Buying and Selling

On 9/24/2017 9:41 AM, Joerg wrote:

snip

For the record, I ride an American MTB and an international road bike
(it was custom built from Dutch, Japanese, French, Italian and German
parts).

At least those are all real countries. Our dolt of a president has now
started inventing new countries. At first people weren't sure if he had
meant Gambia, Zambia, or Namibia, but the White House made a statement
clarifying what he meant to say.

On 9/24/2017 1:38 PM, sms wrote:
On 9/24/2017 9:41 AM, Joerg wrote:

snip

For the record, I ride an American MTB and an
international road bike (it was custom built from Dutch,
Japanese, French, Italian and German parts).

At least those are all real countries. Our dolt of a
president has now started inventing new countries. At first
people weren't sure if he had meant Gambia, Zambia, or
Namibia, but the White House made a statement clarifying
what he meant to say.

And yet he won without even visiting all 57 States:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EpGH02DtIws

--
Andrew Muzi
www.yellowjersey.org/
Open every day since 1 April, 1971

On Sunday, September 24, 2017 at 11:43:27 AM UTC-7, AMuzi wrote:
On 9/24/2017 1:38 PM, sms wrote:
On 9/24/2017 9:41 AM, Joerg wrote:

snip

For the record, I ride an American MTB and an
international road bike (it was custom built from Dutch,
Japanese, French, Italian and German parts).

At least those are all real countries. Our dolt of a
president has now started inventing new countries. At first
people weren't sure if he had meant Gambia, Zambia, or
Namibia, but the White House made a statement clarifying
what he meant to say.

And yet he won without even visiting all 57 States:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EpGH02DtIws

Don't start gong tit-for-tat on mistakes. Trump couldn't bear the comparison. Not passing judgment on his policies -- just stating a fact. I can fact check him off the top of my head when he extemporizes.

-- Jay Beattie.

On 9/24/2017 4:06 PM, jbeattie wrote:
On Sunday, September 24, 2017 at 11:43:27 AM UTC-7, AMuzi wrote:
On 9/24/2017 1:38 PM, sms wrote:
On 9/24/2017 9:41 AM, Joerg wrote:

snip

For the record, I ride an American MTB and an
international road bike (it was custom built from Dutch,
Japanese, French, Italian and German parts).

At least those are all real countries. Our dolt of a
president has now started inventing new countries. At first
people weren't sure if he had meant Gambia, Zambia, or
Namibia, but the White House made a statement clarifying
what he meant to say.

And yet he won without even visiting all 57 States:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EpGH02DtIws

Don't start gong tit-for-tat on mistakes. Trump couldn't bear the comparison. Not passing judgment on his policies -- just stating a fact. I can fact check him off the top of my head when he extemporizes.


And he's amazingly crude too. Unpredictably so.

Just when one's about to give up hope, he turns around and
gives the best speech ever spoken to those *******s at the UN.

Followed by a self-goal for the NFL. Oy!

--
Andrew Muzi
www.yellowjersey.org/
Open every day since 1 April, 1971

Uh, I'm searching for an effectivenes
Stats for administations.

Rump et al almost complete misunderstanding the process plus Bannon truly off the wall playboy

Yields a large group of people who are effectively doing nothing

That's RumpBannons idea of effectime goverment.

I'm a sure the loss/time exceeds by 2X the measly cost cutting of executive odors n silencer sales

On Sun, 24 Sep 2017 07:34:50 -0700, Joerg
wrote:

On 2017-09-23 20:52, John B. wrote:
On Sat, 23 Sep 2017 08:15:14 -0700, Joerg
wrote:

On 2017-09-22 19:03, John B. wrote:
On Fri, 22 Sep 2017 12:36:31 -0700, Joerg
wrote:

On 2017-09-19 19:44, sms wrote:
On 9/19/2017 6:52 PM, somebody wrote:

On 2017-09-19 07:06, wrote:

snip

Or the brake pads from China, $2/pair and free ship. As I have always
said the postage fees are grossly lopsided between Asia and the US and
that is one of the core reasosn for our trade deficit. Except that most
politicians (except manybe one ...) do not understand that.

It's an international reciprocal postal treaty that no one worried about
when it was mainly U.S. residents of Chinese descent sending packages to
relatives in China.


More than a decade ago tyat has changed, big time. How long does it take
for politicians to turn on their brains? Or for some of them, do they
even have one?


... The origin country gets all the postage and the
destination country gets nothing with the assumption that the volume
will be roughly equal.

The small volume of direct-to-consumer low-value items from China is not
a core reason for the trade deficit.


It is rising, big time. I know people who buy just about anything other
than groceries on EBay. When they say "Oh, it always gets here in three
to five weeks" you know what's going on. Heck, I even had stuff I bought
on Amazon come via "China Post".


... These items would still come into
the U.S. through other channels, at higher prices, were it not so cheap
to do international shipping from China, you'd just have a middleman.


Same reason. The stuff then comes in bulk but the shipping charges are
grossly lower than if a US vendor sent the same items to Asia. It isn't
just China. For example, when we needed name tags for our therapy dogs'
vests (for nursing home visits) we ordered them via Amazon. A small
package arrived from Manila, Philippines. I couldn't believe it
considering that we had paid just a few Dollars. Looked at the postage,
calculated - $0.60. Airmail! It came from a seamstress who appears to
specialize in cloth name tags. The shipping cost discrepancy alone puts
similar seamstresses in the US out of business.

Given that the cost of living, and salaries, are as much as five times
cheaper in China than in the U.S. how is changing the mailing costs
going to effect sales?


The ships and aircraft aren't going to be operable at five times less.

Certainly ships are noticeably cheaper to operate if they are NOT U.S.
flag vessels. Aircraft? I'm not sure but I would bet that crew costs
are noticeably cheaper and almost certainly maintenance costs are
cheaper and I would guess if a national carrier in China that fuel
costs are also cheaper.


