Originally Posted by
mschwett
interesting discussion. as several have mentioned there are really a lot of facets to international trade and a lot of reasons why a product might be cheaper from one place or another
personally, i’m not comfortable with most of the above except 1,4,8 and 9, and am pretty convinced the long term effect of people making these choices is a poorer, more unhappy, more unequal world, even if you saved a few bucks here and there. the other big problem is you really have no idea which one it is most of the time!
I agree too many unknowns here, especially for safety critical items. I wouldn’t buy anything that could potentially burn down my home, electrocute me or cause a crash just to save money - and really that’s pretty much the only reason people shop on Aliexpress.