General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: The Ed Show Just Handed Obamas A$$ back to him on TPP [View all]JDPriestly
(57,936 posts)living for ordinary Americans.
He criticized tariffs on the ground that they impose taxes on the poor not on the rich, but he cautioned:
Peasants who live at lower levels than our farmers, workers who are sweated to reduce costs, ought not to determine the price of American goods. There are standards which we desire to set for ourselves. Tariffs should be large enough to maintain living standards which we set for ourselves.
pages 145-146, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Looking Forward, first published in 1933
The TPP will not allow us to set living standards for ourselves. The result will be the further enrichment of the 1% and the increased impoverishment of the rest of us, the 99%.
No to the TPP.
Tariffs can be reduced provided the agreements that reduce them protect the jobs and economic opportunities of ordinary Americans.
I have a hunch that the TPP is primarily intended to protect the intellectual property rights, that is patents and copyrights of the world's corporations. The extended term of the enforceability of patents and copyrights will discourage the production of affordable generic drugs, the publication and dissemination of literature and information and just generally discourage new technologies, creativity and sharing.
The TPP is a horror. No wonder those who wrote and pushed it are too ashamed to make its text public.
No to TPP. Just another dirty trick of the 1%. No to TPP.