>We live in a society in which those who control large corporations argue that it is virtuous to relocate significant portions of the business to locations which are cheaper due to more lax or nonexistent laws protecting workers and/or the environment, and thus consumers back in the US receive the same quality of product but at a lower price thanks to the location-based saving.

I don't think this is entirely fair. Some of the lower cost can surely be attributed to lower cost of living in those locations, not necessarily due to more lenient laws.

In that case, it isn't comparable to arbitrage over IP.