>And you can't get good workmanship from contractors --

>>but you can, it's just that hardly anyone can afford to pay what good
>>artisanship
>>costs at a rate the artisan is willing to work for

I can relate this to a vanagon context.  As many of you know, I make racks
and carriers for the vanagon.
I imagine people see manufactured products at say Wal-Mart and make a
general comparison (content, complexity) with the products that I
make.  We have become accustomed to low priced consumer goods, $40 DVD
player, $50 floor jack, that we think that all products can be
low priced.  It's just not possible to make an item of quality in the United
States (or Canada) at the same price as an offshore product.
The vanagon market is very small, compared to jeep and landcruiser.  It is
not feasible to set up a plant in a 'low labor cost' country to produce
vanagon products.  I think quality control would be a big issue as well.

As an aside, the cost of my raw materials such as tubing and fasteners has
doubled in the past year.  I've been told this is because china is buying
up the world's supply of metal.

Gary Lee
Calgary, Canada
http://www.telusplanet.net/public/gary2a/vw.htm