Quote:
Originally Posted by PCH
I read somewhere that the Chinese government subsidises their businesses specifically so that they can sell so cheaply to the world without postage costs hindering them. So they get a huge benefit whilst clogging up Aus post who I don't think get a penny for carting all the crap round!
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Hi Paul,
It's called dumping and China is guilty off it.
And its strategic purpose goes way beyond benefiting Chinese companies.
It is designed to ensure that countries like Australia don't ever think of
manufacturing anything for themselves ever again.
Decades ago, I took part in a Defence industry study. The question was, in
times of adversity, such as if Australia was subjected to a naval blockade,
could the nation possibly manufacture the things it would strategically
need?
During times of war, a country repurposes equipment and factories to produce
the types of things it needs to defend itself.
Everyone loves cheap stuff. But when you add up the cost of manufacturing
many of the low-priced items that one can buy out of China these days
by mail order, it just doesn't add up.
Plus when you add the low-cost or free postage, the economics is such
that the item was delivered here below the manufacturer's cost.
Those who are not across the real cost of materials, manufacturing
and shipping might be duped it is all part of the miracle of modern
China, of low wages and economies of scale.
It is not.
I have some packages from China here delivered by an Australia
Post postman on a motorbike but franked with zero Yuan postage
paid stickers.
In order to do that requires the cooperation of the Chinese government itself.
It's China's way of ensuring that a country like Australia, as a nation state,
never manufactures anything again. It is designed to ensure that we have
no plastic injection moulding capability, no factories that can fabricate parts
in metal, and so on, and that we fall behind in the advances in materials
and manufacturing processes.
It's the Opium War all over and we have become addicted to all this
impossibly cheap stuff.
Heaven forbid if we ever have to pay the real price for it.