Sadly, this is something that most forget. The efficiency of the distribution system (ie, all those supermarkets) is far more important to our standard of living than that of the manufacturing sector. (As an aside, excellent Julie Burchill on this subject here .)
More on just how progressive the US Federal taxation system is. The top 20% of earners provide almost 70% of the revenue collected.
Given the slow week before Christmas, should be time to join in this game . Find the elementary mistakes in this paper on fair trade bananas. For bonus points, explain why the Fair Trade arrangement should not be fined like the supermakrets were over milk and cheese prices .
If that doesn't take up enough of your time, try the new William Nordhaus
toy
research tool . It's actually here . It's a way of visualising GDP for any one degree by one degree square on the planet.