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We lost all those industries and it made us wealthier. It’s the law of comparative advantage in action.

m0xte 6y ago
Ah yes sort of like when we sold out all our electronic component manufacturing in the UK to Philips in the 1960s-1980s. These eventually got spun off to the Far east. Add enough local industry to that and there are unspoken pockets of vacuum and two generations of children in poverty and unemployment instead. Very short sighted.
jojobas 6y ago
US sells out assets and spends the money on "stuff" rather than creating new assets. That's the opposite of "wealthier".
- valuearb 6y ago
  GDP numbers disagree. We are still a world leading manufacturer and the world leader in services. We focus on building things that we have the largest comparative advantage. That means software, but not commodity electronics like RAM. Apple’s iPhone business collects the majority of worldwide smartphone profits. It’s iPad business collects the majority of tablet profits. It’s Macintosh business collects the majority of pc manufacturing profits. It does this by focusing on design, development, and usability, primarily through software. It keeps costs down by outsourcing assembly to Asia. If it brought that low value work back, it would make it shareholders and America poorer. It would sell fewer devices at higher prices, losing high paying developer jobs and all for a few more minimum wage level jobs. If US chip makers have competitive advantages they don’t need our help. If they don’t, helping them is diverting talented resources from better industries hat would have better increased our living standards.
  - jojobas 6y ago
    You gave me a massage for $100, I polished your nails for $100. GDP increased by $200. Who became wealthier? Apple sure makes its shareholders wealthier. I guess you can say that about its 90,000 USA employees, and that's about it- there's pretty much no supplier network to talk about.
    - valuearb 6y ago
      In your example, you got a massage and I got my nails polished. We both did. Apple pays app developers over $30B a year. It’s created hundreds of thousands of high paying jobs at third party developers.

Ah yes sort of like when we sold out all our electronic component manufacturing in the UK to Philips in the 1960s-1980s. These eventually got spun off to the Far east. Add enough local industry to that and there are unspoken pockets of vacuum and two generations of children in poverty and unemployment instead. Very short sighted.

jojobas 6y ago

US sells out assets and spends the money on "stuff" rather than creating new assets. That's the opposite of "wealthier".

valuearb 6y ago
GDP numbers disagree. We are still a world leading manufacturer and the world leader in services. We focus on building things that we have the largest comparative advantage. That means software, but not commodity electronics like RAM. Apple’s iPhone business collects the majority of worldwide smartphone profits. It’s iPad business collects the majority of tablet profits. It’s Macintosh business collects the majority of pc manufacturing profits. It does this by focusing on design, development, and usability, primarily through software. It keeps costs down by outsourcing assembly to Asia. If it brought that low value work back, it would make it shareholders and America poorer. It would sell fewer devices at higher prices, losing high paying developer jobs and all for a few more minimum wage level jobs. If US chip makers have competitive advantages they don’t need our help. If they don’t, helping them is diverting talented resources from better industries hat would have better increased our living standards.
- jojobas 6y ago
  You gave me a massage for $100, I polished your nails for $100. GDP increased by $200. Who became wealthier? Apple sure makes its shareholders wealthier. I guess you can say that about its 90,000 USA employees, and that's about it- there's pretty much no supplier network to talk about.
  - valuearb 6y ago
    In your example, you got a massage and I got my nails polished. We both did. Apple pays app developers over $30B a year. It’s created hundreds of thousands of high paying jobs at third party developers.