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I agree that the posting /delivery charges in the west are much higher thantheones in China... but perhaps we don't want the western world courier or postal delivery person to be paid wages comparable to their Chinese equivalents' ?

So, yes, the government should intervene and on one side limit the profit margin that companies can slap on the actual delivery costs and on the other subsidize the cost of deliveries to ensure that this part of the "blood of the economy" can flow better and reach further...
Or the Government should start offering free Chinese lessons

When it's cheaper toget 10 nails from China than toget them from the shop on the other side of a small town, then we can see which way the economy os going and we'd better start learning Chinese

I agree.

The government should reduce shipping costs, or else most people will just buy from China instead of their businesses. In fact, If they reduced shipping costs they (being the businesses) would most likely survive longer and make more money because of an increase in customers. China is stealing the customers from them, and if the government reduces shipping costs more people will buy from them instead of China.

Could not agree more. It is really high time to do so.
Here in Canada the government is short sighted.
As soon as a political party gets voted it only cares about the 4 or x amount of years being in office. This results in big things not being planned at all.When they do get planned (once in a while if we get lucky), there are high risks of the projects/sub projects not being done in the end. Why? It is time for the next election...

The reasons the Chinese can ship stuff to North America so cheaply are probably not beyond the followings:
1 Low labor cost in China mainland Post and highly automation Hong Kong Post due to huge volume.
2 Since the postal services are run by the government, they can subsidize or bear a certain amount of loss.
3 Contracts between Country-Country, eBay, China/American/Canada Post, UPS or so.

Since we cannot do anything about #1. #3 is probably equal rights for parcel to and from countries. To compete with the Chinese # 2 should really be done by any government. It will money much better spent than bailing out major banks!

Or find other ways so make it cheaper. It may actually fix the economy!
The cost of shipping goods should keep-up with globalization and data costs.
Governments should have a good look at all categories of “local” merchandise that would have a chance at competing with China if shipping wasn’t an obstacle, and [b]REMOVE THAT OBSTACLE![/b]
For example; anything costing $1 to $40 or so that I may want to order from a company outside my city/country (but same continent) is likely to cost me another $5 to $80 in shipping charges.
Trying to order something from the US to Canada might also incur brokerage fees of around $30-$50 ON TOP OF EVERYTHING ELSE!
Ordering the same or similar thing from China will likely be cheaper but more importantly have FREE SHIPPING (surely “include” is more correct but never mind that) if I’m willing to wait longer.
I would often pay more to buy from a supplier in my country or continent; maybe even double the price (I might pay $8 to get something from Montreal rather than $4 to get it from China) but I don’t have that option.
I don’t know how shipping from China can be so cheap; maybe it’s subsidized.
What I do believe is that many more businesses could survive/thrive if shipping was cheap, and even sell to the Chinese people directly.
China is a huge market that’s out of reach for many companies (and would-be companies) because of high shipping costs.
[b]Fix this unbalance and the world will be a better place.[/b]