I think china is ripping off the USPS.

[The Buddha]

OK does any one know what the postal system does for international mail.

OK I suspect it used to be a system where it "evens out".

So its something like this - I dont know if its correct, but just a theory.
Like I write to my folks in India. I pay $2 to send it. USPS gets it to a airport, gets it onto a plane paying freight etc and it gets dropped off @ a port in India. There on its the responsibility of India's postal service. They dont get $ from the US for it. Of course they get $ from my folks when they buy postage to send stuff to me. It costs like 1/4th of what it is here ... closer to 50c converted. But Well all the costs are lower in India.

So now china is sending stuff en masse over to us, I bought a battery for a phone. Cost $3 shipping included WTF, I cannot send it from my house to yours inside US for $3.

So lets say $2 was the battery, and $1 was postage form china to my house. So USPS will bring it over free, but I ordered over the net, and I am not sending anythign back to china. I think they brought it over for nothing.

Does anyone know what actually happens in the international postal system ?

Cool.
Srinath.

[Caffeine]

There are reciprocal agreements between most nations, but that has nothing to do with stuff you get, unless you are having things shipped to you directly from China.   I can't think of ANYTHING that's being shipped from China via the mail.   

[BaltimoreGS]

I don't know how it works but I have bought items directly from China on ebay and they arrived at my door with my regular mailman (I know because I had to sign for 2 things).  And like Buddha, the shipping was really cheap.

-Jessie

[The Buddha]

I have bought direct from china ...
Phone Batteries, I got LED bulbs that turned out to be total garbage ... LED's last very very very long time, but they ahve some crappy ass resistor in the bulb housing that burnt in 6 months ... gone MOFO ... I also am getting some plastic orthotic stuff to wear under my foot ... freaking $200+ for a 3c hunk of plastic from the "good feet" store. Oh no we dont bill insurance, you have to buy it and send them the invoice. Yea the insurance will laugh at you.

Atleast China is selling it shipped for 2 for 10 bucks.

OK most were from hongkong ... but did they give a part of teh $ I paid them to USPS ? How much and is there a way to find out.

Cool.
Buddha.

[GAS]

Just another example:

If I buy a pair of helmets (I actually did a couple months ago) it's gonna cost USD51 to be shipped from the US to Brazil (where I live), in a freakin huge box. On the other hand I tried once to send a digital camera to the US, a standard, cheap, small digital camera (less than a pound, and a few inches long). And it would cost USD75 to go to the USA by the cheapest way...

I also have the same doubt, because the costs make no sense at all...

[ohgood]

you got me on this one.  i've also bought batteries direct from china, and been amazed that they arrived, in 36 hours, from hongkong, for a grand total of $13 including shipping.

someone's getting rich, and someone else is getting stiffed. i get my battery though, without the $89 surcharge that the mobile store expects. shrug.

[tt_four]

From what you said in your first post, it sounds to me like china would be ripping themselves off by not charging that much, and the US is over charging.

Either way, we owe then $800 billion, which we're NEVER going to pay them back, so I'm kinda expecting a monetary raping from china for the rest of my life, until we officially just give in and admit that china owns us. 

[The Buddha]

From what you said in your first post, it sounds to me like china would be ripping themselves off by not charging that much, and the US is over charging.

Either way, we owe then $800 billion, which we're NEVER going to pay them back, so I'm kinda expecting a monetary raping from china for the rest of my life, until we officially just give in and admit that china owns us. 

I think USPS is getting the shaft. I should try sending the same battery to china in the same damn package and see what it is. I think its $$$$$$$$ formhere to there, partially cos that is the payment the USPS gets in any international deal. I'll google and see what turns up. I think the postal service for each country is responsible for getting it to a port in the other country. The $ they receive they keep. That would have been the smart way to do it 100 years ago ... even 20 years ago.

On the china trade deficit ... ok China holds a lot of $ denominated paper, AKA T bills and the like. Worse yet, this has been @ very low interest rates. 2-3%. If the rates rise which is a function of inflation, they get creamed. To prevent that from happening, they are buying low yeild paper (bonds @ 2-3% again) ... aka giving us more $ and taking paper that says you have a 100 bucks. Where it will fail is ... if they make any move towards redemming the $, the instant effect will be to shoot the interest rates skyward. Why, they ask for the $, and US will simply print $ and pay them. That will send the interest rates through the roof and destroy the value of a T bill. China will do anything to prevent it from happening.

I dont believe we are going to get owned by china any time soon. They have no other option but to do as we say ...
We now say, buy our worthless paper and give us $, and we'll buy your worthless crap @ walmart. china is hoping that there is a way out of this where they get to export stuff to other countries and they have domestic consumption to keep their industry going. Its going to end very badly, especially for china's workign class, and likely that they will fall back into proctectionism.

