Growing a car

Interesting piece in VentureBlog about job loss in the US. Since 1995, two million Americans have lost jobs in the manufacturing industry. Those jobs didn't go overseas, though. China lost 16 million manufacturing jobs in the same period.

Economically, trade is no different than other technologies. Economist David Friedman of Santa Clara University puts it most succinctly: there are two ways to make a car — you can either make it in Detroit or grow it in Iowa. You already know how to make it in Detroit. You get a bunch of iron ore, smelt it into steel, and have an assembly line of robots and workers shape it into a finished vehicle.

To grow it in Iowa, you plant car seeds in the ground (also known as "wheat"), wait until they sprout, and harvest them. Take the harvest and put it into a big boat marked "to Japan" and let it sail off. A few months later a brand new car comes back.

Link