About the economy

Dr. Randy Wysong asked:


We normally do not think that health is related to economics other than with regard to the costs of medical care. But there is another more fundamental way money impacts our wellbeing. If you could not pay your bills or had to worry about where the next meal would come from, would you be thinking about health, or survival? When we are trying to stay alive moment-to-moment we don’t think about food choices, supplements, organic farming, animal welfare or environmental issues. Those considerations are a “luxury” dependent upon economic capability. But they are a luxury we must have if we are to live a reflective life and survive on planet Earth. Without a robust economy, you can pretty much forget about people being environmental, health conscious, or even civil to one another. In starving nations, war is endemic, disease rampant and the environment is only a raw material to be ravaged to hopefully live to the next day.

The emerging world economy will ultimately place great economic stress on the United States. It already has. Thousands of jobs are being lost to overseas companies employing workers requiring a fraction of the wages demanded here. People in America increasingly try to maintain a standard of living through debt. This is great for all the banks popping up on almost every street corner, but bad for the people. Just in the past year there have been almost two million personal bankruptcies declared.

To compete in the marketplace, companies must keep their costs down. If that means shifting manufacturing elsewhere, that’s what will be done. India, China and other Eastern rim countries are the beneficiaries of this shift in manufacturing and labor pool. While American workers are clamoring for things to return to the way they were with high wages and generous benefits, workers in developing countries are happy as can be having a job for five dollars a day.

This trend will not go away with “buy American” banners or political rhetoric about treaties, minimum wages and outsourcing. The global economy is here to stay and that will mean the American standard of living will retract and the developing world’s will improve. Expect a decline in the standard of living, falling wages and investment insecurity.

Government is not the solution, since it produces nothing but only takes. Government saps an economy, it does not create it. The more that government is hands off, the better the economic vitality. A robust private sector economy (environmentally responsible), on the other hand, is not the enemy as it is so often portrayed, but is critical to financial vitality. Capitalism is not in itself a demon since it merely provides the mechanism for prosperity and with that the opportunity for a society to focus on matters of health and altruism. It works well if ambition and hard work, not merely greed, are its tools.

The inevitable decline of our standard of living is an inevitable and irreversible trend for the foreseeable future. It should concern us not because we want to see American super abundance continue, but because those who are unaware and get caught as casualties in this economic downturn will suffer in so many ways. The world is no longer business as usual.

Good health is not just about diets, supplements, organic foods and aerobics. It’s also about being safe, like driving carefully, not standing on the top of a stepladder, wearing safety glasses when chipping stone…and working hard, keeping our financial house in order and supporting societal choices that do the same.

Life is not surety, and neither is our economy. Nevertheless, hard work and prudent management will never be replaced and is as close to security as we can ever get. It, not entitlements and guarantees, is what ultimately creates the financial footing we need for good health and a sustainable, better and more peaceful world.

For further reading, or for more information about, Dr Wysong and the Wysong Corporation please visit www.wysong.net or write to wysong@wysong.net. For resources on healthier foods for people including snacks, and breakfast cereals please visit www.cerealwysong.com.

Brenda

Stephen Harvey Jr. asked:



Outsourcing or off sourcing is a new trend among companies that operate and facilitate operations out of the United States. These companies use outsourcing as a way to cut costs and use cheaper labor by subcontracting to foreign companies or setting up offices in foreign countries. This takes away much needed jobs from the American economy. The decision to outsource is often made in the interest of lowering firm costs, redirecting or conserving energy directed at the competencies of a particular business, or to make more efficient use of labor, capital, technology and resources.  . Business segments typically outsourced include information technology, human resources, facilities and real estate management, and accounting. Many companies also outsource customer support and call center functions like telemarketing, customer services, market research, manufacturing and engineering.
 
Outsourcing is not the only way that companies cut costs though. The other way that these companies shift jobs away is by becoming offshore companies. Offshore Outsourcing is when a company takes its business to another country and sets up operations outside its main office. The companies choose to move certain aspects of their business to developing countries where wages and labor are cheaper.  Many of these Outsourced and offshore jobs go to young people in those developing countries who look for placement in their country’s job sector. For Example, Dell Computers is based, owned and operated in the U.S but will choose to outsource jobs and create offshore jobs in its customer service and call center departments. This allows Dell to get more “bank for their buck” by eliminating the wage restrictions of the U.S and hiring cheaper labor.  This move cuts costs to the company while still addressing the needs of the consumer.
 
