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… is from pages 76-77 of Steve Landsburg’s delightful, insightful, and provocative 1997 book, Fair Play [2] (original emphasis):
Thus, following the passage of NAFTA, Michael Kinsley wrote in The New Republic that “when a $16-an-hour American loses his job to a $3-an-hour Mexican,” fairness and political prudence dictate that he be compensated for his loss.
Maybe Kinsley is right regarding political prudence, but fairness seems to dictate just the opposite. Here we have an American who has devoted his life to charging the rest of us $16 for something we ought to have been able to buy for $3. What fairness dictates is that he and others who have benefited from protectionism should compensate the majority of their countrymen who have borne the burden.