Thailand Canal Boats

So we brothers are exchanging these emails about the canal boats brother Bill saw in Thailand


and how some of them are powered by old automobile engines.

We speculate that might be where old car engines go to live out the remainder of their useful lives; puttering up and down canals. It occurs to me that a similar thing happens here in the States. Just because cars are done for in the U.S. doesn't mean they're totally done. Any drive south from here to The Valley passes caravans of ratty cars towing even rattier cars down to Mexico; cars purchased at auto auctions for practically nothing. Less expensive labor, and probably less stringent environmental regulations, translates to lots of life left in a car that we consider all used up. From Mexico, all you need are a few tow bars, a few drivers, a ride across the border, and you're in business.

Seems like a good idea. This might not be the right political climate for encouraging Mexicans to come across the border to get our stuff, but it’s stuff we didn’t really want any more anyway, so why not? Come to think of it, that has to help our economy too. If there is an increased demand for junker cars, that increased demand will make the price of our junker cars go up, even if ever so slightly. We’ll make more money.

Wait a minute. An increase in the price of junker cars might be bad for wrecking yards that buy them and part them out. That might be bad for our economy.

Yabbut, it has to be better for our environment to have those old cars carried down south and re-used there instead of clogging up our landfills.

But what about the steel we could have melted down? That makes steel a scarcer commodity and drives up the price. With less steel to recycle, we increase the demand for new steel which might be bad for the environment!

Wait! What was that??? Did a butterfly just flap its wings in China? Is someone throwing pebbles in the pond again?