Maybe, but is assembly labor really that large of a fraction of the total cost? If us labor is 20x the expense of the alternative ($0.60 vs $12.00/hour) you'd

Maybe, but is assembly labor really that large of a fraction of the total cost? If us labor is 20x the expense of the alternative ($0.60 vs $12.00/hour) you'd have 16 hours of hand assembly to account for that price difference. That seems implausible to me. However, i've never manufactured stuff, so what do i know.