General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsTrue or False: The TPP will create a big increase in markets for our exports
False.
<snip>
The closer you look at the economics of President Barack Obama’s proposed Pacific Rim trade deal, the less sense they make from an American standpoint. This Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is touted by its champions as a golden opportunity for the United States to hitch its idling economic wagon to the shining star of high-flying East Asia.
But the numbers show instead that the talks’ paramount prize is a U.S. market more vital than ever to the economies of stalled-out competitors determined mainly to sell to the United States, not to Buy American. The result is sure to be a drag on U.S. growth.
<snip>
Worse, these disparities mean that TPP shapes up as a net growth-killer, not a growth-booster, for the United States. Whenever fast-growing countries tie themselves more tightly with slower-growing countries, they tend to lose more trade opportunities than they gain, because these slow-growing countries’ exports typically rise much faster than their imports. In turn, these trade-flow changes subtract from overall growth.
TPP, however, stands to produce an especially bad cost-benefit ratio for America, because most first-round TPP countries have also long relied much more than the U.S. on growing through exports ..
<Snip>
The wider trade deficit that’s bound to come means that TPP’s passage will further undercut a U.S. recovery that’s already sluggish enough.
explained well and in full at:
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/obama-has-the-economics-of-tpp-trade-deal-backwards-2015-04-23
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hobbit709
(41,694 posts)That is besides guns, and bombs , and other children's toys?
cali
(114,904 posts)they're largely protectionist goodies on things like drug patents and advantages for U.S. tech firm along with ever easier outsourcing of labor- and oh, those goodies benefit corporate interests and harm people here and abroad, but they are goodies.
stevenleser
(32,886 posts)
Ikonoklast
(23,973 posts)Mostly high-value, high-tech.
http://www.trade.gov/mas/ian/tradestatistics/
Millions of jobs depend on the export economy of this nation.
HooptieWagon
(17,064 posts)I doubt they'll be buying US made goods.
Dem2
(8,166 posts)My eyes would generally glaze over when reading articles about these sorts of agreements, but his main point makes some sense, at least intuitively. It leaves one wondering what the impetus for negotiating these agreements is in the first place, assuming Obama and his team aren't simply stooges for big business (I tend to imagine that Obama is more pragmatic than to be taken by simple arguments from CEOs). When the deal is public and both sides present their arguments, there will be merits to either side, maybe even for an ordinary citizen like myself, though I'm not going to hold my breath on that one.
Dont call me Shirley
(10,998 posts)HooptieWagon
(17,064 posts)It's an agreement written by, and for the benefit of, the 1%. There's nothing in it for worker or environmental protections.
Dem2
(8,166 posts)Do you have a link to share with a good summary of the full text of the agreement?
pipoman
(16,038 posts)Like 10 years, this is just more stealing from the poor to give to the rich, just like NAFTA....if NAFTA had such protection Mexican workers wouldn't want to cross...no, these benefit few at the expense of the masses...The US labor party is dead....
TBF
(32,004 posts)I'm supposed to be excited about that? What else do we make?
cali
(114,904 posts)in exporting weapons?
TBF
(32,004 posts)Them to have corporate sovereignty along with it.
So to sum up, TPP is going to drive more jobs out of the country, give corporations more favorable status in terms of patents and liability, and presumably open more markets for sales of weapons.
I'm still not seeing the upside for 99% of us. Will exporting weapons (which is one of the few things we still manufacturer here) really make up for all the other jobs we are likely to lose?
sendero
(28,552 posts)... that claim that the Chinese will buy our cars if we just pass that trade deal. It's LUDICROUS.
jeff47
(26,549 posts)
Historic NY
(37,449 posts)In fact GM in China outpaces sales in the US.. Buick is the largest seller.
<Any trip to Walmart reveals the unavoidable: Chinese products are taking over our homes. But the Chinese thirst for American-badged cars is similarly vast. American automakers are poised to sell more than 2.5 million vehicles in China this year. With U.S. and European car markets stagnating, sales to the Chinese are essential to the U.S. auto industry’s health.
