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The Rural Voice, 1988-09, Page 89NOTHING BEATS THE WAY WERE BUILT ANYTHING ELSE IS AN EXCUSE POLARIS OPEN HOUSE SEPT. 24 Come on in and see the '89 models Early Buy Program --- Free clothing and accessories up to $250. Refreshments CASSIDY FARM MACHINERY Teeswater 519-392-6402 Enclosed Pit Agitator J J The most efficient way to agitate. Manufactured by J. Spanjer Manure Equipment 519-655-2678 Tavistock, Ont. We can handle the not so liquid manure. See us at the IPM Lot D7 #11 12 THE RURAL VOICE SELLER'S MARKETS - FARMERS TAKE NOTE It's a marvellous theory, the theory of supply and demand that is supposed to work like a finely tuned scale, but have you ever noticed that the greatest supporters of the theory are usually those in a position to put their thumb on one side of the scale? Supply and demand seems such an invitingly simple solution. If some- thing is in short supply, the price will go up, more people will rush in to meet the need, and the price will fall. But the people who have been making money are the ones who have learned how to trick the system while preach- ing its justice to the rest of us. First of all, the law of supply and demand only works in a closed system. For products like milk, eggs, chickens and turkeys, for instance, farmers have more or less managed to get a closed system. Import controls allow them to balance supply and demand in such a way as to earn a decent return on their expenses. But imagine if the system isn't closed. Imagine that import controls are lifted: you have unlimited supply from anywhere in the world versus a very closed demand, a buyer's market. More than a century ago, the little rural towns of Ontario were prosper- ous, self-sufficient places. Most had larger populations than they have to- day. They had many small industries serving local needs. Many of the men who ran those industries were excited when they heard talk of railways com- ing into their communities. Visions of vast world markets danced in their heads. They saw their towns prosper- ing. They saw their products going out to the world. They didn't see the world flooding their towns with goods from the cheapest source and so didn't foresee the decline of their industries and communities. The smart money these days isn't going into commodities that can be traded easily across the world. As many fortunes have been lost as won in pulp and paper or gold or copper. The big money is being made in businesses where supply can't be manipulated by the sudden appearance of a source in Outer Mongolia which will produce something at half price. Look at the people making noise in Canadian business these days. The Reichmanns are into nearly everything now, but their fortune was made in real estate. They were smart to realize that you can't import office buildings from Korea. Robert Campeau made the same astute discovery, as have others we haven't even heard from yet. How else do you explain the fact that the same executive -class house in Toronto costs $200,000 more than it does in London? The Thomsons discovered that you might be able to import cheap news- papers from Thailand or even New York, but people won't buy them because they want local news. Others have finally made the same discovery and newspapers are the dar- lings of big investors. Having already swallowed up most of the daily news- papers, the big investors have been snapping up chains of weeklies. Most of them aren't interested in magazines because they, unlike newspapers, have an unlimited supply. They flood in across the border from the U.S. with stories about the same movie stars, the same ways to lose weight, the same ways to redecorate your living room. Despite talk of more open markets, despite the supposed glories of finding more international customers for our products, the people making money are still the ones who have realized the money isn't in selling more, but in finding ways to control the supply. There's a lesson there for farmers.° Keith Roulston, a newspaper publisher and playwright who lives near Blyth, is the originator and past publisher of The Rural Voice.