However, I have to respond with a dose of reality to the last paragraph in your post.
You said:
**********
"Well, sure, that's one of my motives. The American left has magical thinking about manufacturing employment that is counterproductive, so I argue against it. Manufacturing is no different from agriculture, extraction, or services: all of them add value, and we need to pay the people who do all of them more than we do now."
**********
The principal source of gaining wealth is through trade. The principal method for spreading the wealth for a large number of people in a given population is by manufacturing goods and trading those goods with other groups.
Japan is an example of a country with limited resources. It developed into a wealthy country by manufacturing and trading goods with other countries. The wealth is widely distributed among the population.
Saudi Arabia is a wealthy country whose economy is based predominantly on the extraction of oil. The wealth is concentrated largely in the hands of a "royal" family and their followers. The rest of the population, not so much.
China is another example of a country that is expanding its wealth through manufacturing. It has a large population, and the wealth is spreading throughout the population, as can be seen through the fact of its growing middle class.
In fact, the corporations are looking at China, with its growing middle class, as an area of expanding markets.
One of the aims of the TPP is to prevent any competitors from entering the U.S. markets and taking market share away from the corporations that currently control it.
The TPP is NOT a "free trade" agreement. On the contrary, it is a treaty to prevent competition
= new reply since forum marked as read
