Read it. Not sure what the full ramifications will be in the end of going with such language but clearly protecting consumers is secondary and giving power to right holders is the intention.
As an aside and speaking as a Canadian citizen and resident, Geist is someone who has been very helpful for educating and directing consumers and helping protect our rights. He's very easy to understand, covers issues relevant to consumers as they are becoming relevant, and has obtained what is in my (lay) opinion a well deserved reputation as being someone you can trust to keep you edcuated and safe as a consumer. The work he does is really valuable, IMO. Plus, he let me (among many others) add him as a connection on LinkedIn, even though we've clearly never worked together, which somehow I find very neat :)
As far as I can tell, it's not just the general public that's being overlooked - every country that signs on to import the US's terrible policies (I'm a US citizen) is giving up future sovereignty. This boggles the mind. Governments of today are signing away the sovereign rights of governments of tomorrow to establish the rule of law as they see fit.
I'm not a New World Order conspiracy theorist, but am I misreading the impact on democratic societies to govern themselves that this represents?
And hey, if the US can export this set of corporate-protectionism laws to other democracies, do you really think they'll stop with the TPP?
Warren Buffet once said something like: there has been class warfare and my side won.
About 15 years ago I had an ongoing discussion with my neighbors (both retired medical doctors) about creeping corporatism. 15 years ago we all agreed that the best people can do is to be resilient by not being in debt, stay educated, have strong social networks; I think the way we agreed to describe it was to live like mice in the walls, comfortably and off the radar.
I still agree that this is the strategy: try to live a free and inspired life (to quote Katherine Austin Fitts) despite what is happening in the world.
I read similar shout how to survive in soviet Russia during the fall of communism. There is a blogger from a few years ago whose theme was about how US economy was moving toward collapsing, and how to survive like Russians did.
I agree - and if one is a migrant, it would be wise to watch the community's attitude to foreigners. Maybe in a decade or two, it would be a time to bid farewell the country one now calls home. I can feel the tension rising.
"According to the Federal Register, the Office of the US Trade Representative announced on Dec. 28 that it “is seeking public comments on the impact of the TPP Agreement on U.S. employment, including labor markets.” The open comment period extends until January 13, 2016. It is critical that as many people as possible write to them about this ...
Sample comment ... As a consumer I have been dismayed at the rising rate of cheap imports that are made by poorly compensated and often abused workers. The products are often shoddy. I would rather pay fair wages to American workers for products that will endure. In so doing I believe we not only lift up our own people and our own communities, but we lift up the rest of the world by no longer being a party to predatory labor practices abroad ..."
TPP, TTIP and the others are just and plainly the fairgrounds of the big corporations. They are those that shape the rules -- and the result is a global eroding of democracies and of peoples rights.
They are bad for environments, for health and many things that are second to the one thing that counts in this game: profits.
I think profit is part of it, but I think that people running multinational corporations with more money than they could spend on themselves for the rest of their lives if they tried would have interest in shaping law indirectly via the supranational tribunals that are part of these trade agreements.
There are other reasons besides money that people get into politics and this would allow corporate owners to directly manipulate politics for monetary and non-monetary reasons without having to do the whole lobbying and/or running for election thing.
I think that profit is a cop-out when it comes to understanding political motivations. Ideological motivations are real and not merely a cover for monetary profit seeking behavior. There's this assumed idea that we live in a post-ideological era and that all decisions are pragmatic or at worst, motivated by profit seeking. I think ideology is still there, but in our dumbed down world it's never explicitly mentioned as a motivation for anything except as a vague throwaway line (e.g "Let's Make America Great Again!").
There hasn't been a lot of polling on this that I've seen, but as of the middle of last year TPP was seen as a good thing by the majority of the general population in all TPP countries except the US and Malaysia. In the US it was 49% good, 29% bad, and in Malaysia it was 38% good, 18% bad [1].
