The Box

1.  A passage that I found interesting is, "The container is at the core of a highly automated system for moving goods from anywhere, to anywhere, with a minimum of cost and complication on the way." I found this passage interesting because it makes shipping seem so simple. Later on in the reading it mentions that shipments will travel miles and miles without even being opened or tampered with. That makes it so that companies know that their products are sure to get to their proper location with little complications. This process is also done rather quickly. I had never though about how fast a shipment occurs, but I figured it would take a long time. The fact that a container can now be shipped from Malaysia to LA in just 16 days is amazing, not to mention how little that shipment costs. 

2.  The development of the shipping container contributes to globalization by making the cost of shipping so low. these ships are able to hold a huge amount of cargo and some ships only need 20 workers on board. The low cost of shipping made it so that other countries could reasonably ship and receive goods. This allowed businesses to become international. nearly priceless shipping made it easy for manufactures to avoid higher pay costs by being able to move abroad. Computers also help make shipping costs stay low because they are able to determine when containers will be loaded and discharged, and where they are to go. This allows there to be less workers on the dock. Also, these ships have allowed trade to become much faster and efficient. 

3.  Locations with large docks are who will gain from the transformation of global transportation. When this transformation began small docks became inadequate because these shipping boats were just too big for them to take on. Old shipping locations also lost in this transformation because the costs of modernizing the location was too expensive. Small towns close to the docks with lots of space benefit. They have the available space to store the items being shipped to and from the docks. Large industrial complexes also benefit because the cost of shipping is so low.