Cool.
Buddha.

[The Buddha]

And dont get me wrong, I support china ... I just dont want USPS getting the shaft ...

I used to have to pay over 200 for this crap. In 1999 ... it was sold only by "mall foot doctor" yea true ... in a push cart in a mall ... and yes he was a foot doctor.

http://cgi.ebay.com/As-Seen-on-TV-SMILING-FEET-ORTHOTIC-INSOLE-MENS_W0QQitemZ160381403775QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item25577a027f

Then I made em out of aluminum, some people have seen it (se7enty7 I know for sure, maybe werase, dgyver etc)

Then ~2 years ago I had them prescription cut ... and the Fu(kers cost over 500 bucks thinkfully insurance paid for it, it worked so well for ~9 months before it got crushed to where it wasn't working. Yea, 500 bucks and they made it out of stuff they make soles for shoes out of. Garbage.

Then I got for ~65 bucks one that was sized right for me a copy of the first one. BTW the good feet store sells the same inserts for 300 or so.

Thanks to china and fleabay, I can buy my 30C piece of plastic for 8-10 bucks instead of 200.

And yea to peckerheads who think they can make sheite in china for 10c and sell it at a 200,000 % mark up, yea sorry the game's up ... you should have made the garbage in the US, paid the $1 it cost if you made it here and kept your business a monopoly.

Anyway I'll check these and see what it works like. I cant see it being universal but I will be able shave it like I have done in the past.

Cool.
Buddha.

[tt_four]

I think USPS is getting the shaft. I should try sending the same battery to china in the same damn package and see what it is. I think its $$$$$$$$ formhere to there, partially cos that is the payment the USPS gets in any international deal. I'll google and see what turns up. I think the postal service for each country is responsible for getting it to a port in the other country. The $ they receive they keep. That would have been the smart way to do it 100 years ago ... even 20 years ago.

On the china trade deficit ... ok China holds a lot of $ denominated paper, AKA T bills and the like. Worse yet, this has been @ very low interest rates. 2-3%. If the rates rise which is a function of inflation, they get creamed. To prevent that from happening, they are buying low yeild paper (bonds @ 2-3% again) ... aka giving us more $ and taking paper that says you have a 100 bucks. Where it will fail is ... if they make any move towards redemming the $, the instant effect will be to shoot the interest rates skyward. Why, they ask for the $, and US will simply print $ and pay them. That will send the interest rates through the roof and destroy the value of a T bill. China will do anything to prevent it from happening.

I dont believe we are going to get owned by china any time soon. They have no other option but to do as we say ...
We now say, buy our worthless paper and give us $, and we'll buy your worthless crap @ walmart. china is hoping that there is a way out of this where they get to export stuff to other countries and they have domestic consumption to keep their industry going. Its going to end very badly, especially for china's workign class, and likely that they will fall back into proctectionism.

China exports everything, they've probably just got the system figured out.

I don't know much about bonds, but what I heard you say is that everything will go fine for China regarding our loans, until they want us to actually pay them back, at which point everything is going to be in ruins. That's pretty much how it works when you loan anyone money that can't pay you back. It goes smoothly until you say 'hey, you have that $20 you owe me?'

China has no reason to worry about us not importing their junk for walmart. People here are never going to want pay a real price for something that wasn't made by sweatshop children. How many kids have died from licking lead paint off of their chinese toys in the past 2 years? They make a fuss on the news for 2 days, and then parents are right back there buying more cheap toys for their kids.

[The Buddha]

I would say the days of us buying chinese creap are slowly, very very very sowly comming to a close. I am seeing more and more american made stuff, which while it is cheap ass, cos well, we're trying to make cheapass craep ... its not as bad as the chinese cheap ass craep.

Now whether china likes it or not, slowly chinese goods are going to be un economical. At that time they would realise they cant give us money cos we're not buying their creap. Then they will try to get their $ back, and we will print money and let them redeem their paper for face value.

Now there is a lot of other things they own, they own bundles of mortgages, which as they go bad, they get shafted ... like I have this bike, you can buy a 1/100th share in this bike. Now what happens when this bike seizes up its motor and turns into a paper weight, oops soory your 1/100 is still 1/100 ... but the original value is not valid, its 1/10th of that ... stuff like that.

Worse than holding US dollar is holding paper that says you have this much US dollar.

Worse than holding paper that says you have this much us dollar is holding a paper that says you own this item that is worth this much us dollar. 3 variables layered one on top of another. Just makes about as much sense as some of the houses people bought in the last few years.

Cool.
Buddha.