Help understanding benefits/costs of trade deals/TPP

[travelingprimate]

Any thoughts are appreciated. I know the final draft hasn't been released yet, but based on a previous draft there were some investor dispute resolutions issues that were brought up a lot. First, that is the legacy of Nafta? It's my uneducated opinion that it was oversold and the benefits weren't as expected. Are we simply adding more cheap labor markets to be used up until their standard of living goes up until we need another trade deal?

[jughead]

As you are most likely aware, this is a community made up of mostly anarcho-capitalists. As such, the whole concept of trade deals negotiated between governments is anathema. One can certainly discuss the pros and cons to each party of a particular agreement, but conceptually we are against all forms of state violence, including those that restrict trade between individuals, regardless of geography.

 

In general, free trade benefits all parties, particularly consumers, but special interests (usually producer groups) can and do benefit from trade restrictions such as import tariffs.

[Magnetic Synthesizer]

You can sue gov for not taxing competitors.

 

Ahem, I meant. you can sue gov for not supporting your products through regulation.

 

I guess you could sue gov for not letting you make proper use of their natural ressources.

[travelingprimate]

are there any podcasts on trade deals? I couldnt find any specifically on the topic. It seems like the TPP is more to protect American economic interests than free trade. My thinking goes like this:

 

52% of the worlds stock value is in the US stock market. Capital in Capitalism is what earns money, not labor. Sending Capital all over the world will bring profits back home. After every trade deal a pool of cheap labor is added to the free trade zone. When this pool of cheap labor has disappeared (economically advantaged themselves to a better lifestyle) the economy needs more cheap labor just to keep going. Thats why there is a continual need for a larger and larger trade deals. From a first world standpoint, it seems the "middle class" enjoys the benefits of cheap goods, but the tradeoff is stagnation and decline of real wages as jobs are done cheaper overseas.

 

The US governement seems has a very high priority of protecting Intellectual Property. (Which seems like a state forced reallocation of wealth given that the time until a copyrighted work enters Public Domain is continually lengthened). This all leads me to my conclusion that the TPP gives power and rights to corporations at the expense of states and individuals. This however is a sold as economically beneficial because it benefits those with capital, aka the western world economies. So yeah, great for our economy, but not individual freedom, and not countries ability to move one way or the other (to regulate or to try a legit free market experiment)