Second, I don't know if you meant your comment on the "middleman" to be pejorative or not. But the traders, the distributors, the marketeers, the transportation, the Internet that gives more visibility to smaller and foreign producers, etc. etc. etc. are critical to these products arriving in the US and Europe. They are not production costs, but there are lots of real costs in there. True in the beginning there may be some nice profit margins, but soon other suppliers and other channels of distribution start competing, and prices and margins fall.
I also make a point about the effect that adding a layer of intermediaries has on the GDP. guaranteed to evoke a violent reaction from police is to challenge their right to "define the situation." --- David Graeber citing Marc Cooper
