Will Cheap Labor be a Thing of the Past?

I signed up for the Motley Fool newsletter awhile back, the one in Mondays VicAd with the dumbest investments.

Yesterdays newsletter was interesting so I did some research. Yes it is, very interesting.

3D Printing

It is not printing on a piece of paper, there just isn't another word for it currently.

Industrial 3D printers cost over a 100K, commercial printers about 20K, about five are marketed now for home use at about $1,500.

As of now 3D printers are used in every field imaginable, defense contractors, auto manufacturers, medical implants and bone and tissue replication, a kidney has been successfully made and transplanted using this techonolgy, jewelry creation, there is even a chocolate 3D printer that can make any image into a edible chocolate treat.

So far 3D printers can build anything using a CAD program in human bone and a few organs, metals, ceramics, glass, composite and other plastics, wood, paper and chocolate, butter and sugar.

The reason for the title of this blog is because this technology has the ability to replace the labor cost of manufacturing almost anything. It is a additive manufacturing process, where something is made from the ground up with zero waste for drilling, milling, boring ect, and zero need to manufacture new tools and dies to change a products design.

Search for yourself about 3D printing or see...

http://www.economist.com/node/18114221

http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/115503-what-is-3d-printing

Some 3D printers are already self replicating, if one of the parts breaks it can make its own replacement part. I know sounds kinda like the Terminator movie, but the technology is here already and will only become a larger part of life.

Can't find your TV remote? Print out another one! How wild is that?

But it is coming.