This is fascinating insight. I first read of this example in P.J. O’Rourke’s excellent book on economics, Eat the Rich. Today is the first time I saw the original Milton Friedman video that explains this [h/t Ed Driscoll on Instapundit].
Most of us have it pretty good while hardly ever realizing how much of our modern comfort is the result of this amazingly interconnected world we live in.