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What about American innovation that relies on certain parts from China, such as the entire electronic industry which we operate in?
by fzeroracer 8y ago
What about American innovation that relies on certain parts from China, such as the entire electronic industry which we operate in?
- nostromo 8y agoThey should pay the cost of shipping their parts from China to the US without a subsidy from the US taxpayer.
- keithnoizu 8y agoseems like this will backfire if we ever want to access the emerging Chinese consumer market.
- gruez 8y agoI find it sad how the US will be "punished" for righting a wrong, because Chinese has gotten so used to the status quo of "wrong".
- mistermann 8y agoThis has been a big part of the motivational story all along, but what would we sell to the Chinese, and how does that compare to what they sell to us (with or without unfairly subsidized shipping)?
- turtlecloud 8y agoChinese will not want to buy foreign stuff. If looking at history, the British had to force opium down the Chinese in order to get them to trade tea. The main exception is in luxury products like Gucci bags, iPhones and LV.
- fzeroracer 8y agoOf course you realize that this change will likely disproportionately affect the poor and middle-class (who will see a sharp rise in shipping costs) as well as smaller businesses who rely on thin margins to survive. The cost of $300 million per year as quoted in the article seems like peanuts compared to some of the other actions this administration has burdened tax payers with.
- nostromo 8y agoIf you want to help poor people, subsidizing imports from China is a stupid way of going about it.
- fzeroracer 8y agoGenerally speaking, continuing to kick the crutches out from under the lower classes is a bad idea especially when there are no better solutions being implemented. You need to keep in mind that the postal treaty wasn't JUST for China either, almost every single nation was part of the postal treaty. Withdrawing from this treaty would likely result in increased postage for all international shipments.
- datavirtue 8y agoStopping the externalization of costs will help everyone but is rarely popular since the immediate impact is felt by certain parties.
- neltnerb 8y agoLuckily there is a very easy way for people to avoid paying for shipping... although maybe things have changed since I was young. Shop at local stores if shipping costs make buying by mail too expensive. Like it was forever prior to Amazon. Prior to 2005 it was consistently less expensive to shop at the local CVS, book store, or radio shack than to order online. If my business model requires public subsidies for shipping my goods to turn a profit, my business model is garbage since 100% of my profits are literally taxpayer funded. Maybe small quantity mail order batteries from China isn't actually a reasonable thing to have and it maybe actually costs less to buy batteries in giant crates and have them available in local stores. I might even say that this is obviously the case (for the battery example). Plus you build the local economy rather than subsidizing it's obliteration.
- crysin 8y agoThe only thing I do want to bring up about shopping locally, for electronic components specifically, is that stores like Radioshack are essentially extinct, at least where I am in the Midwest. There are no local electronic stores of any variation except for Best Buy.
- hef19898 8y agoThe treaty is covering parcels up to 2 kg if I read the article correctly. Industrial scale shipments are in the order of 13 tons upwards to get full container loads. These rates are admittedly dirt cheap. But this is due to over-capacities and not some parcel shipments. I would assume certain online retailers stand to profit for that discision regarding customer order from China.
- datavirtue 8y agoThis is going to put the brakes on crappy drop shippers. Good riddance.
- patrickg_zill 8y agoUntil about 1998 I think, a lot of motherboards were made and populated in the US. I remember taking apart an old Cisco switch that had "Made in USA" silkscreened on the motherboard.
- datavirtue 8y agoYep. All of my first computers were made in the USA. Astounding quality.
- OldJackHinson 8y agoIf I understand correctly, this applies to packages less than four pounds.