Indeed, through the first half of this year, GM has sold more cars in China (1.2 million vehicles) than in the U.S. (1.08 million). And GM expects to sell more than three million cars there annually within five years. But Ford isn’t faring as well in China—GM outsells the blue-oval brand four to one. So what is GM doing right in China, and what is Ford doing wrong? And what can we expect in the future?>
http://www.caranddriver.com/features/ford-and-gm-battle-for-sales-in-china-feature
http://www.statista.com/statistics/233743/vehicle-sales-in-china/
There is also a good chance if your a Volvo buyer your car was made in China.
http://www.cnn.com/2015/04/20/asia/shanghai-auto-show-volvo/
JDPriestly
(57,936 posts)instinctively observed.
Having lived in various European countries for some years, I am very aware of the advantage for those who import into the US, of our rather unique cultural and linguistic unity over such a large area. We speak essentially the same language from Maine to Hawaii, from Alaska to Florida. And our culture is also far more consistent than the cultures in other geographic areas of this size. I've lived in a lot of parts of the US and am sure of this.
Maybe Russia has a fairly uniform culture and language. I don't know. There are other parts of the world that may come close. But I believe, for example, the India and China have different languages and cultures. The Middle East speaks mostly Arabic, so it could become a fairly easy market into which to introduce products. But there are lots of national divisions there.
That linguistic and cultural consistency in our culture makes us an inexpensive place to market products. And then add our relatively uniform legal system. We are a sitting duck for exporters.
And on top of it, Americans don't learn languages (in general) and don't bother to get to know about other cultures. That makes it unlikely that we will be able to export our products easily. We don't make products for ourselves, much less products geared to satisfy the hopes and dreams and tastes of people in other countries. We are so self-centered as a culture. It is quite unbelievable.
The TPP is an insane idea. Just insane for the American people. We are digging our own grave as a nation.
cali
(114,904 posts)
JonLP24
(29,322 posts)I'm not saying there isn't something there but everything has long been established to have terms that are favorable to them. The IMF extortion bailouts that come with conditions on what you must do for this money. You better believe Barclays & HSBC were on the phones with our elected officials telling them what they should do during the financial crisis of '08-'09 to what you say but if you were only in US & Europe -- especially Europe was facilitated dominated & controlling trade in Africa & Europe. The US dollar, how many countries use that as currency. Outside of the US I have only been to Tijuana, Iceland, Germany, Quwait, and Iraq. Every sign such as street sign, airport sign, anything related to that was written in the language of the dialect spoken there with English underneath without fail almost every time. -- The military obviously put all those MSR Tampa signs on the main highway though.,
To address something specific would be what are talking about here? If you're going to sell a product, it helps if there is a demand for it. The US being the largest economy not to mention its diversified -- with states' economies on par with nations' economies, depending on what we are talking about but the US has a lot of exports & imports. There are probably numerous foreign owned businesses in your neighborhood (7-11 Japan owned company) but outside of Japanese or South Korean companies we are mostly talking about European banks & oil companies. Outside of that -- the big industries are automotive manufacturing from Japan & German companies. Sony Playstations but the list pales in comparison to the list of countries US companies are in -- American brands are all-over the world. It all depends on what it is your actually selling, that transcends cultural lines.
The US being the largest consumer of oil has long been the World's top oil importer but recently the US has actually exported more oil than imported in recent years while most of shale gas production with Canada doing virtually the same thing becoming each others top Oil was their top export
On the top are military equipment aircraft & also vehicles but there are so many things on the list like Wyoming is like a country that depends on oil production there are so many things -- food & agricultural are huge. The top 6 importers and exporters are virtually the same with Canada & Mexico naturally in the top 3 which also includes China. South Korea, Germany, and France-Spain-Netherlands make the top 6. 7 is the UK.
China and India are allies with each other and Russia and the US uses tough rhetoric countries that do but TPP on the jobs front is about manufacturing and they aren't happy with certain China regulations while Malaysia offers benefits on those fronts such as the no tax, their minimum wage laws don't apply to migrant workers, and respect the copyright (US companies such as Motorola are already there) TPP would just accelerate what's already occurring (trade deficits) -- the jobs are exported, but the products manufactured are importer but like I said it all depends on what you're selling, the costs-benefits which could what happens if there is an environmental oil spill
Plus, there are just so many other things that factor into whatever industry they're selling. The US often takes the position that if you provide your national resource cheap & easy for us that is where the foreign relations based on double standards with tough rhetoric.
