One thing that never fails to piss me off about debating free trade is that you invariably will get a few halfwits out there who respond with something like: “Well, if your job were threatened like mine has been, you’d sing a different tune.” In other words, they’re advancing the notion that somehow when you’re nakedly advancing your own narrow interest in a public policy argument, you’ve somehow got an air of authenticity—somehow deserve to be taken more seriously rather than less. It doesn’t even occur to them that they ought to, you know, be ashamed at arguing like this. Worse, many of them are relatively highly paid professionals who are, in effect, arguing that you and thousands of other Americans ought to be forced to deal with them, rather than some Bangladeshi middle-class hopeful, so that they can enjoy an income that, on average, is likely to be higher than yours. And they show no sign of being embarassed to talk this way. These people deserve to stay unemployed.