Principles of Economics

Deflationary pressure:

Import inexpensive goods.  To some extent, one is importing cheap foreign labor.  Be careful how you
measure the cheapness of this labor, however.  A Chinese worker at 10 cents per hour may require 20
workers to do a job which an American can do with the tools and automated equipment.  Once the robots
start multiplying exponentially, the cost of manufacturing in the US will plummet and those formerly
exported jobs will come right back home.

Consider the following.

Labor to make a vase in China: $0.50
Cost to box and ship the vase to San Francisco harbor: $0.24
Cost to move container to Chicago per vase: $0.68
Cost to move vase from container to shelf at Marshall Fields in Chicago: $1.05
Total cost: $2.47

Versus:
Labor to make a vase in Chicago using robot labor: $1.23
Cost to box and ship the vase to Marshall Fields in Chicago and place it on the shelf: $1.05
Total cost: $2.28

Principle number one: The Robots Are Coming.