A point you made reminded me of the era of the Ottoman empire during the "Golden Age of Islam". You had the long historical trade route Aleppo to Kuwait City which went through Baghad. Sykes-Picot changed all that and especially making Saudi States border recognized (wars fought by Wahabbists since the 18th century. The First Saudi State, the Second Saudi State, the Egyptian-Wahabbi war the Ottoman Empire -- Wahabbi War -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ottoman%E2%80%93Wahhabi_War at-the-time they were among the poorest countries in the world always paranoid of takeovers because of who they were and Mecca & Medina -- there was a reason they asked for "protection" as part of Roosevelt deal when they found oil when they were actually looking for water.
(1742 - 1765) Muhammad bin Saud Al Saud, a member of the House of Saud, allied with Wahhabists and expanded the family's domain
(1780) Al-Ajyad Castle was built in Mecca to protect the city and shrines from invaders
(1801) Saudi Arabs led Sunni raids into Iraq, killed about 5,000
(1804) Wahhabis captured Medina
(1806) Saudi Arabs led more Sunni raids into Iraq, killed another 5,000
(1813) Wahhabis were driven out of Mecca
(1824) Saud family established new capital at Riyadh, established second Saudi State
(1837) Sanusi, a Sufi order, was founded in Mecca
(1865) Ottomans captured parts of the Saudi State
(1871) Ottomans took control of Hasa province
(1891) Al-Saud family took exile in Kuwait
1900s
(1902) Al-Saud's son, Abdulaziz, and 40 followers, retook Riyadh
(1906 - 1926) Saudi forces captured Al Hijaz, Asir, Al Hasa regions
(1908) Sharif Hussein became Emir of Mecca
(1916) Hussein initiated Arab Revolt against Ottoman Empire during World War I
(1916) Mecca fell to Arabs during Great Arab Revolt
(1916) T. E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia) was assigned to be the British liaison to Prince Faisal Hussein
(1917) Arab army fought Turkish forces at Akaba, killed 300, captured 160 Turkish soldiers
(1918) Arab forces seized Deraa, Jordan http://www.worldatlas.com/webimage/countrys/asia/saudiarabia/satimeln.htm
but in the 16th & 17th century from the Horn of Africa from what is known as "Western Sahara to Present day Pakistan" entirely free trade but the opening up of Sea trade came back to bite them but a very large area all where trade wasn't taxed but rather wealth.
For economists perspectives on the Ottoman during empire during the "Golden Age of Islam" into the 18th century which was the beginning of the end but the same century where Wahabbism was born from 18th century preacher al-Wahhab from an area known as Nejd, Saudi Arabia.
This is the most important part of it, it is very relevant for today
CONFRONTING THE MODERN GLOBALIZING ECONOMY, 1798 TO 1858
Global geopolitical and economic rivalries had their most direct impact on the Ottomans with Napoleon's invasion and occupation of Egypt in 1798. This unprecedented event caused the Ottomans to review how their militaries were organized, given the weaknesses that it had exposed. The long-term impact of French involvement in politics and trade in the region was felt most keenly in North Africa, where the local governors of Tunisia and Algeria were brought gradually under French colonial control and disassociated from their original Ottoman rulers.
In the central Ottoman lands, the governor of Egypt, Muhammad Ali Pasha (who ruled 1805–1849), took the French invasion as the starting point to begin a thorough fiscal and military modernization of his domains. Over the next twenty years he asserted his independence, consolidated his own power, and nearly defeated the Ottomans in an attempt to make himself the main ruler of the region. Taking lessons from the French Revolution, he organized a mass army and inaugurated a program of military construction and industrial production that went against European plans for Egypt, which, in a mercantilist system dominated by Europe, could only be a source of raw materials and a consumer of finished goods.