As the outsourcing and offshore job practices are becoming more common among these large corporations and conglomerates that reside in the United States, the United States economy is suffering and beginning to feel the effect behind the corporations’ cost cutting maneuvers. Instead of those same jobs being offered to the American public, they are quickly shifted to a developing country in need of a new job market. Places such as India and England are now benefiting from these corporations’ decisions to move elsewhere in search of cheaper labor. 
On the other hand, it is a common rule of business to attempt to keep costs at a minimum and all the while to raise capital. It allows for the company to grow at a more rapid rate.   When companies keep labor costs down, they are able to use the additional resources in the operating budget.
Offshore jobs and outsourcing can also be detrimental to the economy that gets involved with such practices because the outsourcing can be in flux unless kept to a strict contract or agreement. Moreover, a company can decide to move to another developing country at any time and set up business and resources for even cheaper labor and training.
 
Off-shoring is not popular among the private sector because it takes jobs away from the American People.  While Americans fight to maintain and keep jobs, it is also up to the Government to make sure that these companies don’t take their business elsewhere in search of cheaper labor and lighter labor regulations. Many business people might dispute this but I believe that the government must regulate these companies in order for our economy to thrive. If the government doesn’t determine fair labor practices than companies would be able to set any standard they want for their employees.  It all revolves back into the economy which allows for more jobs to be created instead of being placed elsewhere.  It is the job of the Government to make sure the economy is steady for the livelihood of the country. If there is no governing board or regulations to oversee company’s business practices then there would be no success in the economy. Every company would possibly be monopolies and set standards way above and or below means. The companies that base operations out of off-shore locations do not worry about labor regulation or practices. This allows the companies to overlook the integrity and policies of the company in favor of profits. For Example, the Great Depression that plagued the United States during the latter part of the 1920’s and early 1930’s was brought along by the reckless judgment of companies and investors.  Companies were allowing money to be poured into stocks of companies and precious metals. Then, when companies pulled their interest in those stocks and precious metals the stock market crashed causing consumers and companies to lose vast amounts of money.   The government had to step in and make sure that this never happened to the American economy. The government setup regulatory institutions such as the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC act of 1934) to make sure the public interest were protected.
 
Is the outsourcing of jobs the cause to blame for our slow economy? You cannot say for sure but it has something to do with it. When there are fewer jobs for the American people, there is less money being spent on goods, services, and items that fuel the American economy.  These multinational corporations also impact the offshore locations where they set up operations. Companies such as Dell and Microsoft use off shoring and outsourcing to cut the costs but they pump money back into those countries allowing the countries’ people to spend the money they earn on the products and services the companies provide. Outsourcing and off-shoring can be a way of companies and corporations’ to expand their capital and revenue.  If done correctly, outsourcing can be a benefit.  However, Outsourcing especially to other countries can hurt the American economy and the American people.
This year is a pivotal year to the livelihood of a World Power and Economic Power, which is the United States. There has been a lull over the economy for the last eight years with the Nation’s overwhelming aptitude for taking on debts as result of funding downtrodden wars. The year 2008 marks a race for a new face in the oval office. With this being an election year, there are two candidates vying for the position: Barack Obama (democrat) and John McCain (republican). These two opponents are ready to tackle the nation’s economic problems head on, albeit in different ways. Obama feels that we should rebuild the nation from the ground up, meaning from infrastructure (highways, roads, airports etc.) to the oval office. Obama has already put his plans in motion by introducing the Patriot Employer Act of 2007 to provide a tax credit to companies that maintain or increase the number of full-time workers in America relative to those outside the US; maintain their corporate headquarters in America; pay decent wages; prepare workers for retirement; provide health insurance; and support employees who serve in the military. (Barack Obama)
Obama’s competitor John McCain has a similar plan in place. According to JohnMcCain.com, “John McCain Will Reduce The Federal Corporate Tax Rate To 25 Percent From 35 Percent. John McCain believes the taxes we impose on American companies should be no higher than the average rate our major trading partners impose on theirs. We currently have the second-highest combined corporate-tax rate in the industrialized world, and it is driving many businesses and the jobs they create overseas.” (JohnMcCain)
This is what little each candidate has to offer regarding the outsourcing of jobs and a plan to prevent the American economy and worker to succumbing jobs to outsourcing. I’m sure there will be more said and more developments as we get closer to Election Day. Hopefully, either candidate can turn the outsourcing trend around while creating more jobs for the American people.
 

