Can we agree that jobs are not the problem with TPP?

[joshcryer]

79. So did Nixon.

But it's really just a naming convention. Call it what you will, it's the same thing (though the difference in implementation might be between having Social Security write the checks or the Internal Revenue Service sending out refunds, or another Basic Income Administration handling it). A negative income tax might actually be a smart way to do it because you could kill two birds with one stone and create a more progressive tax schedule while you're at it. (And obviously you would not want Friedman's extremely low cap, it would have to be be some living wage / basic income standard as the Green Party advocates.)

But I'm not trying to conflate the issue too much here. American consumers have an appetite for cheap goods. Whether they're made here in the US with automation or whether they're made overseas by cheap labor.

TPP is a disaster for the environment, and I don't think it's supportable for that reason, but I see why it's being implemented, and I think it's folly not to address the much larger looming issue of a basic income that every single American and eventually everyone on the planet is going to require. Brookings is just now recognizing the effect automation is playing in our own manufacturing pools (much to the chagrin of the Third Way and Larry Summers who seem to shrug it off).

The policy wonks need to wake up.

And the Presidential candidates need to make it clear that this is a real issue we're facing right now.