The Postal Illuminati

[geometrikal]

I'm not an eBay seller, but I thought some of you may find this interesting about how stuff can be shipped from China so cheaply. Basically, the local postal system is subsidising it.

https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2018/08/01/634737852/episode-857-the-postal-illuminati

[davewil1964]

Me too

[countessalmirena]

I have a fascinated interest in China's history; the culture has shown such richness and literary colour. (Yes, admittedly there was brutality, cruelty, factions fighting each other... There were also the gorgeous ceramics and painting, invention of paper, agricultural advances (paddy field cultivation, using biological pest prevention with a combination of creatures and plants to ensure that the crop didn't fail, etc.), gunpowder, etc., and some really extraordinary poetry and other writings.)

China under its current government is not helping China become glorious in every sense of the word - in my view - although political heavy-handedness seems to be playing out in quite a lot of countries currently.

Spoiler

Disclosure: I am opposed to many aspects of current Chinese government policy.

It's my hope that human beings as a united race will put into practice behaviours that stop harming fellow people (whether they are of the same ethnicity or not, whether their views are the same as the majority (or the power) or not, whether they are wealthy or not... and that stop harming the earth and the environment. There's no viable backup plan if our actions damage the earth - and without wanting to be a smug finger-wagger mounting my high horse, it's difficult for me not to become despairing and outraged and worried by the lack of action now to prevent a point-of-no-return disaster.

... And the amount of plastic being used...!

[springyzone]

Not going to happen, countess. The human race won't change in one generation and conflict & change is part of the DNA. Probably good for us. At least, I was reading that research is showing that mixing with people with different opinions & discussing things is doing good things for the brain.

I don't see a united world happening, ever.

I think we possibly face as much of a threat from the decimation of insect life as we do from climate change. Maybe more so.

The main solution I can see for everything, really, from insect life/climate change/use of plastics/pollution is a drop in population numbers. Most western nations are at or near zero population growth. Developing countries aren't. We could basically do with a drastic drop (maybe 20%?) in population numbers. We could achieve that but I don't think we will, not peacefully. Even in this country, we have governments that think population growth is good-for the economy. China has relaxed it's one child laws.

Trouble ahead, but I don't think it is necessarily in the next 50 years as davewill? predicts. I have taken an interest in predictions over the years and usually people grossly underestimate how long something will take to happen.

[digital*ghost]

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@kopenhagen5 wrote:

Unfortunately the Chinese government has been lending Nations funds for decades knowing they cannot pay it back and ransoming key locations for military use under the guise of helping the locals.

The above information is from Chinese people I know and it's only scratching the surface.

It would be nice if we all curbed our spending, buying local instead.

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I understand where you're coming from, and I don't actually think there's a lot to argue with there, I mostly just take issue with the lack of nuance in the statement I first quoted, especially in the context of people buying stuff from Chinese sellers. 

At any rate, my response was inappropriately scornful and sarcastic, and for that I apologise. 

[countessalmirena]

Springyzone, like you I think "not going to happen" sums it up. That's why I would use hope rather than believe, which is a sad indictment on humanity.

Coincidentally, I was discussing the terrible drop in insect populations with my mother earlier today. 

I dont know know what the timescale for earth may be. We can guess... predict... calculate... yet there are complicated and ever-changing factors that could extend or diminish the time. We do know that harm is being done, and that those who can effect change just aren't doing what needs to be done. Frustrating...

[kopenhagen5]

This is one of the major problems.....................few of us see and know the problems.

Many rely on the few to have it under control....................yet it requires the many to effect significant change.

DG, no need for apologies.

I think we are both capable of taking remarks in close to correct context especially as words can be clumsy in the attempt to describe facts or information we more often than not rely on as being correct from toher parties be it media, friends or forums.

[groove*yard*records]

Here in Canada, it costs more to ship an item 30 KMS away in the same county and province than it does to SHIP ANYWHERE IN THE USA.   Same type of gar-bage going on here in Canada. Of course China gets to ship for pennies to Canada as well.

[digital*ghost]

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@kopenhagen5 wrote:

DG, no need for apologies.

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There was, because even if I didn't believe yourself deserving of more respect than that (which I do), if I wanted to make a point, I can do it a lot better than that.

Is the thought of the Chinese government having a major impact on the "western" world in the future scary? It sure is for a lot of people, just like there are a lot of people who have the same fears about the US though we don't hear much about those (like, my god - the US has done - and is still doing - awful things in other countries, and no one ever says "don't buy from the US", which was my clumsy point earlier). 

I don't think it helps anyone to frame it in the way it was in your post, since the thread is about cheap postage and gaining a business advantage by maintaining cheap postage prices - it critcises China, and whether that criticism is valid or not, it by virtue also criticises / judges those who buy from China, and then ties it all up with the inference that if people buy from China, they are contributing to the plan to "infiltrate and take over the world". It can also imply that it's the sellers, the people of China that have this insidious plot, and encourages fear of the people. That is why I took issue with it. 

That podcast in the OP is calling the UPU a "secret organisation / postal illuminati", which automaticlly undermines any credibility it might have.