Ultimately, Muhammad Ali's rising economic autonomy so alarmed the European powers that they united to curb his ambitions. They forced first the Ottomans and later, Muhammad Ali and his successors, to sign far more extensive capitulations agreements than before, such as the 1838 Balta Limanı Treaty. During the early nineteenth century two-thirds of British exports to the Ottoman Empire were textiles. This period also witnessed the most serious debasement of the Ottoman currency in the history of the empire, with the exchange rate on the British pound reduced from 8 to 104 kuruş (the standard Ottoman silver coin of this era) between 1808 and 1839. European trade and monetary policies that promoted exports at all costs exacerbated the general weakening of the Ottoman financial situation.
ON THE MARGINS OF THE WORLD SYSTEM, 1858 TO 1918
During the first half of the nineteenth century roughly 75 percent of Ottoman trade was still domestic, so the Ottoman economy was shielded considerably from the market forces of the outside world. The Ottomans began to enter into the European financial system and borrow significant amounts of money from European lenders starting in the 1850s, a process initially facilitated by European powers who wished to acquire more leverage over the Ottomans to guard against the southward expansion of Russia, as well as to promote sales of their exports. This helped create the conditions for the outbreak of the Crimean War, and involved European financial interests in the Ottoman economy to secure loan repayment. By the 1870s European bankers had formed public debt commissions in Egypt and in Istanbul to control local economic policy to ensure the repayment of debts owed them.
CONFRONTING THE MODERN GLOBALIZING ECONOMY, 1798 TO 1858
ON THE MARGINS OF THE WORLD SYSTEM, 1858 TO 1918
During the first half of the nineteenth century roughly 75 percent of Ottoman trade was still domestic, so the Ottoman economy was shielded considerably from the market forces of the outside world. The Ottomans began to enter into the European financial system and borrow significant amounts of money from European lenders starting in the 1850s, a process initially facilitated by European powers who wished to acquire more leverage over the Ottomans to guard against the southward expansion of Russia, as well as to promote sales of their exports. This helped create the conditions for the outbreak of the Crimean War, and involved European financial interests in the Ottoman economy to secure loan repayment. By the 1870s European bankers had formed public debt commissions in Egypt and in Istanbul to control local economic policy to ensure the repayment of debts owed them.
http://ic.galegroup.com/ic/whic/ReferenceDetailsPage/ReferenceDetailsWindow?zid=8802f7574361206751af6f99f59e8fdf&action=2&catId=&documentId=GALE|CX3447600140&userGroupName=seat24826&jsid=74065f6d9aed7ce55027062767d1a049
The cultural, science, mathematics, education -- the world's oldest Diploma granting University began in 859. The divisions came from outside sources as well as the fundamentalists waging war against the empire from the inside. On that point -- this was a very curious book published in the 18th century
Memoirs of Mr. Hempher, The British Spy to the Middle East
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Confessions of a British Spy and British Enmity Against Islam
Memoirs of Mr. Hempher, The British Spy to the Middle East or Confessions of a British Spy is a document purporting to be the account by an 18th-century British agent, Hempher, of his instrumental role in founding the conservative Islamic reform movement of Wahhabism, as part of a conspiracy to corrupt Islam. It first appeared in 1888, in Turkish, in the five-volume Mir'at al-Haramayn of Ayyub Sabri Pasha (who is thought to be the actual author by at least one scholar).[1] It has been described as "apocryphal",[2] a "forgery",[3] "utter nonsense",[4] and "an Anglophobic variation on `The Protocols of the Elders of Zion`”.[2] It has been widely translated and disseminated, is available on the internet,[4][5][6][7] and still enjoys some currency among some individuals in the Middle East and beyond. In 2002, an Iraqi military officer recapitulated the book in a “top secret document”.[1][8
Content
In the book, a British spy named Hempher, working in the early 1700s, tells of disguising himself as a Muslim and infiltrating the Ottoman Empire with the goal of weakening it to destroy Islam once and for all. He tells his readers: "when the unity of Muslims is broken and the common sympathy among them is impaired, their forces will be dissolved and thus we shall easily destroy them... We, the English people, have to make mischief and arouse schism in all our colonies in order that we may live in welfare and luxury."[5]
Hempher intends ultimately to weaken Muslim morals by promoting "alcohol and fornication," but his first step is to promote innovation and disorder in Islam by creating Wahhabism, which is to gain credibility by being on the surface morally strict. For this purpose, he enlists "a gullible, hotheaded young Iraqi in Basra named Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab". [4] Hempher corrupts and flatters Wahhab until the man is willing to found his own sect. According to Hempher, he is one of 5,000 British agents with the assignment of weakening Muslims, which the British government plans to increase to 100,000 by the end of the 18th century. Hempher writes, "when we reach this number we shall have brought all Muslims under our sway" and Islam will be rendered "into a miserable state from which it will never recover again."[5]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memoirs_of_Mr._Hempher,_The_British_Spy_to_the_Middle_East
On the surface it strikes me as far out there but if they are true why is confessing but factoring the Ottoman Empires ends when the Saud Dynasty wins -- it makes sense considering they were the big winners following the end of the Ottoman Empire & lucking out on all the oil a few years later.
