The West will never be able to compete with China on cost until 7yr old kids are prepared to work 16hr days for a few pennies a day and the prisons are full of Political Prisoners who work for nothing!


I wanted a small metal component made in the UKicon. Only found one machine shop that would consider it. They wanted £600 GBP.

I paid someone in Vietnam $50USD for a CAD file for the part, reverse engineered from photos, scratch, then I got 10 made in China for $180USD.(Minimum order)

Even with shipping it was way less than half the UK price, for 10, not 1.

As you say in the US - Go Figure?