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It's probably not worth the exercise, given the source, but if we wanted to steel-man Vance's argument , shouldn't we assume he meant it was the difference between a cheap imported toaster and a more costly domestic toaster, times one million, that is not worth giving up a job? To make the math easy, let's assume the domestic toaster is $1 more expensive. That would be $1 million, given his own number. Still doesn't sound worth it.

I also don't accept that we give up jobs to buy cheap toasters. That's not how economies work. But I assume you wanted to focus on the pure innumeracy of the statement.

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You're right that I should have taken the difference between the two. Touche. But that difference could easily be $14. Check out toasters on line and you'll see. I'm willing to be that there's no domestically produced toaster that sells for under $29.

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