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The extra supply is balanced by the extra demand only if exports are zero. I.e. demand for Apple devices won't increase by 10% if the US population grows by 10%. And of course making 10% more rarely requires 10% more workers - you need more on the assembly line, but not more to design the items.


Those are points I hadn't considered, but what in the US, net exports are negative. Wouldn't that imply the converse effect to what you're describing?


It wouldn't. Say someone in the US buys something made in China - how does that increase demand for labor in the US? There's some marginal US labor required for the last part of the transport, but that's it.


Thee last part of the transport is not marginal in the real world. Increased local consumption drives transport, retail, marketing, etc. etc. Real life economic modeling is not a simple supply/demand, widgets made/sold chart.


The person pays for the good in US dollars. Where do those dollars go? The Chinese people who now have USD either spend or invest them back in the US.


Most of the dollars go as profit for the multi nationals. The remaining (very minimal) goes to the contract manufacturers.


Though thanks to the bigger market the prices can actually decrease, so living standards could increase, even if wages haven't.


Only if they wouldn't have bought it if they hadn't moved to the US.


This is a rather poor argument. US exports in total are only ~13% of GDP. The trade deficit is only ~2 or 3% of GDP. That's a tiny secondary effect.




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