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USPS loses millions each year on local delivery of mail from abroad (2014)

washingtonpost.com

131–140 of 170 posts

Re: USPS loses millions each year on local delivery of mail from abroad (2014)

#131
post #102
post #5

> All of this is little comfort to McGrath, who chafes at the thought of the Postal Service helping Chinese merchants poach his customers. “All of us sellers are selling a lot of Chinese goods in America but at least we’re creating jobs, making money, and adding to the economy,” he said. “But when people buy direct from China that’s adding nothing to the American economy.” I understand the seller's frustration - thei…

But the core of the argument is that this isn't pure capitalist economics; the government is essentially subsidizing China's ability to compete in America. It'd be one thing if China could make it and ship it for legitimately cheaper, but abusing a treaty loophole in USPS regulations isn't the same. That's an unfair advantage. There's also a second argument at play: If China can make a product for $10 cheaper, legiti…

>> "trust pure capitalism to properly prioritize the values of the American people"

But who decides the values of the American people then? Should the govt's approach be "We know this product was made by kids, so it is banned", or "We are educating you that this product involved child labor, it is upto you to use your values now"?

I think the second approach will cause trivial change, at best.

Re: USPS loses millions each year on local delivery of mail from abroad (2014)

#133
post #2

And the fun thing is that USPS is probably often funded by government debt too. The US economy has been running a trade deficit since the 1980s at least and we went off the gold standard in 1971.

> The Postal Service receives NO tax dollars for operating expenses and relies on the sale of postage, products and services to fund its operations. https://about.usps.com/who-we-are/postal-facts/top-10-things...

Not to mention, they are required to prefund pensions for their employees, something no other entity is required to do. They also are required to take a letter from anywhere in the country, and deliver it to anywhere else in the country, within a couple days, for less than 50 cents.

Re: USPS loses millions each year on local delivery of mail from abroad (2014)

#135
This is another example of WaPo's overly sensational piece. To be fair, USPS loses BILLIONS on retirement funding, reduced mailing due to the dominance of Internet age with emails and other competitions. [1] $79 million in fiscal year 2013 loss due to this type of shipments is a drop in the bucket comparing to the mishaps in operations and reduced volumes at $3B/quarter in 2011.

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Postal_Service#R...

Re: USPS loses millions each year on local delivery of mail from abroad (2014)

#136
post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But the core of the argument is that this isn't pure capitalist economics; the government is essentially subsidizing China's ability to compete in America. It'd be one thing if China could make it and ship it for legitimately cheaper, but abusing a treaty loophole in USPS regulations isn't the same. That's an unfair advantage. There's also a second argument at play: If China can make a product for $10 cheaper, legiti…

>> "trust pure capitalism to properly prioritize the values of the American people" But who decides the values of the American people then? Should the govt's approach be "We know this product was made by kids, so it is banned", or "We are educating you that this product involved child labor, it is upto you to use your values now"? I think the second approach will cause trivial change, at best.

If so, wouldn't the approach be correctly demonstrating that these values are only trivially important?

Vegans and various religious people make different purchasing decisions because of values they actually find important enough to change their lifestyles for.

Re: USPS loses millions each year on local delivery of mail from abroad (2014)

#137
post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As per your second argument, according to the same reasoning no products manufactured using forced prison labour like that of the US prison system should be legally sold.

That's not a great rebuttal, because most of us who would be opposed to the ownership of things created under Chinese prison labor would also be opposed to the ownership of things under American prison labor. (I'd be fine with the American prison labor if they were paid a fair, living wage).

Some would argue that in prison, room and board is provided, so the 30¢/hr is a "living wage".

I don't agree, because there's nothing consensual about the situation...

Re: USPS loses millions each year on local delivery of mail from abroad (2014)

#138
post #2

And the fun thing is that USPS is probably often funded by government debt too. The US economy has been running a trade deficit since the 1980s at least and we went off the gold standard in 1971.

> The Postal Service receives NO tax dollars for operating expenses and relies on the sale of postage, products and services to fund its operations. https://about.usps.com/who-we-are/postal-facts/top-10-things...

> for operating expenses

that raises some eyebrows :P

Why this qualifier? What do they receive tax dollars for?

Re: USPS loses millions each year on local delivery of mail from abroad (2014)

#139
post #60
post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, wouldn't the tradeoff there be time? In the past when I've ordered products from China or Korea, the tradeoff for free or $.99 shipping was that I had to wait two weeks. I do remember some shops had started keeping local warehouses for faster shipping times, so it seems like the foreign sellers are coming at it from both ways; they will ship small parcels that take awhile to arrive, or they'll send locally and…

For your consumer value, sure, but it's still a quirk that you can ship something across the glove cheaper than across states. It's because you only pay China for shipping, not the US that has to deliver it inside the border.

Are there packages for which one could trade cost for time, by shipping from USA to China (or more realistically, Mexico) first and then shipping back?
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