You can go to Mexico and have a veterinarian operate on you if you like, but I'd prefer to have a licensed physician from a recognized medical school.

Also, I disagree that limited protectionism is bad. If you have a price differential that allows a company to remain relatively competitive, it is better to have 1,000 workers in the US rather than import the same product from Mexico because we collect income tax from them and they are gainfully employed and spend that money in the US. A corporation may look at their balance sheets and realize they'll save $5MM annually by moving to Mexico, but if they're already making healthy profits then this savings is not in the national interest, only the shareholders' interest. Just as we regulate to avoid securities fraud, limited protectionism could balance this. Isn't that, after all, what you Economist-types think government is there for? Europe wouldn't probably exist (well, Germany would) if it didn't have some of those protectionist measures.

I also would like to know what "tax loopholes" everyone keeps referring to. I read the tax code all the time and although there are some obscure and targeted credits, it's not nearly as common as you and others make it seem. This is a common refrain from the Left: "tax loopholes, tax loopholes!" Show me some.