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Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site watmath.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!idallen
From: idallen@watmath.UUCP
Newsgroups: can.politics
Subject: Re: Buy Local.
Message-ID: <16149@watmath.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 11-Aug-85 13:30:39 EDT
Article-I.D.: watmath.16149
Posted: Sun Aug 11 13:30:39 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 14-Aug-85 02:28:02 EDT
References: <5770@utzoo.UUCP>, <16066@watmath.UUCP> <5864@utzoo.UUCP>
Organization: U of Waterloo, Ontario
Lines: 25

My point is that by not "paying extra" to support the local industry, you
weaken your clout if the major market for the "global" industry doesn't
include you.  (I imagine most US-based companies operating in Canada are
of this type.)  If the global industry does something you don't like, or
doesn't do something you do like, you and your friends aren't in as strong
a position to influence it as you would be if you and your friends *were*
the major market.  Is that worth paying extra for?

A global industry can suddenly decide your little corner of the world
or your peculiar needs are no longer profitable, and pull out.  You'll
be without that industry until something local gets organized to fill
the gap.  A local industry isn't quite as free to ignore you.  Also, if
the goods and services you buy are tailored to the global mass market,
you might not be able to get the variations suitable for your locale.

I like to encourage others to help me support local industry, and this
usually means "paying extra", if for no other reason than it goes
against economy of scale.  Buying locally doesn't mean "buy Canadian";
it means support the people who are interested in supplying *me* and
who listen to *me*, not the people to whom my purchases appear as
something insignificant.  I want to maintain a balance of power
between me, as a market, and them, as suppliers.  I don't want to be
dictated to.  If I depend on them, let them depend on me.
-- 
        -IAN!  (Ian! D. Allen)      University of Waterloo