Referencing Jakob Nielsen's article on the subject, I-Designer's debate the general level of expertise of the average web user. Send them to the I-Design moderator, Shirley Kaiser.
Users are ignorant.
Some designers think he's too extreme while others see his points but wish he stated things in a less exaggerated way. Well, yes, some of them are stupid. As we gain more experience, we are less stupid. Because the links look different from the regular text, it's obvious even to them that they are, indeed, links. Users are learning.