 

Lucille

Dalip Singh Wasan asked:


Some thing wrong with the economy

Dalip Singh Wasan, Advocate.

There is something wrong with the Indian economy. We started with a hope that we shall be establishing Rm Rajaya in this country. We never tried to define Ram Rajays, but people of India had got a belief in their mind that during the times of Rama there was good administration, the wealth of the people was going to the people who were establishing all this wealth and powerful people were not having an upper hand. But the man who assured us for the establishment of Ram Rajaya was not allowed to remain here for some years to establish such a Raj or rule. He was finished and the people who took over the charge of this country were not committed to establish Ram Rajaya in this country. Some of them were even not believing in the existence of Rama and were considering it a mythology and nothing more. So they started ruling as per their own conviction. They adopted the path of enriching a few and they had been successful and whatever methods they had been utilizing update they had been enriching the rich and turning the poor more poor. They had been successful and that had been the reason the people who were poor during time of slavery are still illiterate, poor, unemployed, houseless, living in mud houses, in huts or are lying in open sky. They are beggars, they are starving, they are ill and weak, they are not getting proper diet or treatment. We are surprised to note that they are the people who cast votes and they elect the people who rule this country and it is also strange that these elected people through the votes of the poor never care fort the voters who elected them. They start serving the rich and the powerful and help them to exploit the situation and position of the poor. all these people in power and all these people who are rich want that the poor should remain poor so that they could be in a position to have a large force to serve them and be at their door begging.

When the people in power say that they shall be having 8 per cent or 10 per cent growth, the poor laugh over their statement and pronouncement. They had been listening such pronouncements since 1951-52. They have turned deaf and dumb. They do not believe in such pronouncements because during all these years the problems of the poor remained the same and there seem nothing to them which shall enable them to come out of poverty. Therefore, time has come when fine people should not tell such lies. They must tell the people what steps shall be taken to root out poverty and unemployment. What steps are there when the people shall be having two time meals and would not starving. What steps they shall take rooting out corruption, dalali, bribe and scams. The people what to know that steps shall be there with which the people begging on the streets shall be at work and shall be earning their own two time meals. They have not told to us what steps they shall take with which each child shall be in a school and shall be having proper education. They are not telling us the methods with which they shall be rooting out unemployment from this country. They are not telling us what steps shall be there with which they shall stop and ban opium eating, drinking, drug addiction and what steps they shall take to ensure that there shall be no terrorism and rioting. What steps shall be there with which they shall create a nation and the people shall not remain divided as had been during the time of imperialism. It is very sad to note that the people in power still are following the same old policy of the imperialists and they are keeping the people divided on the basis of religions, castes, colour, creed or the like. These methods shall not work and one day these methods shall eat the rulers because these methods are like ‘in’ which ultimately eats the master and digest it.

Our economy should be based on such terms and conditions that the man who creates the wealth in this country must get its due share. We have noted that all these poor people had been deprived of this share and our own people had been depriving of these shares to the poor people during the last six decades. We must establish a sound and honest system under which none should be discriminated. The present economic system is raising the position of the rich and reducing the status of the poor. This is not true economy and when we see that people expert in economy are ruling us, we sorry to see all these situations. The poor must get his share and therefore, they must start from the poor people. These items like guaranteed employment for some days in the year are not the right course. The position of the poor shall not change. People have started saying that there is something wrong with the people who are expert in economy and they are not trying to understand the situations prevailing in this country. They are not helping the poor and they are with the rich and the powerful and therefore, they too are conniving with them.

————————-

Ronnie

David Smith asked:


If you own a powerful car and you drive enthusiastically, you’re probably not going to be blessed with marvellous fuel economy. However, there are various steps you can make to lower the amount of gas you use on any journey without driving like a miser. This article only majors on the most effective methods of reducing fuel consumption, if you need more tips please do a search on Google – there is a plethora of information out there…

Keep your car well maintained

Following the correct service intervals will keep your car running efficiently. New air filters will allow the free flow of air necessary for efficient fuel combustion, clean fuel filters provide a steady stream of petrol to the cylinders, and shiny new spark plugs will provide the spark needed to set the whole thing off. A thing of beauty! They key here is the efficient burn of the fuel air mix, which will allow more power to be extracted from a set volume of fuel. A new air filter alone could increase fuel consumption up to 10%.

