I Toured Unitree's Factory. I'm More Bullish on the West

Re:I Toured Unitree's Factory. I'm More Bullish on the West by pocksuppet on Saturday November 07, 2026 @02:06AM (#50402329)

It seems like much of the disparity between the West and China isn't about China having some better manufacturing technology. They do, but it's not the real issue. Really it's all about financial imbalances - people get paid less and the rent is lower. In the West we have a huge rent-extraction sector which produces nothing and makes it much harder to afford to start any activity.

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Re:I Toured Unitree's Factory. I'm More Bullish on the West by za_creature on Saturday November 07, 2026 @04:53AM (#50403117)

It's not entirely true that the sector produces nothing, but if you think about it, the whole US economy in the last 3 decades has been nothing but rent extraction.

Defense contractors charge maintenance fees both domestic and abroad. For abroad, the maintenance contract is a requirement of getting the deal passed through congress and is frequently more expensive than the gear itself.

SaaS charge monthly instead of one upfront fee for a well tested product that used to be the norm

Video games similarly have been transitioning to day 1 paid DLCs and monthly fees

Even the movie industry is a subscription now (streaming providers aside). There's not one movie, there's the MCU pumping out 3 movies a year for the last 20. How many movies from last year have a number in their name?

Then there's of course, the actual rents. And insurance. And taxes. Something has to give, but I fear it will be the humans.

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Re:I Toured Unitree's Factory. I'm More Bullish on the West by 0xbadcafebee on Saturday November 07, 2026 @12:27PM (#50406289)

[delayed]

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Re:I Toured Unitree's Factory. I'm More Bullish on the West by pocksuppet on Monday November 09, 2026 @11:22AM (#50427695)

"Consumer society" refers to a society that consumes more than it produces, it doesn't mean how the wealth is distributed within the society.

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Re:I Toured Unitree's Factory. I'm More Bullish on the West by za_creature on Monday November 09, 2026 @05:04PM (#50432907)

And Poe's law refers to a talking raven that has been known to say "nevermore"

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