Furniture production in the US in 1990 totaled $40bn; in 2005 it doubled to more than $85bn: http://congressionalresearch.com/RL34001/document.php?study=U.S.+Fu

Furniture production in the US in 1990 totaled $40bn; in 2005 it doubled to more than $85bn: http://congressionalresearch.com/RL34001/document.php?study=U.S.+Furniture+Manufacturing+Overview+and+Prospects http://congressionalresearch.com/RL34001/document.php?study=... What's being made in Asia that didn't exist before is super low cost disposable stuff that a lower-income family could buy, or that a middle-income family could throw in a guest room. I suspect that pattern exists all over -- I have some high-end first-world manufactured goods in my kitchen, but I also have some crappy junk that I use infrequently or on an almost disposable basis. Turn the clock back 40 years, and I would just have the high-end goods, without the pizza cutter or avocado masher or whatever.