making money at woodworking

[Will Blick]

Jim, I wish what you suggest is true.... but the cost of fuel to transport thousands of containers across the ocean is probably a very small component of the total shipping cost... so, even if fuel doubled, I can't see it rocking the shipping cost.

But for air travel, the opposite is true...., the fuel cost is a very significant cost of the travel, and Airliners have a very small base to amortize the fuel cost.... maybe a 100+ passengers and some on-board freight.

The shrinking value of our dollar is what the Asians fear most...

[Greg Pavlov]

The key word here is "ship". Right now our Asian woodworking pals can still ship small stuff cheap, so I think it would be tough competition. I'm no futurist but with rising oil prices it may get real expensive to ship from Asia to the USA. That could mean less foreign competition for woodworkers in the USA.

I thought the same thing until I learned that it now costs somewhere around 12-14 cents to ship a bottle of wine from Australia to the US.

[jim oakes]

Well, Greg I said I was no futurist, 12- 14 cents is cheap even if it triples.

[scottj owen]

I think the biggest thing you have to look at will be the state of your economy when you retire! Where I live the economy is booming, there are allot of people who have money and there are a shortage of good workers. Lots of people are building houses with kitchens in the excess of $60000, and people are paying $12-15000 for entertainment centers. But we all know that the economy goes up and down. If the economy is at a low point you will have troubles making a good profit. Anyways that is my take on it, I think if you do good work that you will always make money though!