What overall grade would you give Obama at this point in his presdiency?

[MADem]

70. Well, that's your opinion and you're welcome to it. I don't find your view controlling.

The bottom line is that there's no incentive for nations with an exploitable workforce to raise wages without these sorts of agreements--if it gets too expensive in one country, corporations simply move to a cheaper country and exploit those workers instead. Corporations, for their part, will always chase the cheapest solution unless and until it gets to be too much of a pain in the ass and lacks sufficient "value added" to make it worth their while.

In the short term these agreements are certainly not without pain for fully developed nations, no one will deny that, but governments of emerging or newly industrialized nations desperate for a cash influx aren't going to put their foot down and demand better wages for their people when any wage at all, and any money coming into their economy, are better than none.

In the long term these agreements make it harder and harder for corporations to go to distant lands to save a few cents here and there, and after a while, they cut the crap, stop chasing pennies, and simply go to where the population is best suited to deliver the products to the applicable markets, relying on operational efficiencies and a smarter workforce to make up the difference.

It's not going to happen overnight, though. You can't have "fair" trade until everyone playing the game is treated fairly.