If you find this hard to believe, you can look west or east. In Japan, efforts to “protect” workers from international trade resulted in economic stagnation and have depressed real income growth over the past twenty years. In Europe, similar efforts to “preserve” the jobs of existing workers have resulted in higher , not lower, unemployment because firms are unwilling to hire people that they cannot fire later.

If you own the only grocery store in your small town, you are clearly harmed if a competing store opens across the street. If you work in a small telephone equipment store and a large company starts taking away business via Internet sales, you will obviously be worse off. If you used to be employed at a call center for customer service at Wal-Mart and have just lost your job because Wal-Mart outsourced to a cheaper Indian firm, you will have to look for a new job.