It's just that because those products don't come in boxes anymore but are distributed over the Internet people think they don't count?
It's just that because those products don't come in boxes anymore but are distributed over the Internet people think they don't count?
US industrial (absolute, not per capita) production hasn't grown since 2007: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/INDPRO
But the population has increased by 13.5%: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_the_United_Sta...
It's one hell of a gamble to rely so much on software "products", while anything that software actually runs on is made in Asia. Building up a software industry will be a lot easier than it was to grow the industrial and tech ecosystem. And that ecosystem will give sweetheart deals to homegrown software, while extorting yours. Sorry, did I say "will"? I meant it's already doing so:
Apple CEO Tim Cook "secretly" signed an agreement worth more than $275 billion with Chinese officials, promising that Apple would help to develop China's economy and technological capabilities - https://www.macrumors.com/2021/12/07/apple-ceo-tim-cook-secr...
(Also, if you're trying to reduce imports, that messes up the balance of payments of your trade partners who get mad, and if you do it obnoxiously enough then other countries start substituting away your exports)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manufacturing
Most of this manufacturing is just not consumer facing.