This issue crosses party lines like few others I have seen.

Despite all the stories about slave labor, a vast majority of industries overseas employ workers at wages higher than the prevailing income level in that area. To be sure, the income level in that area is the pits, but welcome to the rest of the world. Most Third-World inhabitants fight like hell for these jobs. Almost anything beats following an ox around a rice paddy.

That being said, there is still the problem of underpricing American goods, legitimately or not. I know some conservatives, Jerry Pournelle for one, who would probably agree with you that the American middle class is in danger from this, and there are some good points in the arguments.

The other side of the coin, though, is the cost of protectionism. There is currently a 100 percent tariff on Brazilian orange juice. Does the average housewife know she is paying twice what she has to for orange juice? And there are a LOT of products like that. The politician hopes to God that nobody will notice that they are paying far more than they would have to for protected goods. Like the taxes eased out of the paycheck in the middle of the night, he counts on the perception not being there.

But you still have to deal with the fact that the consumer will pay a price for every product that's protected. This may be a legitimate tradeoff with keeping American jobs. I don't know where the balance lies.