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Nuclear Unicorn

(19,497 posts)
Fri Sep 27, 2013, 07:14 PM Sep 2013

Hypothesis -- TPP would make living wage initiative suicidal for the American worker

I'm no protectionist/isolationist but if a "free trade" agreement such as the TPP is passed wouldn't that make LW initiatives a thing that prices the American worker out of a competitive global market?

That in turn would mean lower wages and depressed economic activity which in turn mean fewer taxes paid into local, state and federal coffers. From there I would expect to see ballooning deficits as tax receipts plummet and applications for public assistance skyrocket. From those ballooning deficits I would expect another "pump priming" wherein the Fed sells zero interest bonds to the banks then buys them back with fat profits for the financier class who is then allowed to move that money off-shore because the TPP says they can. With public debt mounting the workers -- with their ever shrinking wages -- see their per capita portion of the national debt increase exponentially with no means of repaying it.

Inviting trade is one thing, that's essentially increased economic activity which would be a boon to all trade partners but this strikes me as a wholesale invitation to have money flee the US while the US balloons its debt to facilitate that monetary flight. It's like a massive international embezzling scheme or something.

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