“I’m not buying the idea that a decent profit on volume can’t be made for $30 bucks a shirt.”
Then you should go into the shirtmaking business in the US. I would love to buy a good-quality, US-made shirt for $30. I can’t find one.
As for labor costs in US manufacturing, they have declined dramatically in the past 25 years because of increased productivity, but they still comprise over 50% of all costs:
http://blogs.piie.com/realtime/?p=4843
Great, then you’ve just confirmed that a shirt doesn’t cost more than $7 bucks or so to make.