Suggesting that the postal service will charge $2 more for X and $2 less for Y so it all balances out is not "trickle down".
Maybe they'll save more to that pension fund, but I can't in good conscience say "The USPS should keep that policy where I can get $3 cheaper shipping from china and the money to pay for it comes out of the USPS pension fund."
If most of the money stays inside the realm of shipping, the average cost for local businesses will go down. (The first order effect just shuffles money around. More to buy from china, less to send to customers, on average the same. A second order effect is that more purchases from china will shift to being bulk, dropping the average cost.)
I agree with you that the right deal was made. But the cheap shipping from China has pretty much proved a market for subsidized small parcel shipping as an economic multiplier that ought to be made available to everyone in the US and abroad.
They're not charging more to china yet either! Give it a while, then we'll see where the additional revenue goes.
I'm not sure I agree that there's a big difference between $4 small parcel shipping and $.50 small parcel shipping to the economy, especially when it involves waiting a month for the product.
Maybe they'll save more to that pension fund, but I can't in good conscience say "The USPS should keep that policy where I can get $3 cheaper shipping from china and the money to pay for it comes out of the USPS pension fund."
If most of the money stays inside the realm of shipping, the average cost for local businesses will go down. (The first order effect just shuffles money around. More to buy from china, less to send to customers, on average the same. A second order effect is that more purchases from china will shift to being bulk, dropping the average cost.)