How Can China Do It?

I recently bought a electric wheelbarrow kit which consisted of a hub motor with tire and inner tube installed, motor controller, and some human interface gizmos. The whole thing was about $250 delivered.  On Alibaba there are numerous similar devices for roughly the same price. If you want to make some PEV of basically any configuration you could dream up, you can buy some pre-fab motors, differentials, etc... It's hard to imagine how each component could be machined, assembled, tested, packaged and shipped for $250.

It took an afternoon to install on a wheelbarrow. I did some minor metal fabrication and welding. The thing works reasonably well so far. It's far from perfect, but that's fine, in fact, for my needs "good enough" is perfect. I could build three or four versions of it in a couple of months if I really wanted to.

The low cost of useful stuff from China is perplexing from a US citizen point of view. I wonder "how can China do it?" Although I think the reality of the scenario is "How long will the US system last in its current form?" Probably not long.

Chinese companies seem to have no overhead costs, or minimal overhead costs, and that must ripple through their whole economy. I think their economy must be like the US economy of a prior era where there was just less parasitic costs.

There's enormous costs associated with parasitism in the US economy. The entire insurance industry is a parasitic cost as is the financial system in general and the corporate system is really just an extension of the financial system.

I have relatives and friends who went out of the US to get medical or dental care. The costs are a tiny fraction of equivalent procedures in the US. In the US you often can't even get a quote to do various medical procedures because the cost is totally opaque. If you go to Latin America, though, you can get various tests and procedures at a a la carte rate, and can get a quote in advance, just like you would if you took a dog to the vet's office.

Within the US, there are high cost jurisdictions, like California, or Illinois or New York. Chicago recently imposed a 15% tax on "cloud services", for example. That's a burden for the user of such services, plus the operators of those services. A user in Chicago needs to be charged a special rate and Chicago's taxing authority needs a special payment system. How long will that last? You'd have to be a retard to live in that city and state.

Anyway, I think the days of the "overhead" heavy economies like the US's current model are numbered. The EU countries are toast; they're basically an all overhead economy. It's why lefty oriented people cream their jeans about Europe. It's a fantasy land for a would be bureaucrat.

The Amish approach to reducing overhead and regulatory burden seems to be to mostly ignore it. That generally works for them, however, the state often intrudes in their affairs and wrecks their businesses from time to time.