Per item produced, the man hours are not that staggering. Here's my back of the envelop calculation: A laptop costs about $1,000. Assume a $15/hour wage. Th

Per item produced, the man hours are not that staggering. Here's my back of the envelop calculation: A laptop costs about $1,000. Assume a $15/hour wage. That's about the average for most the electronics producing world, and it represents a balance between the wages of the engineers and the wages of assemblers. Make the generous assumption that 100% of the cost is labor. That adds up to 66 hours of total labor for my laptop. I probably own about $3,000 worth of goods total, and have no desire for anything more. That's about 200 hours of total labor - or 5 months. That will easily last me 5 years or more.