Socialism v Comunism v Capitalism

Here is an interesting thingy with regards to the Globalisation that seems to be the new mantra. I shop a fair bit on E. Bay, If you put "free postage" in the search criteria , then ninety percent of the goods are from China. Then I checked the postage charges from various parts of the world, the worst is America where the postage is sometimes twice the price of the article in question. The next is Britain .

So, how come the postage from China is cheap or free? Obviously their postage system is structured to get the goods to the worldwide customer in the cheapest possible way, which means the Communist subsidised postal system, will win hands down in the Global market, for the distribution of goods for profit. So has America and to some extent Britain, adopting Globalisation accepted a poisoned Chalice without updating goods delivery systems to match the competition? So to update the delivery system on the world market would obviously generate billions in trade, but that would mean a heavily subsidised postal system in fact one modelled on a Communist system. Which is in my estimation is never going to happen, but if it doesn't happen worldwide trade from The right wing Capitalist countries, will continue to struggle under a severe consumer, end price penalty.

a reply to: anonentity

Great thread, got me thinking.

www.royalmail.com...

"Q. What is the delivery process in China?

A. The standard process is that postal items are delivered to China Post in local post offices, and a notice card is sent by letter to each consignee for the consignee to come to the post office to collect their item/s. If there is no reply or collection within 7 days, a reminder notice card is sent to the consignee once more. If no reply or collection is made within 30 days, the item would be regarded as an undeliverable item. There is rarely a door to door delivery service for small parcels."


Rarely a delivery service for small parcels. That's one way to make the system cheaper.

This OP is so brief and with the content only partly reflecting the title it is hard to form a reply. I will say this though. China subsidizes its postal system by a large factor of actual cost. This stradegy might increase market share for while during this period of time when wages are at third world levels. That will not hold as they modernize. Wages will increase and the disparity will shrink between our economies.

No unions in China for one. Just PRC troops sent in to crack heads if people do not obey the bosses.

a reply to: Kester

Yes that's a very interesting point, but as far as Global internet trade goes, it would be a cost saving measure. But as long as Capitalist postal systems have to generate profit for the operators , they embargo the overall national good by doing so. The end effect is to make the price of the goods comparatively too expensive. Where we have a pragmatic China, doing what works best for national profit, the end result could be quite catastrophic.
Most economies exist on small cost items being the vast percentage of trade. So why should I go to my domestic supplier to buy say 4 inches of tool steel. Which he will charge me 25 dollars for, when I can get the same thing sent from China including postage for four dollars. Considering its both are made by the same Chinese manufacturer, its a no brainer. The same with all this type of consumable. If the Customs in the various destinations tried to levy some duty on the price of this item, it would cost them far more in administration than the revenue it would gain.

a reply to: Kester

each system has its own advantages

any economy can be structured in a multitude of ways

The US economy is structured along the lines of Corproate Welfare for the corporate sector, the bigger the organsation is the more they get, and capitalism for the masses.

This can plainly seen through the tranfer of welfare from individuals to the corporate sector.

Who knows, one day we may see bous dollars from tax doners to corporates for each dollar of profit.

a reply to: machineintelligence

Yes but the same thing happened when Ford workers went on strike, not just Ford, American and British industry, seems to have a history of Police or goons bashing heads until they get the Prolls back to work.

a reply to: anonentity

Ford To Build $760 Million Plant in Eastern China

Capitalist and Chinese bosses seem to get along just fine it seems.

a reply to: Azureblue

You are right, its happening now where highly paid professionals get employed to cut the cost of welfare payments and or Medical costs which are at present subsidised. The West was pragmatic once, but has seemed to have lost the advantage, where Corporate welfare has made the fat cats slothful, so the easier way is to use lobbying to get to the public purse. Which of course works for a limited time.

a reply to: machineintelligence

Isn't that a wet dream, the trouble is no one has a job to buy the goods.

a reply to: anonentity

Corporatism is really what we have as the dominant economic system at this time on this planet. Socialism, Communism, and Capitalism are just different management structures for the underlying Corporatism model that actually runs this world.

a reply to: anonentity

I would think some of it is just a gimmick. Chinese seller and US seller have the same product. Chinese seller can sell it cheaper, price + shipping. US seller says he has the same price, but has to charge for shipping. Support the USA, buy American! The product is still probably manufactured in China anyway.

I've seen some sellers state in the fine print that they do make money from shipping.

Actually, the USPS is a centrally controlled/socialized system too. The difference is that we have a workers union that helps to drive up the cost of labor.

Not to mention most Amazon sellers use FedEx and UPS which are private sellers because they are faster/more reliable/more secure than USPS.

So many misconceptions in this thread it's disturbing.

First point that needs to be addressed is that China is not a communist nation. They are a capitalist nation who's ruling party happens to be the Communist party. The state does not own all means of production. Corporations and businesses are privately owned. Therefore, by definition, they are not economically communist.

Also, they don't send commie troops around to "crack heads". What a silly statement. China has it's freedoms right along with it's problems but it is important to note that they have less people in prison than we do in the US.

We actually do have "troops" running around cracking skulls here in the States.

a reply to: anonentity

When you say Socialism it means something quite different to many people to what it does here in the UK, in the US it is seen as Liberalism but in Russia they think the National Socialism that is not the same thing as Socialism and so regard it in the same breath as Nazism (National Socialism).

Of course in the UK, France and other countrys that have enjoyed TRUE socialism it is a democratic institution that is nothing like either Communism or "National Socialism" and indeed is merely a form of governed state intervention into the captalist system with a small percentage of overall wealth redistribution to balance the economy and try to remedy poverty but not a peace meal state take over or theft of all private franchise as in communism, limited state ownership was always and still is a good idea in the interest of everyone and state owned petrochemical industrys as we used to have in the UK it could be used to control the price at the pump ensuring that goods could be moved more cheaply as did state owned transport, power, telecommunication's and mail.

But Capitalism is about one thing GREED and that is obviously bad except for those that Hog it all, in a purely capitalist system there is no room for humanity only profit and monopolisation, state is for sale to the highest bidder and all politicians are cronies of there financial backers.

Of course in the words of a certain Nazi criminal the state is a lie and so you have to keep the masses hoodwinked for the state to survive, this was not the case under a socialist system but it was under communism and is under pure capitalist system's.

The other difference is a socialist system is not about everything being owned by the state though ownership of the Infrastructure, health care etc is ESSENTIAL but allowing private alternatives to those whom choose to pay (which is no one when the highest quality is available for free to the citizens whom see it as being paid for by there tax's), it is about making sure the wealth is more fairly distributed where as in Communism there is always a ruling elite, a single party and absolutly No democratic process, the party therefore become the ruling imperial family of any communist state and the people are owned by the state rather than the other way around as it is in a socialist state based on a more a enlightened and up to date approach to Marxist theory but to a capitalist both are seen as bad, under socialism he may not get quite as rich having to give back a slice of there profit in taxation (when they actually want to pay no tax at all) and under communism he will lose everything the same as the poorest.

When Communism fell in eastern europe and russia the global Capitalists first breathed a sigh of relief and then turned on the socialism that had flowered while they were distracted elsewhere, under the impetus of the Bilderbergs they set about destroying Socialism in it's true heartland's, the Nordic countrys and England as well as giving is a good go in France by the same method they always operate, Dirty trick's, fraud and lies and corrupt criminal politicians.