One of the great benefits of blogging is the freedom to say anything you want. This also means that when you are not censored (i.e. edited) you can end up publishing something really dumb. I'm hoping that this post is not one of those. If it is, I'm sure you'll let me know.
The September 22, 2007 issue of The Economist showed a nice graph of retail cocaine prices (per gram) around the world. So you don't have to go there, here is the list as extracted by me:
- Australia - $250
- Japan - $240
- Norway - $155
- United States - $110
- Britain - $95
- France - $85
- Germany - $80
- Israel - $70
- Canada - $65
- Colombia - $3
These numbers gave me a few business ideas. Read on...
Since we know that some people consider cocaine a medicinal product, some enterprising individuals could promote a "Get high in America" tourism package for those in Australia and Japan. The tour would include some first class hotels, a few rounds of golf, trips to the clothing outlets and recommendations on the safest neighborhoods for buying the white stuff.
A similar package could be designed for Americans who would visit Britain, France or Germany. Sorry Norway, you're just too expensive! A word of caution is advised here, however, since the dollar is now pretty weak against the Euro and the British pound. Do the math before you sign up for one of these trips!
Perhaps the best idea would be to allow the reimportation of cocaine from Canada to the United States. After all, it's not fair that we Americans pay $45 more for this stuff than anyone else. We know that all of the profits go into the pockets of the drug lords down there in Colombia and it's obvious that we are being ripped off.
Now, even if you don't use cocaine, the price discrepancies are interesting to contemplate. For example, is it possible that the cocaine resellers in Europe have outsmarted us Americans and negotiated lower prices there in return for buying in bulk? And, to make up for the lower profits in Europe, are the cocaine drug lords in South America artificially inflating the price to us in America and those in Australia and Japan? After all, you need to make up for your losses in Europe!
Does any of this sound familiar?
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