Does the US have a comparative advantage in culture?

There's an argument that the decline of US manufacturing and agriculture industries is economically undisturbing because the US no longer has a comparative advantage in those industries, in the context of the global economy. What does the US have comparative advantage in, we must ask? I guess, in culture: Hollywood, video games, music, and advertising. Also, the computer industry, which really means Apple and Microsoft.

I think that the US really does have a comparative advantage in software development, since it requires a set of skills that American students are uniquely prepared to deliver: equal parts analytical ability, math, creativity, teamwork, dedication, and design sensibility. Our counterparts in other countries do well with the analytical stuff and might make more efficient code monkeys, but Americans make the best innovators, by my estimation. It's not for no reason that Google, Miscroft, Apple, Blizzard (World of Warcraft), Electronic Arts, DigiDesign (ProTools), and many of the open-source projects are firmly based in the US.

But software development is a small industry (in terms of employment) in the US, since collaboration and production is so cheap and efficient. I mean, all the great accomplishments of the entire industry -- the best games, the best operating systems, the best programs -- can be stored on a single hard drive. Software development is an industry that works best when concentrated in a few huge companies -- or often, when done mostly by open-source volunteers who really care about quality over profitability. In any event, it's hard to imagine software development carrying an entire economy or employing a lot of people.

What about Hollywood? Sure, Hollywood makes the biggest worldwide blockbusters, but is that really because of an identifiable comparative advantage? I think not. Our blockbusters make it big because they have massive budgets -- for advertising, star power, special effects, and distribution. But what if the huge budgets thin out over time? What if Americans stop shelling out $10 for movie tickets? What if American movies no longer set the pace around the world? Let's imagine that Bollywood movies start to get more sophisticated and earn more money banking on the growing Indian middle class. The studios have no problem importing American or Japanese special-effects teams, and all of a sudden the next worldwide blockbuster is produced in India.

American production teams don't go out of business, but they have to thin out their own budgets, cutting on effects and advertising. Without that muscle, they can't push American movies around the globe. Maybe quality goes up (blockbusters are no longer feasible) or quality goes down (power concentrated exclusively at Disney or Universal), but either way, movies cease to be such major exports. The "comparative advantage" evaporates, like the French "comparative advantage" in films disappeared when the US got rich after the World Wars.

Tastes in cultural products depend very much on advertising and distribution bullying. We can't take the American cultural supremacy for granted.