TW: If there was one campaign position where I disagreed strongly and more or less unequivocally with Obama is was free trade. Am more or less an unadulterated free trade proponent. Hopefully Obama's campaign rhetoric will turn out to be over-heated political pandering (he did back off in the general election). Especially as the worldwide economic mess could turn even more scary if folks started reverting to selfish trade policies (this may happen anyway and it is obvious that almost no one wants a strong currency these days which is a disguised form of trade protectionism but that would be different post).
This article walks through the economic impact of the Ipod. Even though the manufacturing of the Ipod occurs overseas the study indicates the strong majority of economic value of the Ipod resides at home in the good old USofA.
From Economist:
"...They tally the number of jobs and wages associated with the production, development and distribution of all Apple iPods in 2006. Apple (an American company) invented the iPod, but they, and the intermediate goods they require, are mainly manufactured abroad. So other than enjoying more music, have Americans benefited from the creation of iPods?
The answer is yes. The authors found iPods employed 41,170 people worldwide. About 27,000 of those jobs went overseas, but most of those were the low-wage and low-skill jobs involved in production. Only 30 Americans had jobs involved in iPod production. But 13,890 jobs were created in the engineering or retail sector. These Americans earned $753m from iPods, while overeases employees earned $318m. Americans earned more because Apple kept the high-skill jobs (the R&D side) at home and sent its manufacturing abroad. But America's lower-skill workers also benefited, mainly in the retail, non-professional sector. These jobs earned American workers more than $220m.
As long as America has a labour force of competitive, skilled workers, it will still reap the benefits of innovation and benefit from trade..."
http://www.economist.com/blogs/freeexchange/2008/12/who_benefits_from_ipods.cfm
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