Tyres

Underinflated tyres need more energy to roll. Keeping the pressures at the correct level can increase economy by up to 3.5%. Specialist fuel saving tyres are also available, although these may not perform so well on the track! Properly inflated tyres are also key to providing optimum levels of grip, so it’s worth checking periodically.

Gears

Using higher gears won’t give you lightning acceleration but will save fuel. Keeping your revs low (but not so low that your engine starts to struggle) is a good habit to get into when cruising. If you have a “Sport Mode” on your auto transmission, turn this off, as this will hang onto low gears for longer and may even prevent changing to the highest cog.

Accelerate hard to save fuel?!

A British automotive engineering consultancy claims to have unearthed proof that putting your foot down hard on the accelerator can actually be more fuel efficient than driving more conservatively.

“It sounds totally counter-intuitive — and it is,” admits Cousins. The key to saving fuel, he says, is to accelerate hard until the engine reaches 2000 rpm, move up a gear, then put your foot down until you reach 2000rpm again. It’s all to do with internal friction. “Put simply, with your right foot down on the accelerator, the engine is working at its most efficient,” says Cousins. Above 2000rpm the benefits diminish and you start using more fuel, not less.

Here’s the really interesting thing: in tests carried out in a Citroën C1, one of the most fuel-efficient cars, Cousins’s driving technique proved 8.5% more efficient than the “eco-safe driving” style promoted by the Department for Transport (http://www.dsa.gov.uk — search for eco-safe). The government’s official driving method — taught to all UK learner drivers and now included in the driving test — encourages drivers to save fuel by using the accelerator pedal only lightly.

Source: http://driving.timesonline.co.uk/

Dr Steve Cousins should know what he’s talking about – he was project leader for the Axon Automotive Caterham 2R which achieved 131 miles per gallon in UK Shell Eco-marathon, and is one of the world’s top researchers into fuel economy.

Accelerate gently to save fuel

Although there may be evidence that accelerating hard to 2000rpm could save you fuel, accelerating to the red line in every gear will certainly not. In general, try to keep a constant speed where possible by judging potential reasons to slow down in the road ahead and react to them, avoiding rapid changes in momentum. If you’re slowing down and accelerating the whole time, fuel bills will go through the roof.

Speed

The faster you go, the harder it is to propel your vehicle through the air. This means that a small decrease in cruising speed could provide fuel economy benefits. The UK’s Department of Environment claims that every 5 mph you drive over 65 mph will provide a 7% decrease in fuel economy.

Incidentally if you believe these figures, at 130 mph on the autobahns of Germany, you’ll be using 91% more fuel than at 65mph. At 150, you’ll actually be getting negative miles per gallon, and you’ll arrive at your destination younger than when you started!

For more driving tips, please visit DrivingFast.net

Tiffany

Klaus H Hemsath asked:


World economies are facing a triple threat. Oil reserves will be close to depletion by the year 2050. Damages from climate changes caused by escalating greenhouse gas emissions will become substantial. Rising transportation and food costs will slow economic growth rates. The results will lead to worldwide economic stagnation without hope for escape or reversal.

Future generations will have to pay dearly for the failure of previous national governments to eliminate carbon dioxide emissions and to change world energy supplies. Our dependence on fossil fuels must be terminated completely within the next three to four decades or the world will self-destruct.

Let’s us look at the facts that lead to these frightening conclusions.

Statements about petroleum reserves have been dubious in the past. In 2007, lowest figures are in the range of 1 to 1.3 trillion barrels. A figure as high as 2.3 trillion barrels has been proposed but will not find many supporters, not even in the oil industry.

At the 2006 rate of oil consumption of 31 billion barrels per year, these reserves could last 32 to 74 years. Such figures are often quoted but are much too high because annual oil consumption is continually rising. The growth rate is approximately 2% per year. Projecting steady growth to the year 2050, the actual consumption is going to be 60% higher. This increases the average annual consumption rate between 2006 and 2050 to a very realistic 50 billion barrels per year. Time to depletion is reduced to a time span of 20 years to 46 years. Most likely, neither figure is correct. However, it is reasonable to assume that a figure between 20 years and 46 years will be most likely.

