After reading through this thread, I have come to the following conclusion:

Clearly, there is a need to do what Walmart has done for every other product in the world: have it all made in china!

Seriously though, I am impressed and humbled by the cost & time involved in kiltmaking. It is a shame that true skills like kilt making, blacksmithing etc. are non-profitable because people are not willing to pay what they are worth.

Not to get political, but I have often used my wife and my experience in Scotland as an example of paying what something actually costs. In the USA, we all often pay about $2-3 for a 1 lb bag of baby carrots. This is because of subsidies, cheap (illegal?) labor, tax breaks to large agri-businesses etc. When we were in Scotland, we bought a 300g bag of baby carrots (less than 1/2 a pound!) and we paid about 1.50 pounds ($3). I noticed that the carrots in Scotland came from Spain. This is another EU country and they are required to provide a living wage, health insurance, etc to their workers. So, we paid what baby carrots most likely actually cost.

I have often wondered what would happen to the USA if all tariffs, protections, subsidies and other Federal and state help were removed? Perhaps we would become a much less wasteful culture and we wouldn't think twice about a $500-800 kilt.....