High speed communications and transportation combined with eased trade restrictions is producing an economy without borders. The Internet and containerized cargo, both sea and air have changed the world dramatically.

Eventually this will equalize prosperity around the world, but for the time being transportation is so fast and cheap and communication so easy it makes sense to get stuff done where the cost is lowest.

The big zinger in here is, of course, pollution. One of the major differences in costs is pollution controls. Once those get more equalized, and it will, you'll see less long distance transportation of goods.

Worse than your orange juice, how come bottled sparkling water in glass from half way around the world costs no more, often less, than local sparkling water in plastic?

Do American springs work at union scale or something? Realistically, with fizzy water you're really selling packaging and transportation not water. So how come I'm buying Gerolsteiner for $0.89/liter in glass bottles all they way from Krautland where the wages are high, with an unfavorable exchange rate and transportation half way around the world - and local water in plastic bottles costs as much?

Of course I'm buying that from a small chain, not the big supers. With their "economies of scale" they're selling it for nearly a dollar a bottle more.

So how come a bottle of Heinz apple cider vinegar (the real one) costs $3 at the supermarkets and $2 at a one store multi-ethnic grocery? It's been that way for years. Just about everything is way cheaper in the single stores and small chains.

I think that with today's communication and transportation systems "economies of scale" are strongly negative in many areas of commerce. All "economies of scale" gets you is a huge amount of expensive infrastructure, overhead and an inefficient distribution systems.