Nope. They pretty much pay international (for example Singapore) prices:

http://www.edisoninvestmentresearch....ID=18116&LANG=

China Post flies Boeing and I can hardly imagine that they get spare
parts and service a whole lot cheaper than anyone else whose fleet
consist of Boeing aircraft.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China_Postal_Airlines

You seem to assume that Boeing parts are all that enter into
maintaining an airplane. Wrong. The engines, for example, can be
overhauled and labour, facilities and equipment are a large part of
the cost of the overhaul. The airframe maintenance is also largely a
matter of facilities, labour and equipment.

Hey! I was in the business of maintaining airplanes for my uncle for
20 years and the normal maintenance manpower for a fleet of airplanes
was several hundred people. All of whom are five times cheaper in
China, and the equipment, tools maintenance stands, buildings, all
cheaper in China.



My wife's older sister and her son, his wife, and the grand kids
visited Thailand about six months ago. The grandson, probably 19 years
old, told me that he worked part time at "the dollar store" unloading
trucks for $10 an hour. The current minimum salary in Thailand is 300
baht, about $9 a day. At today's exchange rate the U.S. salary, for
coolie labour, is ~9 times the Thai salary.


Think international for a minute. That changes things.

International? Isn't Thailand and California international enough for
you?


See links above. Local wages are much less relevant when you consider
international transport of good. Because someone has to pay the various
transport sections, equipment, maintenance, et cetera.

Many years ago I was peripherally involved in aircraft maintenance in
Miami, Fla. and in those years there were many South American
airplanes flying into Miami and every one of them would do everything
that they could not to have any maintenance performed in los Estados
Unidos as it was too expensive.
--
Cheers,

John B.

On Sun, 24 Sep 2017 09:51:40 -0500, AMuzi wrote:

On 9/23/2017 10:41 PM, John B. wrote:
On Sat, 23 Sep 2017 18:08:58 -0500, AMuzi wrote:

On 9/23/2017 5:04 PM, wrote:
On Saturday, September 23, 2017 at 7:57:21 AM UTC-7, Joerg wrote:
On 2017-09-23 06:49, wrote:
On Friday, September 22, 2017 at 4:20:09 PM UTC-7, Joerg wrote:
On 2017-09-22 14:24, sms wrote:

[...]

Of course other countries could reciprocally abuse it, but there aren't
many companies manufacturing low-value consumer goods and shipping them
to Chinese consumers.


It is not all about low value merchandise. To give you just one example:
A guy like me wants to build some electronics for his bicycles and then
find out "Oh rats, I am out of those buck switcher ICs". The guy is not
in a hurry because it's just hobby stuff. He looks at a domestic source
and finds out that the $0.50 parts are available but there will be hefty
shipping fees. Then he fires up EBay, Alibaba or whatever and .. voila
.. the same regulator ICs for roughly the same $0.50 but .. free
shipping. Then he needs a new light. $20. Plus another $12.95 shipping.
WHAT?! Goes on EBay or Amazon - finds Chinese vendor - $20 and free
shipping - ka-ching.

A few days ago while painting I realized that I need brushes that I can
cut and add an angle bracket to but where the tip is short. Not
available locally, web dealers wanted too much in shipping. Found them
in Hong Kong for less than $1.50 a pop and free shipping. So I ordered
- ka-ching. This is not good for domestic painting suppliers.

Multiply this by a gazillion cases and we have a problem.

All you have to do is go through eBay now and you can find the plastic cable ends sold 10 to a pack for $1.50 being sold from China with free shipping. The wrapping on a package cost more than that.

I have stopped buying parts from China.


Why? When you go to the local store and buy for 5x the price you get ...
a part from China. Just heavily marked up along the distribution chain.

I would much rather go to a shop and pay 10x the price than hope that a shipment will arrive at some indeterminate time from China.


Joerg actually made a significant point in that US export
postage is wildly inexplicably expensive compared to other
countries. A medium flat rate mailer to Macao now costs me
$71.95. The return postage was $6.50. This is typical.

But isn't it based on U.S. domestic postal costs? I recently checked
and to mail a letter, domestically, in Thailand is 2 baht, about 6
cents. In the U.S. I believe I read that it is 49 cents.


No, it isn't at all.
First Class domestic postage is set by an Act of Congress.
Literally.
Package and export rates are set by USPS management using a
Magic 8 Ball and a dartboard.

Not to get into an argument but wouldn't the two be related, to some
extent. In my example above domestic U.S. rates are eight times higher
then Thailand. I would assume that USPS international rates would also
be much higher then Thai rates.
--
Cheers,

John B.

Did you commute from Bali Hi mining to your Uncle's strip ?

On 9/24/2017 2:43 PM, AMuzi wrote:
On 9/24/2017 1:38 PM, sms wrote:
On 9/24/2017 9:41 AM, Joerg wrote:

snip

For the record, I ride an American MTB and an
international road bike (it was custom built from Dutch,
Japanese, French, Italian and German parts).

At least those are all real countries. Our dolt of a
president has now started inventing new countries. At first
people weren't sure if he had meant Gambia, Zambia, or
Namibia, but the White House made a statement clarifying
what he meant to say.

And yet he won ...

Which is an indictment of our education system, if not an indictment of
most of our culture.

--
- Frank Krygowski

On 9/23/2017 6:06 PM, AMuzi wrote:
It is entirely possible to properly fund pension/benefit obligations,
but that requires discipline, rectitude and determination, virtues
sorely lacking in the lesser 49 States:
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Oh, snap! (or do I mean that ironically? Not sure.)


http://www.politifact.com/wisconsin/...sion-system-s/

Mark J.