[chris_t]

I'd be interested in seeing proof that protectionism actually does benefit workers; I suspect the effect is mixed. Cheap goods from overseas often can help improve poorer people's standards of living, and it's not hard to see how protecting industries from more efficient competition overseas can benefit business owners.

[maxerickson]

Part of the problem is that capital is more mobile than workers.

You can send your factory bucks overseas a lot easier than a poor person can move to a country with a higher standard of living.

We need to start asking the question of whether our legal systems should be friendly to capital at every opportunity.