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I think there is something to be said about how we take "free 2-day shipping" for granted these days. Transporting something across the country should cost mone
by stetrain 3y ago
I think there is something to be said about how we take "free 2-day shipping" for granted these days. Transporting something across the country should cost money compared to buying something already local to you, or even better made or grown near you.
I haven't done the math myself, but I suspect we are all subsidizing interstate trucking (and perhaps air freight) compared to its actual infrastructure and emissions costs. This does lower prices of many essential goods, but also tilts things in favor of large corporations who can ship things cheaply all over the country (ie Walmart, Amazon).
- ghaff 3y agoAlthough subsidies at a country level are... complicated. In general, I suspect that if most of us went back in time 25-30 years we'd be pretty shocked about just how much friction there was to everything. It's not a linear or absolute improvement--and some of the downsides are significant. (Cities you often wouldn't have wanted to live in back then are really expensive today.) But you also spent a lot of time and effort doing things that are essentially effortless today.
- SoftTalker 3y agoYou did, but at the time it was just how things worked and it didn't seem difficult or burdensome. Certain things or services were simpler, because it was impractical for them to be more complicated or customized.
- SoftTalker 3y agoIt's likely that one Amazon or UPS truck delivering 100 orders a day is better than 100 people driving to the store separately. It's hard to say though, because most people are driving to work or grocery shopping, etc. anyway and all they are really saving is one or two detours for things they don't need immediately, or wouldn't be buying at all if it weren't so convenient.