R.I.P. TTIP?

[JDPriestly]

52. I'd say that whether an issue should be decided locally or federally depends on the issue.

And of course, that is the way our system works. Some issues are best decided at a local level, like the schedule for schools or certain building codes, police matters, etc. Los Angeles has a very strict earthquake building code, for example, that would not be needed in an area further from the St. Andreas fault.

That is why deciding regulations in an international code is just unacceptable. We simply don't need it. If companies want certain uniform international codes, let them argue their case code by code in legislature by legislature and not setting up a kangaroo court in which they have most of the power because they, not the people in the locality in which the codes are to be enforced, own half of the legislature.

Having national governments representing people of countries as large as the United States, Canada or Mexico, etc. is just absurd. As for small countries like Lichtenstein, it would be financially impossible. Same for very poor countries like Viet Nam. Just impossible.

The idea that corporations should have the right to appear in international tribunals defies the understanding.

They should appear and be heard, that is file their cases, in the local courts controlled by judges appointed or elected in democracies, judges that answer the people of a smaller area, a state or at the very least, a country. People decide democratically on most issues just how large the political area that they want their area to be. And that is as it should be.

I'm for democracy. I'm not for corporate rule. I'm for the rule of real human beings.