TPP and Free Trade REALLY IS a plan to bring back jobs and industry to the US

[Armstead]

You knuckleheads who complain about the TPP and NAFTA and all of the other Free Trade agreements just don't get it. Your donlt realize the 9th Dimensional Strategy behind these deals.

They really are going to being back jobs and industry to the United States.

See, corporations go where they can find docile workers who have been beaten down by poverty and are desperate for any jobs they can get, so they will work for pennies. And they look for countries that have very low standards for labor rights, working conditions and environmental protection.

So, with the blessing of NAFTA and similar deals and policies, they took jobs out of the US and sent them to places like Mexico and China.

But at some point, when the workers in those places start getting uppity and asking for higher wages and better working conditions, those corporations find other countries that are worse off, and move there.

Well, over time, as the working/middle class in the United States has seen their jobs outsourced, they become increasingly desperate for any work they can get. And politicians go out of their way to kiss the butts of corporations, and offer tax breaks and other incentives. And they start to gut laws regarding labor rights and the environment. And the Corporate and Wall St. Elite make sure that happens by buying politicians and elections.

So, at some point the US will be the next frontier for companies looking for horrible countries where the population is dirt poor and desperate to do anything for a job. They'll accept horrible pay and horrible conditions. And the Corporate Elite and Billionaires will have bought off all the politicians of both parties, so they will own DC as their personal fiefdom.

And then the United States will once again become a "business friendly" nation where the combination of a desperate population and a weak complacent, corrupt government will be fertile fields for their sweatshops.

And jobs will come back to America and everyone will be back at work.....for $5 a day.

[JEB]

1. Really does seem to be the plan.

[reformist2]

2. Someday we'll vote to redistribute the wealth, and this stupid game will be over.

[AndyTiedye]

5. Before such a vote Got out of committee...

The 1% would have their financial assets safely out of the country, leaving only hollowed-out shell corporations and debt behind. This would cause a financial disruption significantly worse than 2008, so they will rely on their superior information sources and have it all on a tripwire to stay ahead of the tsunami after what happened in Cyprus.

[Scuba]

13. At least that's the threat they want you to believe!

[AndyTiedye]

3. Free Trade Could bring Jobs Home. This is Not Free Trade

The labor side is missing. Free trade includes the right of workers to form and be represented by trade unions.
It includes enough of a safety net that workers are not forced to work in buildings that are about to fall down, as they are in Bangladesh.

This not free trade because it is not really free. It is also not really trade because it tends to be in one direction.

Trade agreements SHOULD be a way to raise the standards up, not gut them.
To simply do away with all trade agreements and place high tarriffs on imported goods (pretty much everything now) would just be another regressive tax that would hit the poor hardest.

They should be geared to optimum employment, pay, and working conditions everywhere. That would be good for business too because everyone could buy more stuff.

Why can't we make these trade agreement work FOR us?

[scarletwoman]

4. Excellent! Rec & kick.

The U.S. is becoming an open-air prison, where we're all the mercy of the corporations who own our policians and control our institutions.

[Ed Suspicious]

6. If we just hurry up and get to the bottom quickly we'll really start to enjoy the gains made

from NAFTA! The race is on!

[Armstead]

11. Our President is working on it

[DeSwiss]

7. K&R

[blkmusclmachine]

8. Enjoy the servitude. And the stifling mediocrity. Cause you'll never escape it. DC will see to THAT!

Nobody ever promised you'd like the "Change!" (TM)

[tclambert]

9. That title made me think this would be a Third-Way Manny post.

It kind of ends up on those satirical lines. Except that the conclusion may be true.

[Armstead]

10. Frankly, as I wrote it I wasn't sure if I was being sarcastic or hitting the Truth

[Enthusiast]

12. I believe that is the plan.

It isn't a conspiracy theory if that is the plan.

[Armstead]

14. Actually, I think it's more like a gutted America is an unintended consequence

I don't think the Bastids would prefer to drive the US back into a truly feudal society. I just think they use this shit as "leverage" to blackmail workers and ply friendly policies from our politicians.

But the gloomy scenerio I described is the inevitable result if we don't (as Samuel L. jackson said "Wake the F---k Up."

[L0oniX]

15. You've been reading too many Manny ops.

Now you'll have to go in for treatment.

[Armstead]

18. Well I tend to usually agree with him so...

great minds must think alike.

[JEB]

16. Multi-national corporations feeding on the carcass

of the rotting empire. Hell, the rotting carcass of a hollowed out world.

[TBF]

17. It's all about managing expectations -

billionaires worldwide can expect to keep their $$$ ...

... while you and I can continue to expect our wages to drop.

[Octafish]

19. Well. These only are the wealthiest times in human history.

We must take a buy-partisan approach to keep it that way. As you so ably stated, Armstead: the business of Amerika is business.