Combusting 1 to 2.3 trillion barrels of oil will add a huge amount of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. The amount is 0.42 to 1 trillion tons of carbon dioxide. This huge mass will increase the carbon dioxide content in the atmosphere by 55 to 125 ppm. Only a small percentage of this additional mass will be absorbed in the oceans. Most of it will lead to a substantial increase in the atmosphere’s carbon dioxide content.

During the same time, an even larger amount of carbon dioxide will be added to the atmosphere from the accelerating burning of coal and natural gas.

There is a direct connection between carbon dioxide accumulation and global temperature increase. During the last 30 years, this correlation amounted to approximately 2 degree C per 100 ppm carbon dioxide. If we accept this correlation as valid, we are faced with some very ugly numbers. During the next 46 years, we will increase the atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration by at least 200 ppm. In turn, this increase will result in a rise of global temperatures by 4 degree C. This means that by the year 2050, the world will have warmed by 5 degree C! This figure is more realistic than recent IPCC forecasts.

The robust growth of world economies and the exceptionally fast increase in energy consumption in China and India will result in much higher energy consumption and in a much faster growth of greenhouse gases than originally predicted. Two other accelerating factors are the failure of the Kyoto Protocol to perceptibly reduce greenhouse gas emissions and the decision of the USA to delay any countermeasures.

In view of actual, past developments and by accepting a realistic future outlook, we must draw several, inescapable conclusions. The increase of global temperatures on Earth will become faster, transportation of commodities and goods will get extremely costly, and the effects of global warming on climate change will continue to become more numerous and more destructive. This confluence of future developments will lead inescapably to a major threat to all world economies.

Once world economies begin to contract and collapse, national economies cannot marshal any longer the necessary resources that could have saved the world. Installation of effective countermeasures will require a minimum time of thirty years. Once economies contract, there will be no resources and no time left to implement solutions.

The world will have lost the ability to install any of the promising, renewable technologies, which are able to produce electricity and liquid transportation fuels without the emission of any destructive greenhouse gases. The world as we know it will cease to exist.

Gregory

Kyle M asked:


I’ve always heard that a certain amount of unemployment is necessary for a stable economy. Why? If everyone was employed we’d all have money to spend, social services would not be needed thus lowering our taxes, and companies would have a steady stream of business thus not laying off extra staff. Also due to competition prices would most likely go down and the value of the dollar would go up. So why is it necessary to have unemployed people?

Brenda

duy_bao91 asked:


I know the economy had to obviously go down but how much did it go down? Please give good answers. Dont just say it went down.

Sara

Vikram S asked:


Hey I was trying to figure this out. Why is the effect larger in the closed economy and small in the open economy where international trade is allowed. Can anyone help?

Ray

Jay Jacobson asked:


