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>It naturally puts American businesses at a disadvantage. Yes, but it puts American consumers at an advantage! Are there more consumers or businesses? I only

by pravda 7y ago

>It naturally puts American businesses at a disadvantage. Yes, but it puts American consumers at an advantage! Are there more consumers or businesses? I only hope the small Chinese sellers will be able to send their packages thru Malaysia or Vietnam for reasonable rates. I've noticed that some of my eBay purchases of Chinese stuff come via those countries, at least according to the return address on the package.

dragonwriter 7y ago
> Yes, but it puts American consumers at an advantage! Are there more consumers or businesses? Most American consumers are dependent on American businesses (including American subsidiaries of multinationals) for income, whether through labor or capital.
wang_li 7y ago
The actual cost to ship a package isn’t changing. Just who pays. Previously it’s all users of the US postal service, whether they are involved in shipments from China or not. It makes enormous sense to charge the person who is actually benefiting and not everyone.
shkkmo 7y ago
> Yes, but it puts American consumers at an advantage! No, US customers are paying either way. Lower cost shipping from China was paid for by higher cost domestic shipping. AFAIK the USPS is not subsidized by either the American or Chinese governments.
m000 7y ago
> Yes, but it puts American consumers at an advantage! Are there more consumers or businesses? Interesting perspective. I can see a parallel with healthcare insurance: - one big non-profit subsidized provider -> cheap baseline service for the masses, third party providers cover for the niches of the market, third party providers forced to innovate - lack of subsidies/regulation -> expensive baseline service for the masses, essentially the subsidy that gave you cheap service now becomes profit for the third party providers, no need to innovate when you can comfortably get rich by inflating the baseline service prices

by pravda 7y ago

dragonwriter 7y ago

> Yes, but it puts American consumers at an advantage! Are there more consumers or businesses? Most American consumers are dependent on American businesses (including American subsidiaries of multinationals) for income, whether through labor or capital.

wang_li 7y ago

The actual cost to ship a package isn’t changing. Just who pays. Previously it’s all users of the US postal service, whether they are involved in shipments from China or not. It makes enormous sense to charge the person who is actually benefiting and not everyone.

shkkmo 7y ago

> Yes, but it puts American consumers at an advantage! No, US customers are paying either way. Lower cost shipping from China was paid for by higher cost domestic shipping. AFAIK the USPS is not subsidized by either the American or Chinese governments.

m000 7y ago

> Yes, but it puts American consumers at an advantage! Are there more consumers or businesses? Interesting perspective. I can see a parallel with healthcare insurance: - one big non-profit subsidized provider -> cheap baseline service for the masses, third party providers cover for the niches of the market, third party providers forced to innovate - lack of subsidies/regulation -> expensive baseline service for the masses, essentially the subsidy that gave you cheap service now becomes profit for the third party providers, no need to innovate when you can comfortably get rich by inflating the baseline service prices