Free trade isn't free.

[eridani]

http://civicskunkworks.com/?p=708

The free trade crowd likes to roll their eyes at critics of the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement as if we’re a bunch of idiots who just can’t (or won’t) understand the way markets work. But here’s the thing about “free trade” as defined by agreements like the TPP: it doesn’t create a free market.

Sure, goods are free to cross borders under TPP. And financial capital sure is free to cross borders. And since goods-plus-capital equals jobs, the TPP frees more jobs to cross international borders.

But you know what’s not free to cross borders? People. And since under TPP and NAFTA jobs are mobile and labor isn’t, free trade agreements like these end up distorting the economy in a way that advantages capital and disadvantages labor.

[rhett o rick]

1. Even if you support Free Trade like the Conservatives, you should be appalled becaue

the TPP has very little to do with trade. It is a Trojan horse carrying loads of pro-corporatists laws.

[Wilms]

2. k&r n/t