China Slaps Tax on Disposable Chopsticks
Just noticed this story this afternoon -- China Slaps Tax on Disposable Chopsticks.
I wish I could say I have some important investing insight into the chopstick market, or a deep environmental commitment to fighting the scourge of disposable chopsticks.
But really, I just thought it was a funny headline. On first scan, I thought it was from The Onion. I expected the next line to be, "Americans find the tax very difficult to collect."
Sure, it's a serious issue. The AP here reports that Japan alone consumes 25 billion sets of chopsticks a year (that's 50 billion sticks! If set end to end, and if I did my math correctly, you could string chopsticks from Japan to New York City. Every year.)
But really, a tax on chopsticks?
In all seriousness, Chinese deforestation is certainly going to be a massive issue, though probably more for desertification and global warming than for the chopstick effect. And I'm all for the chinese government using their authoritarian might to reduce logging if that's what they need to do.
And if anyone in Japan is looking for a new source, Rayonier (RYN) has several lovely tracts of professionally managed and renewable softwood in the Southeastern US that would make fabulous chopsticks. OK, so that's a stretch.
I wish I could say I have some important investing insight into the chopstick market, or a deep environmental commitment to fighting the scourge of disposable chopsticks.
But really, I just thought it was a funny headline. On first scan, I thought it was from The Onion. I expected the next line to be, "Americans find the tax very difficult to collect."
Sure, it's a serious issue. The AP here reports that Japan alone consumes 25 billion sets of chopsticks a year (that's 50 billion sticks! If set end to end, and if I did my math correctly, you could string chopsticks from Japan to New York City. Every year.)
But really, a tax on chopsticks?
In all seriousness, Chinese deforestation is certainly going to be a massive issue, though probably more for desertification and global warming than for the chopstick effect. And I'm all for the chinese government using their authoritarian might to reduce logging if that's what they need to do.
And if anyone in Japan is looking for a new source, Rayonier (RYN) has several lovely tracts of professionally managed and renewable softwood in the Southeastern US that would make fabulous chopsticks. OK, so that's a stretch.
This article posted by One Guy @ 5/12/2006 04:40:00 PM 0 comments
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