One thing that has not been directly mentioned, although R&D is mentioned in the post I reference, is that R&D does cost money. I believe many of the Asian manufacturers are riding on the back of these other well known companies by copying the designs. It still costs a lot of money and time to implement an item into a manufacturing production environment, but not as much if you don't have to pay for the groundwork required to design the item. It's happened many times. Even with the company I work for. Chinese bought one each of a line of equipment from us several years ago. Now, guess what, their making a line of equipment also. Now, does everyone look at their competitors' product to try and identify faults? Of course they do. But hopefully they come up with something better than just a copy they can sell at less cost. Remember, wages in Asian countries are much lower than they are here in USA. No one in USA would work for some of the wages those people will work for. You and I both know some of those wages are way below poverty level.

Neil