No More Cheap Shipping for Chinese Sellers • Hacker News Board

Re: No More Cheap Shipping for Chinese Sellers

#31

Post by Consultant32452 » Tue, Aug 27, 2019, 3:33 PM UTC

ikeboy wrote: post #16

magduf wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Huh? I'm not sure what this has to do with taxes or government spending. The USPS doesn't get tax money; it's financed by its customers, like any other business, it just happens to be wholly owned by the federal government. Postal rates are high because they're forced by the UPU agreement to deliver Chinese mail for almost nothing, so they pass the costs on to US customers.

This is incorrect. There's no mechanism by which cheaper prices for UPU mail translates into higher prices for US customers. If they had pricing power they'd raise prices regardless of fixed losses elsewhere.

The USPS has to ask permission from regulators to raise prices, unlike their more private counterparts.

Re: No More Cheap Shipping for Chinese Sellers

#32

Post by entropea » Tue, Aug 27, 2019, 3:33 PM UTC

jplayer01 wrote: post #24

aantix wrote: post #11

What would be the concession from the Chinese? Or do they up the ante and impose more tariffs on incoming U.S. goods? Is this something that the Hacker News community actually supports Trump on? More curious than anything - you just don't see a lot of support for any of his initiatives here. ? Why all the downvotes?

> What would be the concession from the Chinese? What concession? It's a clear market distortion that shipping rates across such distances are so ridiculously low. I'm not sure why anybody is supporting them. This isn't about Trump or not Trump, and always putting these issues in these terms is incredibly distracting from what's actually important. (And I say this as somebody who absolutely despises Trump.)

>What concession? It's a clear market distortion that shipping rates across such distances are so ridiculously low. I'm not sure why anybody is supporting them.

Come on, everyone supports ridiculously low costs on anything.

Re: No More Cheap Shipping for Chinese Sellers

#33

Post by decoyworker » Tue, Aug 27, 2019, 3:34 PM UTC

zip1234 wrote: post #18

decoyworker wrote: post #8

Good. It should not be cheaper to ship across the Pacific ocean than ship domestically.

Bad for the environment as well for trans-pacific shipping to be cheaper

I've even fantasized about a tax for the movement of goods no matter how they're moved or how carbon neutral the method.

Re: No More Cheap Shipping for Chinese Sellers

#34

Post by keiferski » Tue, Aug 27, 2019, 3:34 PM UTC

iNate2000 wrote: post #27

zip1234 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bad for the environment as well for trans-pacific shipping to be cheaper

Aren't ocean vessels one of the most efficient forms of transportation in existence?

The shipping industry is responsible for a significant proportion of the global climate change problem. More than three percent of global carbon dioxide emissions can be attributed to ocean-going ships. This is an amount comparable to major carbon-emitting countries -- and the industry continues to grow rapidly.

In fact, if global shipping were a country, it would be the sixth largest producer of greenhouse gas emissions. Only the United States, China, Russia, India and Japan emit more carbon dioxide than the world’s shipping fleet. Nevertheless, carbon dioxide emissions from ocean-going vessels are currently unregulated.

https://eu.oceana.org/en/shipping-pollution-1

Re: No More Cheap Shipping for Chinese Sellers

#35

Post by ikeboy » Tue, Aug 27, 2019, 3:35 PM UTC

Consultant32452 wrote: post #31

ikeboy wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is incorrect. There's no mechanism by which cheaper prices for UPU mail translates into higher prices for US customers. If they had pricing power they'd raise prices regardless of fixed losses elsewhere.

The USPS has to ask permission from regulators to raise prices, unlike their more private counterparts.

And that is evaluated on a per market basis. The assertion that losing money on some services causes them to raise prices elsewhere is baseless.

Even if there was a mechanism the numbers don't work - there's orders of magnitude more packages sent within the US than into the US from UPU.

Re: No More Cheap Shipping for Chinese Sellers

#36

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Aug 27, 2019, 3:35 PM UTC

iNate2000 wrote: post #27

zip1234 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bad for the environment as well for trans-pacific shipping to be cheaper

Aren't ocean vessels one of the most efficient forms of transportation in existence?

[deleted]

Re: No More Cheap Shipping for Chinese Sellers

#37

Post by lordnacho » Tue, Aug 27, 2019, 3:35 PM UTC

orthecreedence wrote: post #15

aantix wrote: post #11

What would be the concession from the Chinese? Or do they up the ante and impose more tariffs on incoming U.S. goods? Is this something that the Hacker News community actually supports Trump on? More curious than anything - you just don't see a lot of support for any of his initiatives here. ? Why all the downvotes?

I support this, and I'm a rabid leftist. Things should cost what they cost. The only time government should interfere with pricing is to force companies to price in externalities.

That does not sound like a rabid leftist?

- You don't want rent control?

- I guess whatever non-Pigouvian portion of tax/subsidy is also out of bounds?

Re: No More Cheap Shipping for Chinese Sellers

#38

Post by eukaryote31 » Tue, Aug 27, 2019, 3:35 PM UTC

iNate2000 wrote: post #27

zip1234 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bad for the environment as well for trans-pacific shipping to be cheaper

Aren't ocean vessels one of the most efficient forms of transportation in existence?

Efficient per unit distance, yes , but they're also travelling more units of distance

Re: No More Cheap Shipping for Chinese Sellers

#39

Post by brightball » Tue, Aug 27, 2019, 3:35 PM UTC

iNate2000 wrote: post #27

zip1234 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bad for the environment as well for trans-pacific shipping to be cheaper

Aren't ocean vessels one of the most efficient forms of transportation in existence?

Not more efficient than trains. Environmentally, we'd all be better off if goods to the US were produced in Mexico and shipped into the US by train.

Re: No More Cheap Shipping for Chinese Sellers

#40

Post by entropea » Tue, Aug 27, 2019, 3:35 PM UTC

jermaustin1 wrote: post #30

So is drop shipping from China now dead? A major benefit of drop shipping from China was the pretty much $1 shipping for almost any item via ePacket. Obviously the products are still cheaper, but with a 25% tariff on most goods, and what I can only assume will be a close to DHL price for shipping, a t-shirt drop shipped from China will probably cost more than one made and shipped domestically. To continue to be compe…

>So is drop shipping from China now dead?

Probably. This is going to drop a lot of sellers off of Amazon and eBay, and likely have major effects on independent small business dollar/99c stores.