Technology
Which posts fit here?
Anything that is at least tangentially connected to the technology, social media platforms, informational technologies and tech policy.
Post guidelines
[Opinion] prefix
Opinion (op-ed) articles must use [Opinion] prefix before the title.
Rules
1. English only
Title and associated content has to be in English.
2. Use original link
Post URL should be the original link to the article (even if paywalled) and archived copies left in the body. It allows avoiding duplicate posts when cross-posting.
3. Respectful communication
All communication has to be respectful of differing opinions, viewpoints, and experiences.
4. Inclusivity
Everyone is welcome here regardless of age, body size, visible or invisible disability, ethnicity, sex characteristics, gender identity and expression, education, socio-economic status, nationality, personal appearance, race, caste, color, religion, or sexual identity and orientation.
5. Ad hominem attacks
Any kind of personal attacks are expressly forbidden. If you can't argue your position without attacking a person's character, you already lost the argument.
6. Off-topic tangents
Stay on topic. Keep it relevant.
7. Instance rules may apply
If something is not covered by community rules, but are against lemmy.zip instance rules, they will be enforced.
Companion communities
!globalnews@lemmy.zip
!interestingshare@lemmy.zip
Icon attribution | Banner attribution
If someone is interested in moderating this community, message @brikox@lemmy.zip.
view the rest of the comments
The EU really hates the poor.
It's not about that.
I discovered AliExpress more than a decade back, when I could import free of taxation any item below the value of 25€ and any item above that value up to 50€ would only be liable for VAT, up to €100. This was nice but what was sold under that bar was often the worst of the crop: poorly made, bad quality junk only worthy of being tossed in the garbage.
When it is established any item, regardless of price, will have VAT included directly in the site, many sellers disappeared as they no longer could push bad quality merchandise with no paper trail. The client got a better deal out of paying a little more.
Shein, Temu and other upstarts on that front, are simply replicating that. Cheap clothing, I read in an article, is causing a flood of the market with bad quality items and pushing for a fast fashion trend, with a rapid colection turnover. On the electronics front I've seen parts that I already buy at very low price in AliExpress for a tenth of the value; I can only guess the quality.
It's not about being against the poor, it's about preventing bad actors to flood the market with junk that is destined to quickly find its way to a landfill.
Not specific to the EU.