That is true when a German or Romanian worker makes a product that is sold in the US. It is not true when, for example, a Chinese* worker (who works 14 hours a

That is true when a German or Romanian worker makes a product that is sold in the US. It is not true when, for example, a Chinese* worker (who works 14 hours a day 6 days a week, eats in the company mess hall, and lives in a company dorm) makes a product that is sold in the US. The Chinese government doesn't protect these workers against overtime and similar abuses, so these workers receive very little for their labor. Through its economic policies, the Chinese government effectively sequesters most of these workers income. Today China has foreign exchange reserves of over $4 trillion. That's over 35% of its nominal GDP today. It's double China's nominal GDP in 2004. The net result is that these workers have tiny participation as consumers in the Chinese economy. But they participate as full (actually like 2x full) workers in the US economy. The same dynamic is present in many other countries, so you get 2-3 billion people competing for jobs in an economy of 320 million. * China is just an example here. Nothing personal against China or Chinese in general.