Hardly a Pressing Concern

Here's a letter to the Washington Post:

So the tariffs that Uncle Sam slaps on Americans who buy Chinese-made ironing boards save 200 jobs that pay about $15 per hour ("Indiana ironing-board factory faces stiff competition from Chinese companies," June 22).

Whatever the (questionable) merits of this tariff, its reality couldn't differ more from the rhetoric typically deployed to make protectionism sound appealing and sexy.  This rhetoric features much fine talk of encouraging strategic...