TPP? Who gains? Who loses?
We need to deal with some big problems on the national scale before we hand our sovereignty and self-determination on economic issues over to some trade agreement's council on something-or-other. The TPP will just add one more to the problems from which we have suffrered since we entered into NAFTA and other trade agreements: our unprecedented unfavorable balance of trade and displacement of peoples, especially indigenous peoples and environmental damage and low wages, and, and, and.
One major problem that we need to deal with internally is our disparity in wealth. With each trade agreement, that disparity grows. The answer is not in importing more and cheaper products so that even those who have very little money can still have the illusion of having enough "stuff" even though the "stuff" falls apart as soon as they buy it. Being able to shop at the dollar stores is not equal to being able to get a good job and contribute to society while earning a good living for your family. We can import cheap goods, but rents and utilities and other costs go up all the time.
We have to do something about the disparity in wealth in our country. Obama suggested raising wages. That's great, but if an American paying $850 a month for rent has to compete with people overseas who can survive on $2 per hour paying almost no rent and living without running water or decent heat or education, we have just created a bigger problem than we already have. We cannot afford to maintain our American style of living for most of us while importing goods we buy at the dollar store. And the goods we buy at the dollar stores and Walmart-type stores are what are dragging our wages down and closing down our industry.
So, let's try to get a handle on the serious problems we are having and that we will bequeath to future generations -- and then talk about free trade.
The onus for persuading Americans to back additional trade bills is on those who want the bills. The negotiations have to be between Americans who lose out every time we enter into a new trade agreement and the corporations and 1%ers who stand to gain from the trade agreements. I don't think that those Americans who lose out because of trade agreements were represented at all in the TPP negotiations. That is wrong.
When Obama and other presidents appoint commissions on issues or problems, they always appoint business representatives and scholars, maybe a trade union representative, But they never appoint a person who is earning minimum wage in spite of having a college degree. They never appoint single moms or the guy who drives a truck. Yet it is these people (who apparently aren't important enough to get to sit on a commission or at least have someone with their interests on a commission) whose voices are ignored, whose needs are ignored, whose interests are relegated to no man's land. That is the problem with commissions and trade talks and all those serious folks we see on TV.
No to the TPP. And let's get our country into shape before we go trading away our ability to govwern ourselves.
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