[central_va]

I was talking about manufacturing savings, not IT out sourcing. Durable goods.

[taxcontrol]

A welder in China makes between $300 to $500 per month compared to $2500 to $3000 for a US welder. This is just an example of one person and one skill required for a product. Multiply this by the dozens of skills (plus IT and management overhead) needed for one durable good product.

Then factor this against thin profit margins which are often less than 6% (http://pages.stern.nyu.edu/~adamodar/New_Home_Page/datafile/margin.html). It does not take much of a cost differential to equal a price differential.