http://economixcomix.com/home/tpp/ I think everyone should read this comic. Its 100% accurate. We need to rein in these supposed free trade agreements before they drive us into complete failure. The current Free Trade model is anything but. The only thing it causes us to do is to race to the bottom. By allowing free trade without any limitation on foreign nations' internal processes we sell out our workers. Places like China and Vietnam are able to get away with undercutting our businesses by illegalizing unions, allowing rampant pollution, selling unsafe products, and not enforcing worker rights/workplace safety. Far from expanding this supposedly free trade, we should be pushing for reciprocal tariffs.
That is a very informative comic, but unfortunately it will fall on deaf ears. TPP supporters are all idiots who are lulled to sleep by the words "free trade" and want to give Obama absolute power to negotiate these agreements even while they call him a tyrant. Their slavish, religious obsession with free trade will lead us down the road to fascism. It's always important to remember that you can never separate these "free trade" ideas embedded into this pact from the people who truly know what this pact will do to America. Time to hold their feet to the fire and start putting pressure on our politicians. If they can be convinced that TPP is electoral poison, they will at least stall it.
If enacted, the TPP would benefit America and American workers because it is designed to include raising labor standards and practices in the participating countries and requires that the countries purchase from one another. It is envisioned as a step to contain China from dominating the global economy with their low wages and vast population since they joined the WTO. I don't hate the idea of the TPP though some of the provisions seem to need to be improved upon. At the same time, I recognize it has less than a snowball's chance in hell of ever passing in the US, so I really don't put much energy into caring one way or the other.
Hmm, wouldn't it be cheaper to abandon all agreements, trade within America to create factories and corporations of sneakers and cars, and raise export & import fees to ensure American goods are the first option? Maybe have a law that a corporation must be owned by an American. I mean, why do you want to keep punishing the American worker with these foreign agreements when you KNOW they can make a fly swatter for .05 cents and an American made one is 2.00?? IF we are to regain a lifestyle you have to stop doing the same stupid things over and over. IF a corporation wants to trade outside of America, let him freely do so without Government legal services, subsidies, bonuses, incentives, etc. to make him competitive. Let him sell here in our market. IF he wants to set up his corporation in china or Iraq, he is on his own, I am not furnishing him with billions of dollars of military and foreign aid, etc. I am paying for his foreign advertising, housing, meals, etc. That's a pretty good comic strip, if you missed it.
Strange he targets Obama, when the greatest proponent of free trade was George Bush senior - why now is it such a bad idea?
Most of our Presidents have been for Free Trade. Carter called on Congress for a full week trying to pick up votes for NAFTA. They all thought if we went that route, we could build up countries like Mexico and China where their people woud have jobs and able to buy more products from us. Mexicans would have jobs an it would cut down on illegal immigration. But they made the trade rules so one sided, it opened the door for thousands of factories to leave. So many left that we no longer make anything the average Mexican and Chinese want or need. They can pretty much make it all themselves. That leaves us selling to basically the government of those nations and the companies there that need our high tech products. But we sell nothing but food, that the millions of consumers there want, or can't make themselves. I see pretty much happening with this trade deal. Things would be different if we had stuff to sell these millions of consumers instead of just their government and factories. So how does the average American make out? We can buy many things cheaper, but does it make up for those Middle Class jobs we had? The lost pensions we had. I don't think so. We are in much worse shape than before Free Trade. The country that 15 years ago was going around town in rickshaws and bikes are now the biggest auto maker in the world and we have to borrow money off them to pay our bills. But talk to thse economics and they'll tell you how much good Free Trade is for us.
In the part that has Obama he is talking about the current free trade agreement being peddled by Obama and the current Congress- the Transpacific Partnership. Whwould he have a picture of Bush? He then goes on and trashes NAFTA (Carter and Clinton) and CAFTA (Bush) even though doesn't picture them per se. Stop being a partisan and placing concern of party before country. Read the article learn something. Both parties are promoting free trade, because both parties benefit in money and power from such agreements.
Does it really matter at this point who dunnit? We all realize this didn't happen overnight, but the POTUS who is in office now is the dude in charge at the moment. We are in a pickle and its about time something gets done. Lets make it at least fair. Pay foreign workers as much as you would Americans, including benefits, have them treat their workers fairly, making sure their working environment is up to par. Have environmental agencies to a regular check up and lets see what happens. Its a start. We can work on the details later
tl;dr To the bit about money manipulation: Romney talked up and down about that in 2012, and long before 2012. When he did so in 2012, he was attacked as as war-monger, a man who (at the very least) was looking to start a trade war with China. "We do not say it's name! Lord [currency manipulation]emort." The problem is not that we have free trade. The immediate pains coming from free trade are what Romney called "creative destruction." I'd actually strongly recommend reading his book, it's far less political than you might think. It talks a lot about policy and economics, not so much about his life or his opponent. The real problem is that we have unfair trade. Things like currency manipulation by China. And when businesses move to foreign countries, that doesn't mean that people at home are "left in the lurch." As of today, what is unemployment? Unemployment is at a pretty normal position, even though we've outsourced many jobs. On a sidenote, something I've thought about many times before - why do we have our cheap stuff produced in China? The wages in western Africa are far cheaper, and it's half the distance. And I skimmed - the bit about stimulus was just a joke. The stimulus creates short-term growth, but in the long-term has a negative effect on GDP. Closing up the borders won't solve our economic problems - though you might win some right-wing votes with that.
Cheaper to pay more for our goods? No. People in other countries need to make a living too. It would be better for them to stop having our agriculture exports dumped on their markets, but I doubt it would be cheaper for them. $$$$=Peace.
The TPP would narrow the pay gap, but ultimately, we cannot force wages onto other countries without an agreement, so the only practical alternative would be to either tax the hell out of imports (which was one of the drivers of the Depression) or tax the hell out of the importers to either force them to build here or create the profit potential so that their competitors will build here as enterprises become more scalable the more their potential revenue inflates.
If that were cheaper, then it wouldn't require government to enforce it. People don't go and pay more for products because they want to pay more, they do so because it's a higher quality (or there's a 'brand' factor, which has to do with mostly quality).
I could say the same thing for you - Bush senior was a major driver in the reconfiguring of the GATT agreement to promote free trade around the world. Now suddenly it is a bad idea. What changed. Nothing but the political affiliation of the presidents involved
Well it seems to for some around here. I had no problem when previous administrations worked towards lowering tariffs world wide. I still dont. The reason countries like Australia support free trade was because of the influence the US had on trade. Now you want to tell the world it is a bad idea after the fact?
the main problem with that comic is it doesn't really emphasize on global trade, but rather American free trade ...which is important, because if we're trying to draw a clear line of the affects of these trade agreements, we need proper examples of how it has worked on the global scale It's basically penning the US's economic status to a single issue, without examining the correlation between that issue and our actual economic woes.. it has a very brief example of how trade influenced a cigarette law in Australia, with no emphasis on its economic affects (Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Switzerland, Germany, Denmark, Norway, and others are freer trade countries than the US)
Actually. no, you can't. I mean, you could but you'd be wrong. I have been decrying these free trade agreements ever since they started, and with all Presidencies. I didn't jump to a conclusion that "my guy" was being attacked like you did, simply because I have no dog in this hunt. Bush, Obama, Clinton...all morons in their free trade activities.
it should also be made very clear that although the comic puts most of its emphasis on US trade with China.. the US does not have any free trade agreement with the Chinese (nor do we have any offers on the table with them)... but if you're trying to make a point that our global trade depends too much on China, that's just another reason to support expanding trade with nations in South America and Europe instead
