I've long marveled at seeing "MADE IN INDIA" stamped into manhole covers in NYC and elsewhere.  It seems like a near-irrefutable argument demonstrating the sheer pervasiveness of globalization, not to mention modern shipping economics -- that it's actually cheaper to make something as heavy as a manhole cover nearly eight thousand miles away from where it's intended to be used, and to ship it there across several oceans, than it is to fabricate it closer to home.  Mind-boggling, every time I contemplate it.

But idle contemplation is all I'd done, while a stringer for the Times went and got the goods.  And, the story's even more interesting -- and instructive -- than I'd previously thought.  (The narrated slide show of their production is especially amazing; do check it out.)

Turns out these things are essentially forged by hand, without much mechanical assistance, by guys with no safety gear or even much in the way of clothing. 

We take so much for granted, don't we?