The fall of Kona Bikes :(

[benb]

Seven or IF likely have to deal with health insurance and benefits.

That's a huge PITA to a US manufacturer in that size range. The overseas competitors are in countries with nationalized health care that have done a much better job of controlling costs AND wages are much lower.

A one man shop likely doesn't deal with any of that but still has to figure out where to buy insurance for the proprietor.

[EB]

Originally Posted by benb

Seven or IF likely have to deal with health insurance and benefits.

That's a huge PITA to a US manufacturer in that size range. The overseas competitors are in countries with nationalized health care that have done a much better job of controlling costs AND wages are much lower.

A one man shop likely doesn't deal with any of that but still has to figure out where to buy insurance for the proprietor.

Small point, but mainland China notably has no nationalized, universal health insurance or health care scheme. They have a patchwork of private and public subsidized care that arguably is even harder to understand than the US system, and it usually involves the individual and/or employer paying.

Chinese “communism” in practice just means whatever is convenient for the leadership.

[benb]

Ok, but I bet for a lot of the factory workers that equates to zero health insurance or extremely low costs for the company compared to US costs.

Our costs are not exactly competitive.

[buddybikes]

Originally Posted by benb

Seven or IF likely have to deal with health insurance and benefits.

That's a huge PITA to a US manufacturer in that size range. The overseas competitors are in countries with nationalized health care that have done a much better job of controlling costs AND wages are much lower.

A one man shop likely doesn't deal with any of that but still has to figure out where to buy insurance for the proprietor.

this is when you get yourself a good spouse that is a teacher or in a large corporation on good govt healthplan