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dukeyukey

> Anyone know what changed economically to justify the high US labor costs? Particularly compared to MX

My understanding is the US:

1. Is more politically, economically, and frankly physically secure than Mexico.

2. Has cheaper energy

3. Has a better-trained manufacturing workforce for the kinds of machine Lego is gonna use.

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Maybe they just received some good old-fashioned tax incentives? It's not always about geopolitics.

My guess is that Lego customers are also increasingly older.

I mean look at the millennium falcon.

https://www.lego.com/en-us/product/millennium-falcon-75192

https://i.imgur.com/vsxVnSJ.png

ages 16+

When I think of fancy lego, I think of something like this https://www.lego.com/en-us/product/lego-medium-creative-bric... because it has wheels and stuff, not just bricks.

I would have imagined "regular" lego was just different sizes of bricks, not even a sloped "roof" brick or wheels.

Also I think "made in USA" might help sales in the US and at the very least calms investors?

Investors?

LEGO Group A/S remains privately held by the family that started it in Denmark.

Tax incentives are geopolitics. That's why all the best sci-fi TV shows came out of Vancouver for a while and every movie and TV show for the last several years thanks the state of Georgia.

That’s just politics

Questions:

* Does the cheaper energy come into play with such a large onsite solar system?

* (From the point of view of a manufacturing company opening operations in the us) Does the US currently have a surplus of well trained manufacturing workers? I hear a lot of factory management/executives still complaining that the skilled labor they need just doesn't exist.

1. Yes, absolutely. There are very few developed countries with large population centres on or adjacent to strong solar potential, and fewer again if you limit them by others stuff Lego is looking for (e.g. workforce compatibility, market access).

2. That's probably true, but the US labour market is simultaneously huge, flexible, and well-educated. That gives it an advantage over most competitors.

Is this well educated labour force the part of the voter base of the two biggest parties across the pond? if yes then I wish the very best to the manufacturing trials there. We already have seen the quality of Us manufacturing recently with Tesla cars. The times that made in America was synonymous with good quality are long gone.

We make pretty good Hondas and Toyotas, though. My household has a 20 year old Camry from Kentucky that starts practically every time you crank it (except when the battery is too old).

As a general rule, the quality of manufacturing output has far less to do with the workers, and more to do with the procedures that they're made to follow.

If you put people in a situation where they can only produce crap, then that's what you'll get.

> Does the cheaper energy come into play with such a large onsite solar system?

Legos are made out of petroleum

And trees are made of wood. What's your point?

If the question was "what are Lego made of?" then this answer would at least make sense, but that's not what the question was.

For what it's worth, Lego has used a lot of different materials over the years, and not all of them have been petroleum based. To be fair, the majority of their new products are made from petroleum based plastics, including ABS (Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene), polypropylene, MABS (Methyl Methacrylate-Acrylonitrile-Butadiene-Styrene), PA (Polyamide, aka, nylon), POM (Polyoxymethylene), PE (Polyethylene), MTPO (Metallocene Thermoplastic Polyolefin), SEBS (Styrene-Ethylene-Butylene-Styrene, the material used for "rubber" tires and similar), and PET (Polyethylene Terephthalate).

There are efforts being made towards replacing ABS with recycled PET. Some kits may already use recycled PET.

I'll try not to set them on fire.

Mexico has political stability problems, for one...

....AND workers are dirt cheap and have nearly zero protections.

What? Essentially no US factory is paying less than $15/hour. Like $20/hour is more common. And they have to pay benefits. That's more expensive than most of Europe.

In Mexico you would be lucky to make $5/hour.

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