Now What?
Well it’s here, the economy is finally teetering back and forth on the edge of a recession, some months show growth (even minimally) while other month’s reveal a very disheartening down-turn. So what is a cleaning company to do? Do you start to down-size, begin laying off, etc.
THE PURGE!
Well for sure it is a time to purge your employee base, keep the good ones, the respectful ones, the “do as they’re told and follow directions” ones , the efficient ones, those that “go the extra mile” “without being told to do so ones”. Then get rid of the rest! These are the ones that have been difficult to deal with, disrupt the flow of authority, don’t follow instructions, have skipped clients, have stayed longer than prescribed on a particular job site without authorization, etc.
Use the down-turn to refine and then grow your employee base and terminate the rest. You should have an unending pool from which to draw. This is the first and or simultaneous step to growing your business in a down-turn. I don’t mean to bore you with the detail of this facet of growth, but I’ve always viewed current economic conditions as a second chance to restructure for growth.
ADVERTISE, ADVERTISE AND ADVERTISE!
As you can tell I’m big on advertising and a normal schedule of advertising, keeping your name and your services in front of your potential clients on a regular and consistent basis is paramount to survival and growth.
DIRECT MAIL - THE BEST WAY!
Start with you very next mailing by raising the annual income levels of those you want to service. If you’ve been accustomed to servicing say 60k to 80k annual household income (HHI), refine it to say individual annual income. Why? Well in the residential cleaning business, your lower income levels tend to be or become very erratic as their finances become tighter and tighter, as the economy gets slower and slower. Until one day they finally come off your schedule after devastating your income over the time you’ve kept them on your schedule with their sporadic servicing. If it starts to happen, read it for what it is, whether due to a loss of a job, a reduction of disposable income, net worth, etc., these types are going, going and will soon be gone!
DON’T FIGHT THE INEVITABLE
So, don’t wait and get caught up in the inevitable fact that you’re going to lose these lower income level clients, because they can’t afford you any longer and their sporadic scheduling is wreaking havoc to your bottom line. You need to move very quickly and get away from this income base client.
As soon as you get wind of an economic down-turn, begin to see layoffs, closures and commercial vacancies around your town, then IMMEDIATELLY begin planning a more aggressive marketing strategy! Raise the “income bar”, the annual “individual” income levels of those you want to service - those that ideally have the want, need and finances to order and pay for your services. Typically, these are the $100K - $150K individual annual income earners who obviously have the money to even entertain calling for and or ordering your services.
DONT’ SHOOT GUN IT…!
You’ve worked hard for the money so don’t give in to fancy gimmicks or marketing media ploys to have you spend your advertising dollars on those radio or TV ads, unless you’ve gotten the business you want and are at a annual earnings level and are now just trying to build “name recognition” for you company! Doing so prematurely, will break your budget and bankrupt your company.
NEVER PUT ALL YOUR EGSS IN ONE BASKET
A marketing plan that includes a direct mailing to say 30K targeted individuals, and then simultaneously followed up with a two week radio ad campaign FOR NAME RECOGNITION ONLY, might be a good plan and may very well have a profitable end to it. But, don’t bank on it. You don’t know and the radio station won’t guarantee results. For instance, a radio station in Nevada has a 50,000 watt reach, it is heard as far away as California, but we don’t service California or any of the other 13 states that would be reached by our advertisement. Yet, they make up the statistics the radio station will use to sell you on the idea. Oh, you’ll know how many persons in the listening area will hear your ad, but you won’t know how many will call and you won’t know how many listeners are “actually” in your “target” market! Typically, you should expect no less then a 1% response to your advertising, radio typically returns less then 1/4 of 1% of their listening audience and many of those will be absolute “tire kickers” and “time wasters”. So, lets say they have 100,000 listeners that hear your ad over the time it has run, that means you’ll get a whopping 25 phone calls, i.e., responses to your ad and with a close ratio of 33%, which is normal, you’ll have booked 8 new clients and not all of those will book regular service.
Oh, we are sure you’ll get business from it, but ask yourself; “what kind of business” will it be? Most radio shoppers are “impulse” buyers and, in our opinion, are not the “lasting clients” we are looking. Yes, they will order your service, they may even get on your “regular” schedule, but they have consistantly fallen below our expectations. So, we only use the radio to infuse short term capital into the company coffers and continue to highly target our core client base.
PUTTING THE PIECES IN PLACE
First things first, know what you want and want you want to say, design it or at least sketch it out, you need to find a reliable, reputable (not a fly-by-night-er) mail house and printer. Many of these are and can be one in the same.
Many of them can find your list, meeting all your chosen criteria for the best ROI you can hope for in a mailing.
Make sure you use lots of colors in your piece, people react well to color, it’s a real attention getter and that is exactly what you want to “GET THEIR ATTENTION”. Your ad copy should be straight forward and concise, no surprises, “no bait-n-switch” tactics, you’ll lose the prospect forever if you try that nonsense - it’s not fair, it’s unethical and most of all it doesn’t work. Remember the old adage, each person you speak to and or service will tell at the very least eleven [11] other people about you, whether it be satisfactory or unsatisfactory the word is going to get out about you.
 

Use a highly targeted list

Use a reputable and reliable mail house

Use Color, lots of color

Use good, clear and concise ad copy

No bait-n-switch tactics

Be consistent - Plan your campaign and follow your Plan!

 
“When the going gets tough, the tough (survivors), get going” as the vast majority of small business owners suffer their ignorance, like deer caught gazing into the headlights of an oncoming truck - imminent death, you can be racking up new, worthwhile business while your competitors poorly chosen client base dwindles and disappears.
 