I've watched about 30 minutes of this, and I am growingly disgusted by the TPP and the US government. I am a brit, and all though we aren't part of the TPP, we are still in the back pocket of the United States.
It's a shame that we rely so heavily on trade with the US, that we feel that we need to look past the so called "lobbying" and corruption in US politics, and implement such overbearing rules on behalf of Hollywood and others.
The stuff about the US putting Canada on "probation" and mandating that every 6 months Canada has to report back to the US "as if it was some kind of naughty student to the teacher" is just ridiculous.
[+] [-] nchelluri|10 years ago|reply
As an aside and speaking as a Canadian citizen and resident, Geist is someone who has been very helpful for educating and directing consumers and helping protect our rights. He's very easy to understand, covers issues relevant to consumers as they are becoming relevant, and has obtained what is in my (lay) opinion a well deserved reputation as being someone you can trust to keep you edcuated and safe as a consumer. The work he does is really valuable, IMO. Plus, he let me (among many others) add him as a connection on LinkedIn, even though we've clearly never worked together, which somehow I find very neat :)
[+] [-] themartorana|10 years ago|reply
I'm not a New World Order conspiracy theorist, but am I misreading the impact on democratic societies to govern themselves that this represents?
And hey, if the US can export this set of corporate-protectionism laws to other democracies, do you really think they'll stop with the TPP?
[+] [-] mark_l_watson|10 years ago|reply
About 15 years ago I had an ongoing discussion with my neighbors (both retired medical doctors) about creeping corporatism. 15 years ago we all agreed that the best people can do is to be resilient by not being in debt, stay educated, have strong social networks; I think the way we agreed to describe it was to live like mice in the walls, comfortably and off the radar.
I still agree that this is the strategy: try to live a free and inspired life (to quote Katherine Austin Fitts) despite what is happening in the world.
[+] [-] tamana|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] meric|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] walterbell|10 years ago|reply
"According to the Federal Register, the Office of the US Trade Representative announced on Dec. 28 that it “is seeking public comments on the impact of the TPP Agreement on U.S. employment, including labor markets.” The open comment period extends until January 13, 2016. It is critical that as many people as possible write to them about this ...
Sample comment ... As a consumer I have been dismayed at the rising rate of cheap imports that are made by poorly compensated and often abused workers. The products are often shoddy. I would rather pay fair wages to American workers for products that will endure. In so doing I believe we not only lift up our own people and our own communities, but we lift up the rest of the world by no longer being a party to predatory labor practices abroad ..."
[+] [-] PythonicAlpha|10 years ago|reply
They are bad for environments, for health and many things that are second to the one thing that counts in this game: profits.
[+] [-] narrator|10 years ago|reply
There are other reasons besides money that people get into politics and this would allow corporate owners to directly manipulate politics for monetary and non-monetary reasons without having to do the whole lobbying and/or running for election thing.
I think that profit is a cop-out when it comes to understanding political motivations. Ideological motivations are real and not merely a cover for monetary profit seeking behavior. There's this assumed idea that we live in a post-ideological era and that all decisions are pragmatic or at worst, motivated by profit seeking. I think ideology is still there, but in our dumbed down world it's never explicitly mentioned as a motivation for anything except as a vague throwaway line (e.g "Let's Make America Great Again!").
[+] [-] tzs|10 years ago|reply
[1] http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/06/23/americans-fa...
[+] [-] colinprince|10 years ago|reply
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VTrS1GeADQU
[+] [-] nickjackson|10 years ago|reply
It's a shame that we rely so heavily on trade with the US, that we feel that we need to look past the so called "lobbying" and corruption in US politics, and implement such overbearing rules on behalf of Hollywood and others.
The stuff about the US putting Canada on "probation" and mandating that every 6 months Canada has to report back to the US "as if it was some kind of naughty student to the teacher" is just ridiculous.
This has to stop.
[+] [-] unknown|10 years ago|reply
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