Lol seriously? You need me to prove that it costs more to produce something in USA VS china? Or more/less depending on real estate costs, machinery, labor rates, water, electricity etc?
Look, you are asking for an intangible, unless you could tell me what the security of your technology is worth. Unless you could tell me the selling price of Monster Silk. Unless you could tell me the exact projected use for MS as a technical textile. Unless you could tell me ALL the unknowns. You are asking people to tell the future. It is an unknown, so the relevant argument here is an argument based on what is known.
The cost for of producing silk VARIES across different companies,
...and continents to better make your point. Why do costs vary? They vary because (in China) of politics and who you know. How do you get product to market. how well do you market your product. How well do you pay off the territorial military General. How well do you weave. There are many variables in China too. Labor is cheaper. Even still the costs are by and large a known variable and you could add or subtract to get a final number when more is known. The problem though is that you are asking irrational questions if the answer cannot be known.
Add to the above that you are not comparing apples to oranges on demand for a new and much improved fiber. So the variables are too expansive(not expensive) to answer your question....right now. But MS is a better product. The technologies behind MS and future versions are invaluable. Production costs are probably just now being formulated. Farming is the cheapest way to produce anything that is made, if you want the real thing and not something synthetic. Synthetic silk is an unknown for some amount of time. What is the value of security. All these are variables in the question ofcost of production and are currently unknown.... so in the mean time...ZF's or anyone else's opinions are open for discussion.....but you should not call him out for facts when he was clearly voicing opinion.