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"A lot of people are so bound to an ideology, that they ignore when other countries are gaming the system for the purpose of bankrupting another player. "

I am generally a free trader, but we do have to interject some common sense into our trade policies. And, it's tough to have discussions about trade policy absent discussions about the labor market and labor laws (and other regulations) in this country.

I was reading my some of my Apple SEC filings, and their primary OEM, Foxconn caught my eye. Their main assembly location in China employs hundreds of thousands of people - in one location. It's a shame that a great company like Apple can't build those iPhones, iPods and iPads in this country. But, if they did, the prices would probably be 4 to 5 times the current retail price, and of course no one would buy them, so there would be no market; No market, no jobs.

It's a vicious catch-22. I'm not sure what the right answer is, but transferring the kind of wealth we are to both the Chinese and the Arab states isn't going to be sustainable for much longer.

Yep. There's another problem, though, that I don't see us getting around. The standard of living in the US has been very high, especially compared to what we'd usually refer to as "emerging markets," India and China, especially. A guy in India who is very bright and very competent is working 14 hour days in a fairly high tech field and maybe has a moped.

Post a picture of a Tata, which is a dream car for the average Indian, and you'll get about twenty FR posters laughing at it. Top speed of 60 mph, no A/C, two cylinder 620CC engine (a lot of people here wouldn't have a motorcycle with an engine that small.) It's our joke and their dream. How long can we continue to keep our end of the bathtub full while theirs is empty? Globalization is a reality, and your point that Apple can't build their products here cause they'd cost five times as much is exactly true.

Little note: I went to the local Hobby Lobby to buy a small set of acrylic paints. They had four different brands which were similar in product quantity, etc. Two were made in the US. One was made in Europe. One was made in China. The US and European sets were over $20. The Chinese one was $5. Back to our original points. If the US is to be competitive, working low end jobs has to become more profitable than welfare, meaning we have to quit paying people not to work. People say they want American products, but are not willing to pay four times the price for a US product. The first products that went overseas were low-skill products, like clothing. Now, emerging markets can produce high tech products better and cheaper than we can, and increasingly, design is moving there also. We've put off the equalization of standard of living by borrowing, but we've reached the end of that road. A lot of people are not going to like what comes next.