My main concerns with the TPP, TISA, TTIP, etc. are not job losses but the

[JDPriestly]

107. And you should see all the plastic wrapping in our recycle bins -- wrapping that is necessary

to protect goods from the vermin that inhabit the containers and ships in which the goods from India, China and elsewhere in the world are shipped to consumers.

Free trade is pretty much lose, lose for Americans. We get inundated with cheap junk and can't get the jobs or earn the money to pay for all that junk. The advertising industry is one sector that is still functioning in the US, so Americans are poked and punched into thinking they need a lot of stupid stuff. Our houses are full of the stuff, and we constantly need more space to store and dispose of it. And fools that we are, susceptible to all the advertising propaganda, we BORROW the money to buy things we do not need but think we must have, and then we end up being blamed for crashing the economy.

And there is truth in the fact that we and our over-borrowing are to blame. But the "free" trade system works only if we borrow to buy. It is a very stupid system, and it is hurting America. And I oppose it.

The good news is that buying second-hand stuff is, at least in Los Angeles, becoming more and more popular. It's kind of fun, and it cheats the corporations of the opportunity to foist all kinds of new junk on us. Honestly, sometimes it is as if every season brings a batch of even more poorly made products to our shores. I wonder how thin the fabrics will be next year. The weaves are about as thin as they could possibly be.

Tell me, are people in countries like India, Bangla Desh, the Philippines, China, Mexico, etc. really living any better than they were before they were able to send us all the trinkets and plastic and synthetic junk they assemble and put into ships and push on us?

Really? Is the air cleaner? Are the flowers more colorful? Does the food taste better? Do they have more time with family and friends? How has life improved for the factory workers in the third world? Is it really better? Couldn't be much better if they worked shorter hours in cleaner places and could enjoy their lives more? Why don't they form better unions and demand better, livable wages like American workers do? If unions were writing these trade agreements instead of Wall Street types and corporations, maybe then free trade would work. But the union leaders, the people are only called into the negotiations to make the negotiations look fair. And that is a big part of what is wrong.