JDPriestly
(57,936 posts)that area. The history you review in that article is also very interesting. I went to school way back when and I am unfamiliar with much of that history although recent history and the French involvement in "North Africa" is something I am very aware of.
Thanks for posting this. Fascinating.
And the cultural and linguistic consistency has been, apparently, a great asset where it exists.
JonLP24
(29,322 posts)Anything north of Saudi Arabia you start getting into different dialects I'd post the list but includes all Asian countries and doesn't show the African countries range is differences which vary considerably on ethnically reasons.
On the left is the official language right is the spoken language. English is actually the official language for India when it comes to political, business, and commercial communication) so many include English in their languages. I'm seeing French being a language that pops up in Syria and they were a very specific target in the Sykes- Picot agreement. I imagine French would come up in the horn of Africa throwing off what the dialects might have been then. Egypt has a lot of people and so do countries such as Ethiopia. Outside of there and Iran most Muslims live in India, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Malaysia -- Russia has the most Muslims in Europe -- France the most in Western Europe -- I imagine most are the French-Algerian population. Languages I don't even know how many understand what language except English seems to required.
On the cultural stuff during the golden age of Islam this what I meant mostly meant the variety of sources that was looked into Aristotle, Euclid's, etc. A lot of this became known when I was studying the History of Mathematics and it quite clearly civilization was advancing just a mathematics was. Socrates "an understanding of mathematics is necessary for a sound grasp of ethics". My time-line was after Babylonians and my memory isn't a 100% here with simple addition & subtracting, the numbers was there thing. Algebra an arabic word was their innovation. Greeks then made advancements in Geometry & Astronomy. They discovered irrational numbers. The concept of "negative numbers" was something considered controversial. the Islamic era improved on the irrational number (the number pie is an example) & improved on Geometry as well. Clearly, working off each other, the cultural strengths was the inspiration from a variety of sources -- this was similar to like Socrates with pursuit of the truth which is viewed math as helpful because truth doesn't change -- logic & deductive reasoning. Philosophers from that era were not for being mathematicians. The pursuit of mathematics led to this pursuit to find the answers in life. This reminds me so much of Socrates and so many others like him.
Personally advancements on the civilization to a point seemed to hit a wall during the World War II era but was the Einstein era -- theory of relativity.
