Want me to start with just small engines?
Foam air cleaners
Oil caps
Dipsticks
Plug wires
Shear keys
Throttle linkages
Pull starters and ropes
Bushings
Replacement heads
Gaskets
Rod bolt retaining clips
Branding decals
Carburetor jets
Fuel filters
Spark arrestors
Mufflers
Bolts
Etc...
There’s a LOT of stuff over there they may have anywhere from a garage shop to a modern factory making them, but there are a myriad of items that they seized upon to get a toehold. You can grind out shear keys by the bucketloads with a roof covering a pack of 8 year olds sitting on foot powered grinding wheels with a pile of scrap steel. They may not have sold a whole lot of those here, but schwang jung slave labor collective #3 probably got their factory capital doing that and selling/exchanging them regionally.
Probably the bitterest of ironies in that is that most everybody should be able to fabricate simple stuff like that, it’s a crime that there isn’t at least 1 or 2 semesters of some level of school that teaches stuff like making hinges, cutting a gasket, making a simple stove, maintaining an engine etc...
I agree. Basic skills multiply exponentially into and through seemingly unrelated life experiences.
Every kid should have a shop class for at least a few weeks using scrap wood to learn how to make basic dovetails, box joints, lap joints, mortice/tenons, dowel connections. With basic hand tools.
Every kid should know how to cook some basic meals.
How to melt some metal together.
How to sew, with or without a machine. Maybe even knit something, or weave some threads. Make some cordage from plant fibers. Or make yarn by brushing some animals.
How to make fire a gazillion different ways. How to use clay, sticks, rocks, leaves, bark, sand, dirt, shells, etc., for just about everything.
Thank you. All great advice.