We are brought up to believe it can't happen here, but corporations have done this all over the world. We are not special to them.

Corporate purchase of our politicians must be stopped. The dismantling of our Constitutional protections must be stopped. Trade agreements that give corporations power to overrule the will of the people must be stopped.

This is the danger of corporate power in government. This is the danger of corporatists in both parties, including the Third Way in our own party.

This is no joke. It can and will happen here. It is already starting to happen, and corporate politicians are laying the groundwork for much, much worse.

In large part because of how secretive it is - this is going on before the TPP is implemented. Which suggests that even without TPP there are huge abuses going on.

I don't know what to do about it though - Vietnam allows this to happen - unless we somehow forbid American Companies from using clothes produced in these conditions.

Bryant

If TPP does not have them, and it sure seems like it doesn't, then sticking with WTO trading rules (which do not have labor nor environmental standards that affect labor rights in a place like Vietnam) is better than missing the opportunity that TPP could have represented.

To improve labor and environmental standards globally we will have to negotiate enforceable agreements with the rest of the world. Given what we know about TPP it looks like we will have to wait a long time for that.