"Hawke" writes:

Do you know why those shipping containers are so cheap these days when
everything else made of metal keeps going up? It's because all those
containers originate in China. They fill them up with goods headed for the
US. In the old days the containers were filled with American goods going
elsewhere. Now, there is no merchandise to put in the containers to send
back to China. So the Chinese, rather than spending the money to ship the
empty containers back to China simply leaves them here and sends more stuff
in new ones. It's cheaper to build new ones than to ship empty ones back.
Which shows you how free trade is a game in which we get beaten badly. All
our money is going overseas for oil and goods is one of the reasons for the
decline in the value of our currency. Kind of makes you wonder why a country
that runs the world's biggest deficits in trade is so fond of free trade.
We're like a fighter that keeps wanting another rematch with a boxer that is
a lot better than he is. Doesn't make much sense, does it?

While everything you say here is (sadly) true, it should be mentioned
that the comparison really isn't between the price of building a new
container vs. shipping the old one back, it's between building a new
container and selling the old one vs. shipping the old one back. I
wouldn't be surprised if, even at the prices they go for, they're
being sold at very close to their cost of construction.