scientific method
The pioneering development of the scientific method by the Arab Ash'ari polymath Ibn al-Haytham (Alhacen) was an important contribution to the philosophy of science. In the Book of Optics (c. 1025 AD), his scientific method was very similar to the modern scientific method and consisted of the following procedures:[35]
Observation
Statement of problem
Formulation of hypothesis
Testing of hypothesis using experimentation
Analysis of experimental results
Interpretation of data and formulation of conclusion
Publication of findings
In The Model of the Motions, Ibn al-Haytham also describes an early version of Occam's razor, where he employs only minimal hypotheses regarding the properties that characterize astronomical motions, as he attempts to eliminate from his planetary model the cosmological hypotheses that cannot be observed from Earth.[59]
In Aporias against Ptolemy, Ibn al-Haytham commented on the difficulty of attaining scientific knowledge:
"Truth is sought for itself [but] the truths, [he warns] are immersed in uncertainties [and the scientific authorities (such as Ptolemy, whom he greatly respected) are] not immune from error..."[36]
He held that the criticism of existing theories — which dominated this book — holds a special place in the growth of scientific knowledge:
"Therefore, the seeker after the truth is not one who studies the writings of the ancients and, following his natural disposition, puts his trust in them, but rather the one who suspects his faith in them and questions what he gathers from them, the one who submits to argument and demonstration, and not to the sayings of a human being whose nature is fraught with all kinds of imperfection and deficiency. Thus the duty of the man who investigates the writings of scientists, if learning the truth is his goal, is to make himself an enemy of all that he reads, and, applying his mind to the core and margins of its content, attack it from every side. He should also suspect himself as he performs his critical examination of it, so that he may avoid falling into either prejudice or leniency."[36]
Ibn al-Haytham attributed his experimental scientific method and scientific skepticism to his Islamic faith. He believed that human beings are inherently flawed and that only God is perfect. He reasoned that to discover the truth about nature, it is necessary to eliminate human opinion and error, and allow the universe to speak for itself.[35] In The Winding Motion, Ibn al-Haytham further wrote that faith should only apply to prophets of Islam and not to any other authorities, in the following comparison between the Islamic prophetic tradition and the demonstrative sciences:
"From the statements made by the noble Shaykh, it is clear that he believes in Ptolemy's words in everything he says, without relying on a demonstration or calling on a proof, but by pure imitation (taqlid); that is how experts in the prophetic tradition have faith in Prophets, may the blessing of God be upon them. But it is not the way that mathematicians have faith in specialists in the demonstrative sciences."[60]
Ibn al-Haytham described his search for truth and knowledge as a way of leading him closer to God:
"I constantly sought knowledge and truth, and it became my belief that for gaining access to the effulgence and closeness to God, there is no better way than that of searching for truth and knowledge."[37]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_philosophy#Philosophy_of_science
Experimental medicine
Avicenna (Ibn Sina) is considered the father of modern medicine,[66] for his introduction of experimental medicine and clinical trials,[67] the experimental use and testing of drugs, and a precise guide for practical experimentation in the process of discovering and proving the effectiveness of medical substances,[68] in his medical encyclopedia, The Canon of Medicine (11th century), which was the first book dealing with experimental medicine. It laid out the following rules and principles for testing the effectiveness of new drugs or medications, which still form the basis of modern clinical trials:[67]
"The drug must be free from any extraneous accidental quality."
"It must be used on a simple, not a composite, disease."
"The drug must be tested with two contrary types of diseases, because sometimes a drug cures one disease by Its essential qualities and another by its accidental ones."
"The quality of the drug must correspond to the strength of the disease. For example, there are some drugs whose heat is less than the coldness of certain diseases, so that they would have no effect on them."
"The time of action must be observed, so that essence and accident are not confused."
"The effect of the drug must be seen to occur constantly or in many cases, for if this did not happen, it was an accidental effect."
"The experimentation must be done with the human body, for testing a drug on a lion or a horse might not prove anything about its effect on man."
Peer review
The first documented description of a peer review process is found in the Ethics of the Physician written by Ishaq bin Ali al-Rahwi (854–931) of al-Raha, Syria, who describes the first medical peer review process. His work, as well as later Arabic medical manuals, state that a visiting physician must always make duplicate notes of a patient's condition on every visit. When the patient was cured or had died, the notes of the physician were examined by a local medical council of other physicians, who would review the practising physician's notes to decide whether his/her performance have met the required standards of medical care. If their reviews were negative, the practicing physician could face a lawsuit from a maltreated patient.[69]
This is just on the Philosophy front. Greeks get a well deserved focus but what was left out was the civilization advancing right there with them.
On the subject of Socrates I highly recommend his statements to the jury where he was executed for "corrupting young minds if you can believe it".
http://rocket.csusb.edu/~tmoody/Death%20of%20Socrates.html
This is a from Plato who wrote the book on Socrates -- the truth they spoke as incredible "the difficulty is not so much to escape death; the real difficulty is to escape from doing wrong,
On edit -- this is probably better for an overview but it is the mathematics, science, & philosophy stuff I had in mind when I made my statements -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_Golden_Age
In addition to clinical trials there is this
Healthcare
Hospitals in this era were the first to require medical diplomas to license doctors.[44] In the medieval Islamic world, hospitals were built in most major cities.
