[marktwain]

I included my 45 year history in construction cost estimating and explained that “Labor” in general is a very non-specific term. R & D costs and engineering costs are mostly labor and the indirect overhead, like healthcare, that follows each hour of labor, but they aren’t generally viewed as manufacturing labor.

A good point. I recently spent three months in Australia.

Most things there are about twice as expensive as in the U.S.A.

But it is hard to separate out labor costs (very high) at the low end, energy costs (very high by government policy and taxes), and taxes (made everything higher).

It is interesting to note that Marx considered all value to come from labor.

[central_va]

Marx was a free trade to the nth degree.