In debates on trade, it’s a sure inevitability that some free-marketeer will defend cheap imports on the grounds that they make goods more affordable to American consumers. This is, so far as it goes, absolutely true. But the equally inevitable retort from trade-skeptics that cheap flatscreen TVs are no good to those without jobs is also true, at least so far as it goes. Both sides, unfortunately are missing a critically important point: Most American manufacturers are also American consumers, and in a very significant way.

Just last month, our own Skipsul provided an eye-opening example of this in his piece “I, Circuit Board,” which detailed how his automotive electronics manufacturing company relies on a web of supply chains that stretch across half the world, starting with raw materials, and proceeding through a series of intermediate products that culminate in a single consumer good. And the less expensive a given input for Skip, the more money he has to put to other uses, whether it be lowering prices, improving his product, hiring new workers, increasing wages, or giving him enough cash on hand to pursue his hobbies or further upgrade his Ricochet membership. (Just sayin’. Hey, we’re an American employer, too!)