make our lowly pivot screw.
About the fuel used in those mines.
About the insurance paid by those mining companies. About the training and safety of those miners.
Of the negotiations of union demands.
The cost of mining equipment, and the repair of that equipment.
The cost of fines from the government for being out of spec, and the cost of implementing newer technologies and systems in an attempt to meet the ever changing demands placed on them by regulators.
The cost of research to find sustainable solutions.
The cost of oversight.
The cost of training.
The cost of law suits.
The cost of sorting, crushing - and the equipment to do so.
The increased cost of fuel and regulation as everyone is forced away from fossil fuels.
That's just the raw material for the pivot screw. Not the smelting, the purifying, the forming, the machining. Not the fuel to ship, nor the waste lost on the floor/ground.
Taxes. Tariffs.
This only touches the tip of the matter and leaves out most of the costs and processes of that little screw in the end of my clarinet's post.
Multiply that over and over and over yet again for all the other harvesting, milling, hauling, refining, shaping, fixing, sharpening, honing, etc. Cutting, drilling. Lubricating.
Every part of that clarinet goes through some similar or related process. The wood, the rubber, the pads, the glue, etc.
Really, it makes me wonder how clarinets are so cheap. It's is just one tiny example of the miracle of the modern age we live in.
Fuzzy
;^)>>>
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The Clarinet BBoard
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