Earlier quoted context omitted.
You know it's mostly House/Senate republicans who are voting for it right? Strange bedfellows really.
You're aware that the Executive Branch's vote is equal to the consolidated power of the Congress, right?
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Leaked: What's in TPP’s intellectual property chapter
51–60 of 181 posts
Re: Leaked: What's in TPP’s intellectual property chapter
#52Earlier quoted context omitted.
You're aware that the Executive Branch's vote is equal to the consolidated power of the Congress, right?
It still has to get to his desk, and that means a lot of Republican support. There's no dodging that.
So the GOP is forcing his hand? He has no free will? Manchurian candidate?
Re: Leaked: What's in TPP’s intellectual property chapter
#53I, for one, am glad to know that that interests of everyone important are well protected in this treaty. I just wish I knew how to join this class of people who are important. Apparently being a citizen is not enough anymore.
Corporations are the true citizens.
Re: Leaked: What's in TPP’s intellectual property chapter
#54Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think you are letting the citizenry off the hook for their part in this. The only reason corporations gained this power is because they have more collective money (or at least are more willing to use that money) to lobby. The only reason lobbying works is because politicians need money to get elected. The only reason politicians need money to get elected is because people are so susceptible to political marketing.…
I, for one, am glad to learn that we can fix all this by voting more often, or better, or whatever. Now that I think back, my junior high civics class taught me the same thing!
Only if you'd scale that up to the entire country.
But maybe not even then. You vote for the candidate that can best convince you to vote for them. So this is the metric the system will optimize for. Politicians that make good decisions or stick to their principles get outcompeted by those who focus on marketing themselves and pandering to the public. Even if you make the electorate more educated and engaged, this will only do so much to fix the misalignment of values. Unless you know a way to immunize someone to marketing completely, I see no hope for fixing voting. I infer that every democracy, as it matures, degenerates into a popularity contest.
Re: Leaked: What's in TPP’s intellectual property chapter
#55Earlier quoted context omitted.
There's been several carefully crafted changes to the language of American politics over the past twenty-five years and "citizen" has been replaced by "taxpayer" [1] as the relevant political constituency. Since corporations ostensibly pay taxes, their personhood has been lifted. Likewise, since wealthy individuals tend to pay more taxes on an absolute basis (despite an increasingly regressive system) their interests…
I think you are letting the citizenry off the hook for their part in this. The only reason corporations gained this power is because they have more collective money (or at least are more willing to use that money) to lobby. The only reason lobbying works is because politicians need money to get elected. The only reason politicians need money to get elected is because people are so susceptible to political marketing.…
corporations gained this power...because they have more collective money
Consistent with the golden rule of economics.
Re: Leaked: What's in TPP’s intellectual property chapter
#56When the director of policy for Doctors Without Borders tells the public that "U.S. negotiators have basically functioned as drug lobbyists" and "We consider this the worst-ever agreement in terms of access to medicine", there's really little more that needs saying. I love that the best defense unnamed "U.S. officials" can offer is that "major compromises" will likely still be made. In other words: yes we're acting a…
Maybe the best way to ensure access to medicine is by providing economic opportunities to the worlds most impoverished citizens. In other words, if the trade off is say a 10% increase in per capita GDP in exchange for less access to generics, maybe the former is better than the latter?
Those writing the TPP have no interest in passing any of the profits of these trade deals off to impoverished third world nations to enrich their societies.
If you want a mutually beneficial trade agreement, you don't need secret meetings or a rush to get it through congress.
Re: Leaked: What's in TPP’s intellectual property chapter
#57I, for one, am glad to know that that interests of everyone important are well protected in this treaty. I just wish I knew how to join this class of people who are important. Apparently being a citizen is not enough anymore.
It reminds me of the conclusion I reached after hanging out with NWO conspiracy folks for a while. If what they say is true, it seems to me that those Rockefellers and Bilderberg group folks are the only people out there with a reasonable, good idea for the future. I only wish I knew how to join them.
Re: Leaked: What's in TPP’s intellectual property chapter
#58In Spam Nation, the primary reason spam is successful (why people click those weird ads) is because they get working drugs for cheap that in many cases are chemically indifferent to their expensive prescription counterparts.
Re: Leaked: What's in TPP’s intellectual property chapter
#59"The Obama administration often describes TPP as the most progressive free-trade deal in history"
Does anyone see stronger government enforced monopolies (patents) as the opposite of free trade?
Re: Leaked: What's in TPP’s intellectual property chapter
#60I, for one, am glad to know that that interests of everyone important are well protected in this treaty. I just wish I knew how to join this class of people who are important. Apparently being a citizen is not enough anymore.
It reminds me of the conclusion I reached after hanging out with NWO conspiracy folks for a while. If what they say is true, it seems to me that those Rockefellers and Bilderberg group folks are the only people out there with a reasonable, good idea for the future. I only wish I knew how to join them.
What is their reasonable, good idea for the future, TeMPOral?