[Aurornis]

You have to separate the YouTube clickbait from the real learning content in there.

US manufacturing is expensive because wages are high, but also because we focus on the high end work that pays more . Even the small machine shops I used 10 years ago for small scale production runs are no longer interested in doing any small batch work. They have more contract work from big companies than they can handle, and the big companies pay more and have higher order quantities.

If you’re a shop or a factory in the US you’re never going to take some small orders for a grill brush from some YouTuber who doesn’t have any expertise in marketing grill brushes. Everyone is going to turn that order down because there’s no money or future in it, but there’s plenty of better work that pays better from companies who want to keep using your services in the future.

[bsder]

> Everyone is going to turn that order down because there’s no money or future in it, but there’s plenty of better work that pays better from companies who want to keep using your services in the future.

Until there isn't, and you go bankrupt because you didn't generate new independent business.

Maximally efficient is minimally robust. Or, perhaps you prefer: efficiency is the reciprocal of resilience.

And, by the way, China somehow manages to support these small manufacturers. For example: Chitu Systems supplies the small volumes of LCD screens for 3d resin printers.