03-12-2026, 03:41 AM
(This post was last modified: 03-12-2026, 03:44 AM by Durian Fiend.)
(03-12-2026, 01:39 AM)ChunksterK Wrote: I went back and reread the original piece by Will Bailey, and two things stood out.Yup. We have no idea when his house arrived at port in the US, assuming it did arrive and the shipper found someone else to buy it at the last minute as Will has claimed. Has anyone else found evidence online of a prefab house coming from China in the past couple years for the price of $20K when all is said and done? I haven't.
First, Civil Beat clearly categorized it as "commentary" and not a news article. Another way of putting that would be opinion.
Second, at least one commentator asked in a polite and non-judgemental way for a breakdown of the shipping and customs charges for clarification. A Punaweb poster sent Mr. Bailey an email asking for the same information. There has been no response on Civil Beat and no report of one here.
So based on all that, I have to say what we have here on Punaweb and there on Civli Beat is a lot of opinion and not many facts.
Another strange facet of his story is his claim it took them 8 months to build it in China. Say what? They can build an entire city in 8 months over there. In the video link I posted earlier, those people had theirs shipped within 30 days.
Civil Beat: "Will Bailey is a veteran who was born on Kauaʻi, served two tours in Iraq, and now lives on Hawaiʻi island. He attended University of Hawaiʻi Mānoa, UH Hilo and Hawaiʻi Community College. You can reach him by email at columnists@civilbeat.org..."
Well no, I can't.
(03-11-2026, 08:28 PM)kalakoa Wrote: just the home as approximately $15.8K, and total after shipping, taxes and tariffs as over $28K
...and we still can't build them any cheaper domestically. I guess the joke is on us?
It's the huge discrepancy in the price of labor. The local prefab businessman I quoted earlier also has business interests in Philippines. He says the price for a skilled, productive worker there is $5 a day.