Trade Is Not a Four-Letter Word by Fred P. Hochberg

Trade Is Not a Four-Letter Word by Fred P. Hochberg

Author:Fred P. Hochberg
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Avid Reader Press / Simon & Schuster
Published: 2020-01-13T16:00:00+00:00


The state of the art in 1976.

If you would, take a minute to consider your phone … not to stare at the screen, but to marvel at all that it stands for. The modern smartphone is a self-contained smorgasbord of human needs and desires—it is unlike anything our universe has ever seen. Though it’s easy to take our devices for granted now that they’ve become so intimately and intensely wrapped up in our daily lives, it’s worth it to take a quick step back and acknowledge what it is we’re really talking about here. As I write this, there is a three-by-six-inch rectangle sitting in my jacket pocket that provides me with instantaneous access to the entire accumulation of human knowledge to date. In less time that it takes you to read this sentence, it can connect me by text, voice, or pristine video to friends on the other side of the world. It functions as a state-of-the-art camera and photography studio, contains a comprehensive and interactive map of the world, and can house tens of thousands of my favorite songs—Broadway show tunes included! If I ever wanted to, I could use it to watch a live soccer match taking place in Senegal. If I point it at the night sky, it can tell me what constellation I’m looking at. I could ask it to bring me an order of delicious steamed dumplings, a new pair of shoes, or a stranger willing to drive me wherever I’d like to go, and they would all soon arrive at my doorstep. There’s even a flashlight! Oh, and did I mention that this device retails for something in the neighborhood of $999—roughly the cost of one ticket to see Springsteen on Broadway, a new fender for your car, or five nights in a mid-range Cleveland hotel?

My point is this: the smartphone isn’t just another product. It’s the pinnacle of human invention—at least so far. Less than a decade after it was first introduced, the smartphone has already changed the way Americans seek knowledge, entertain themselves, track their health, date, communicate with loved ones, manage their money, and so much else. It has allowed us to connect to—and disconnect from—the world to astounding, sometimes terrifying effect. It has become the primary way that our politicians speak to us. And however easy the device makes it all seem, the truth is that getting it into your hands requires the ideas, resources, and labor of people on six continents. Yes, the story of the iPhone is a story made possible by trade; these little rectangles in our pockets are a miracle—and, at times, a menace—that simply could not exist absent a free-flowing, globalized economy.

It’s a story that begins in California in 2004, when Steve Jobs first gave the green light for Apple to begin moving into cell phones—a market that, while booming, was at the time plagued by design flaws and plenty of headaches for consumers.2 I, for one, had one of the early mobile phones



Download



Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.