Economist Lester Thurow once posed the question ”if you were the president of your own country and could specialize in one of two industries, computer chips or potato chips, which would you choose?” When faced with this question, many people choose potato chips, with reasoning “everyone can use potato chips but not everybody can use computer chips”

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Economist Lester Thurow once posed the question ”if you were the president of your own country and could specialize in one of two industries, computer chips or potato chips, which would you choose?” When faced with this question, many people choose potato chips, with reasoning “everyone can use potato chips but not everybody can use computer chips”. But the answer is much more complex. Whether to choose computer chips or potato chips depends on such factors as relationship between national wealth and the amount of value added in manufacturing products, the possibility that the country can benefit from monopoly power (few countries can make computer chips), and the likelihood of spin-off industries (computer chips technology give rise to other technology such as computer). In light of these and other possible considerations, which would you choose: Computer chips or Potato Chips? Justify your answer.