Yoram Bauman, author of The Cartoon Introduction to Economics, asks some questions in the comments.  Consider the following his guest post.  I’ll respond soon.

On second thought, I miss arguing with you, Bryan, so I’ll pick some bones:

1) What did you think of the page on public choice (p82)? Buchanan
got his own Nobel Prize joke, and I thought that was pretty good!

2) Regarding Chapter 9 (“Complications”), you write that it “bends
over backwards to consider objections to free trade, but ultimately
grants them very little.” Do you really see it as that simple? When you
read articles about foreign countries and child labor or unsafe working
conditions or human rights or environmental pollution, do you just
shrug and say (as the character does on p112) “as long as we can buy
bread from them cheap, who cares?!”

3) #2 above also makes me curious about your take on the history of labor laws in the USA. When you read about, say, the 1911 Triangle Fire,
do you really just get a hop in your step from thinking about the joys
of an unregulated market? If you could go back in time and eliminate
laws in the U.S. about child labor and workplace safety &etc, would
you?