Re:No More Cheap Shipping for Chinese Sellers
by dantheman on Tuesday August 27, 2019 @11:25PM
(#20816568)
If you want to give them welfare, give them welfare. It's better than subsidizing inefficient systems that distort the market.
Re:No More Cheap Shipping for Chinese Sellers
by magduf on Tuesday August 27, 2019 @06:53PM
(#20815254)
It would be cheaper as a society for us to just pay one-time to relocate these people to more populated areas and set them up with new jobs (if they can work), and then cut off many of their services. Those who choose not to avail themselves of the relocation offer would then have to pay extra for services.
Why is our society responsible for subsidizing rural dwellers' lifestyles anyway? Note that I'm not talking about people living in small towns. These people choose to live this way because our society subsidizes their lifestyle, and don't actually need to live there. People who do (e.g., farmers) don't need any subsidy as they make enough money to afford living where they do. I grew up in the rural South; these people aren't actually contributing to the economy in any way, they just like living in the middle of nowhere, and are enabled by cheap gas prices and the subsidized provision of many services.
I am not, as a rule, particularly fond of rural or suburban living due to free-rider problems, but as long as we choose to subsidize those lifestyles, a prompt and rigorous postal service is necessary. And as long as we have poor (and old) people kept out of the technological race, it is incumbent upon us to not stick a thumb in their eye.