When I think about home delivery, my reference point is the dao xiao mian 刀削面 knife I bought in 2020 from AliExpress for $3.57 including shipping and delivery to my door. In the 1990s, the simplest way to get an exotic product like that was to fly to China.
I’m not just thinking about the ease of sending something from one house to another within my city. I’m thinking about the ease of sending something from an arbitrary residence on Earth to an arbitrary residence on Earth.
Shipping small packages from China to the US via the USPS has been subsidized—the price of mailing a Beanie Baby from Beijing to New York has been lower than the price charged to mail that same Beanie Baby from Los Angeles to New York. One of the few things the Trump administration did right was renegotiate the international postal system treaties so that China doesn’t get “developing nation” subsidies any more.
When I think about home delivery, my reference point is the dao xiao mian 刀削面 knife I bought in 2020 from AliExpress for $3.57 including shipping and delivery to my door. In the 1990s, the simplest way to get an exotic product like that was to fly to China.
I’m not just thinking about the ease of sending something from one house to another within my city. I’m thinking about the ease of sending something from an arbitrary residence on Earth to an arbitrary residence on Earth.
Shipping small packages from China to the US via the USPS has been subsidized—the price of mailing a Beanie Baby from Beijing to New York has been lower than the price charged to mail that same Beanie Baby from Los Angeles to New York. One of the few things the Trump administration did right was renegotiate the international postal system treaties so that China doesn’t get “developing nation” subsidies any more.
https://reason.com/2019/11/11/american-taxpayers-are-subsidizing-ultra-cheap-shipping-from-china/