3 ms·
Hum... put yourself back in the 60's. Imagine you're signing a contract that says "I, the Postal Service of the country NNN, will deliver any letter that comes
by woliveirajr 9y ago
Hum... put yourself back in the 60's. Imagine you're signing a contract that says "I, the Postal Service of the country NNN, will deliver any letter that comes from any country to any city that I reach, no matter if it'll cost a 3 hours plane flight to deliver a 1 oz envelope".
Fast forward to 2017, yes, now the agreement seems unfair because the deliver of goods changed a lot. Perhaps should be reviewed. But I wouldn't say it just worked on theory back then, neither will I say that now it is unidirectional in practice (because you still can make it go in any direction).
And the main point isn't just that things made in China are cheaper. It's that China has so much freight going to all parts of the world that putting one container full of envelops with a single button inside doesn't cost a thing, so they win in on how much it costs to take an envelop from a post office inside China and deliver it to a USA / Europe / South America port.
It costs about US 1,900 to take a container from Shangai to New York (source: https://www.searates.com https://www.searates.com ). That is cheap.
- mistermann 9y agoIn your first example, I doubt mail would be delivered to literally any remote location in the country, and only if there was some services delivered there sporadically would mail tag along for the ride. Back then they didn't entertain such ludicrous ideas as we do now. Shipping a container from Shanghai to NY is not the issue, it is that China pays less for shipping along the same route in the US and other western countries. They are paying less than others, on top of the fact that mail is largely unidirectional - so they're kind of cheating twice. If the shoe was on the other foot they'd be on top of it because they have more intelligent leadership than Western nations.