Medical facilities traditionally closed each night, but by the 10th century laws were passed to keep hospitals open 24 hours a day, and hospitals were forbidden to turn away patients who were unable to pay.[45] Eventually, charitable foundations called waqfs were formed to support hospitals, as well as schools.[45] This money supported free medical care for all citizens.[45] In a notable example, a 13th-century governor of Egypt Al Mansur Qalawun ordained a foundation for the Qalawun hospital that would contain a mosque and a chapel, separate wards for different diseases, a library for doctors and a pharmacy.[46] The Qalawun hospital was based in a former Fatimid palace which had accommodation for 8,000 people - [47] "it served 4,000 patients daily."[48] The waqf stated,
"...The hospital shall keep all patients, men and women, until they are completely recovered. All costs are to be borne by the hospital whether the people come from afar or near, whether they are residents or foreigners, strong or weak, low or high, rich or poor, employed or unemployed, blind or sighted, physically or mentally ill, learned or illiterate. There are no conditions of consideration and payment, none is objected to or even indirectly hinted at for non-payment."[46]
The first institutions for the care of mentally ill people were also established.[49]q
JDPriestly
(57,936 posts)
Overseas
(12,121 posts)L0oniX
(31,493 posts)I'll bet that what happens in China will affect surrounding countries in the TPP deal ....deal for them, not for the US citizen.
Thespian2
(2,741 posts)Our exports are primarily military equipment...but the government can loose 500 millions dollars worth of the stuff in Yemen and have no idea what happened to it...This is called "exporting"...
In Iraq, the government exported money...Millions unaccounted for...More "exporting"...
Americans are brain-washed by corporations...through advertising...to buy as much useless shit from China and Asia as they can borrow money to afford...This is called "importing"...
Anyone notice how the Democrats in the Senate screwed 330 million+ people?
bhikkhu
(10,711 posts)any quick search would show that our arms exports (or "transfers"
are about 10-15% of our total exports. We are the world's largest exporter of military goods, but our largest export is food.
Thespian2
(2,741 posts)JDPriestly
(57,936 posts)And the earnings from the food exports don't begin to cover the losses we as a natino face from all the manufactured goods that we bring in.
Punx
(446 posts)Marketwatch, hardly a bastion of liberal thinking by and large.
I'm primarily concerned with the Investor/State dispute part circumventing democracy and local decision making, but as Representative Alan Grayson and the article point out it does nothing to address the trade deficit and that is another big concern.
nadinbrzezinski
(154,021 posts)well. They need consumers, and those are going the way of the dodo.
cali
(114,904 posts)nadinbrzezinski
(154,021 posts)
woo me with science
(32,139 posts)JonLP24
(29,322 posts)and trade relations already exist, manufacturing is the dominated sector in Malaysia & Singapore for elections & don't be mislead by higher wages as the minimum wage laws don't apply to migrant workers -- by design. 30% or so make up of it in Malaysia, Vietnam is known for cloth & food agricultural -- while I could never fully predict how it would turn out with possible currency manipulations issues and the US copyright leaks which would obviously turn Malaysia's thriving pharmaceutical industry that provides low cost drugs into a US pharmaceutical monopoly opportunity.
I don't see how or not sure what I'm missing nothing that stands out for jobs here -- maybe shipping & receiving & top level execs offices but certainly not even close in terms of manufacturing jobs. I'd strikes me as "black magic" which would lead to an increase in US jobs. When it comes to most things, it is fine if defenders believe jobs will come if Obama says jobs will come but so many times I wish people defending based on what it really is rather then by defending it by portraying it as something that it is not. Nike promising jobs here if TPP is passed but many people seem to buy into lies easier but doubt the truth.
geek tragedy
(68,868 posts)I've been reading lately. k&R
kentuck
(111,052 posts)Big ticket items will make bottom line look good but jobs will be lost as usual.