 

Micheal

Elena Maria DB Orsos asked:


In engineery terms, fuel efficiency means the thermal capacity of converting the energy contained in the fuel to kinetic energy, or work, needed to move your car. For a vehicle, fuel efficiency means the output one gets for a unit amount of fuel input, such as “miles per gallon” or “litters per 100 kilometers”. For you, fuel efficiency simply means less fuel wasted and more money in your pocket.

The automotive industry believed that by maintaining the air/fuel ratio of 14.7:1 by electronic means, like electronic fuel injection and electronic ignition systems, they had already achieved the best combustion process that assures the best fuel economy.

Unfortunately this is not always true because is not sufficiently known, but there are a lot of very ordinary daily driving situations that makes than the engine operates steady at low speeds, creating less temperature in the combustion chamber. It makes that the stock spark plugs results operating too cold, which affects the combustion process, because the low temperature do not allows to burn completely the air/fuel mixture in the combustion chamber.

Unburned fuel is wasted fuel and you paid for it. Wasted fuel is wasted money.

These very common driving or traffic conditions are:

• Steady city driving, where prolonged idling or short distances and stop-and-go driving prevails.

• Extended low speed driving, or short distance driving or even in the freeway driving where the automatic transmission maintains the engine under 3000 RPM.

• Low speed cruising.

• At high elevations, above 3000 ft.

• Weather conditions, where the humidity rises.

• Moreover, these conditions may combine in endless ways.

And believe it or not, this situation is not the exception, in fact is almost the rule for more than the 75% of the cars worldwide. You can confirm it simply by seen the exits of the exhaust tips in any parking zone and in anywhere around you. Most of them are covered with dry black soot produced by the unburned fuel. And this is not due to an incorrect air/fuel mixture adjustment in the carburetor or the fuel injection system; even this occurs in a well maintained vehicle which just passed the smog test satisfactorily.

This is because the stock spark plugs are being too cold for those operating conditions, consequently are no longer adequate and must be substituted by spark plugs with a different and hotter heat range.

Why occurs it? because the heat range of the original stock spark plug was defined by the manufacturers at their laboratories, based on differents and teorical speeds, and trips, that supposedly should be done by the potential target market who conceptually will buy a gived model and type of vehicle. But in the real life, not all the people have the same driving habits nor lives in the same geographical and under the same weather conditions, or drives in the same traffic conditions neither gives the same maintenance to their vehicles.

Do you still have doubts? Think just a minute that the traffic between a big city like LA is very different from a smaller city and from a town. A teenager drives different from his mother and she drives different to her husband, whom drives different to his neighbour whom tows a trailer. Additionally from Alaska to Dubai, there are hundreds of different weathers, altitudes, and humidities; and there are many different fuel brands and qualities, among other different conditions.

So it is absolutely necessary to refining and tailoring the selection of the spark plugs for matching the real operating conditions of the engine to each individual driving habits and or each particular operating conditions.

As you can see, it is more likely that you are having Heat Range problems that are affecting your mileage, even if you didn’t know they existed, and you are wasting more in fuel than neccesary.

To achieve the best fuel economy in these extremely frequent but seldom considered driving conditions, you must install different and hotter spark plugs than the original stock, suggested by the manufacturers in their application catalogs in order to achieve the right combustion chamber temperature that ensures the perfect combustion process.

But to define which exactly is the sparkplug, whose heat range results being the best adequate for your engine, is a risky puzzle and not an easy task.

Nevertheless, only by tailoring the selection of the park plug’s heat range, customizing it to your particular conditions, you will achieve your engine’s top efficiency, thus guaranteeing the best fuel economy, whit the best performance, power, reliability and low emissions.

Hard to believe?

You don´t have to take my words. Spark plug manufacturers have never failed to explicitly acknowledge that:

“A hotter spark plug may be better for prolonged idling or city type stop and go traffic”.

AC DELCO Spark Plugs

“A hotter plug is better for prolonged idling and city travel”.

BOSCH Spark Plugs

“Use spark plugs with a hotter heat range for steady city driving”.

SPLITFIRE Spark Plugs

“For short distances and stop-and-go driving a hotter plug is better”.

DENSO Spark Plugs

“The spark plug heat range should remain the same unless also at high elevations, (above 3000 ft ), in which changing to a hotter plug may be necessary”.

CHAMPION Spark Plugs.

“This is reflected in the increased importance assigned to precisely adapting the spark plug to engine. Customized solutions are the order of the day”.

BOSCH Sparkplugs

Keith