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Fanaticism and Fantasy Drive Purported TPP ‘Benefits’
By Pete Dolack
Source: Systemic Disorder
February 9, 2016
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Protest against the Trans-Pacific Partnership, October 2015 (photo by Lorena Müller, Pirate Times)
One way to look at this is that the Peterson Institute is to free trade agreements as the Heartland Institute is to global warming. Heartland began as a Big Tobacco outfit issuing reports denying links between smoking and cancer. As late as 1998, Heartland President Joe Bast claimed that there were few, if any, adverse health effects associated with smoking and boasted to a Phillip Morris executive that Heartland does many things that benefit Philip Morriss bottom line, things that no other organization does.
Heartland later began specializing in global-warming denial, receiving $676,500 from Exxon Mobil alone between 1996 and 2006; after which it stopped identifying its contributors. Mr. Bast seems to have no shame, writing that Most scientists do not believe human activities threaten to disrupt the Earths climate in an article describing global warming as a scam. In fact, 97 percent of climate scientists agree that human activity is behind global warming.
It is this same attitude toward the truth that pervades papers predicting wondrous results from free trade agreements. In contrast to the Peterson Institutes rosy projections, the first 20 years of NAFTA proved to be a lose-lose-lose proposition for Canada, Mexico and the United States. Almost 5 million Mexican farmers have been displaced with inflation-adjusted wages in Mexico barely above the level of 1980; U.S. food prices have risen 67 percent since NAFTA took effect and two-thirds of displaced manufacturing workers in the U.S. have been forced to take work with reduced wages; and Canadians suffered drastic cuts in government benefits while their environmental laws were reversed in the wake of corporate challenges.
Heartland later began specializing in global-warming denial, receiving $676,500 from Exxon Mobil alone between 1996 and 2006; after which it stopped identifying its contributors. Mr. Bast seems to have no shame, writing that Most scientists do not believe human activities threaten to disrupt the Earths climate in an article describing global warming as a scam. In fact, 97 percent of climate scientists agree that human activity is behind global warming.
It is this same attitude toward the truth that pervades papers predicting wondrous results from free trade agreements. In contrast to the Peterson Institutes rosy projections, the first 20 years of NAFTA proved to be a lose-lose-lose proposition for Canada, Mexico and the United States. Almost 5 million Mexican farmers have been displaced with inflation-adjusted wages in Mexico barely above the level of 1980; U.S. food prices have risen 67 percent since NAFTA took effect and two-thirds of displaced manufacturing workers in the U.S. have been forced to take work with reduced wages; and Canadians suffered drastic cuts in government benefits while their environmental laws were reversed in the wake of corporate challenges.
A more balanced investigation conducted by Tufts University researchers Jeronim Capaldo and Alex Izurieta led to the conclusion that the TPP, if enacted, would result in the loss of three-quarters of a million jobs through 2025, including 448,000 jobs to be lost in the U.S. alone. Canada, Mexico, Japan and Australia would each suffer jobs losses in the tens of thousands.
The TPP, even more so that previous deals, has very little to do with trade and much to do with solidifying corporate control over life, arguably the most significant erosion of what is left of formal democracy yet. Regardless of where you live, the TPP can be defeated if we continue to organize. And once the TPP is sent to the trash heap, it will be time to go on the offensive to roll back existing trade pacts.
Full article: https://zcomm.org/znetarticle/fanaticism-and-fantasy-drive-purported-tpp-benefits/
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Fanaticism and Fantasy Drive Purported TPP ‘Benefits’ (Original Post)
polly7
Feb 2016
OP
They_Live
(3,222 posts)2. kick & rec
mahigan
(85 posts)3. Many Thanks
There is a lot of valuable information to be gleaned from following the links from this one article. I have been looking for an analysis of the long term effects of NAFTA for ages and found this one by following a lot of links. http://www.policyalternatives.ca/sites/default/files/uploads/publications/National_Office_Pubs/2006/Revisiting_NAFTA.pdf
polly7
(20,582 posts)4. Many thanks to you! for that link, it's a great analysis. I hate NAFTA. nt.