My reaction to this is that life is complicated.

I'm sitting here, drinking a French pinot and blogging, using a computer designed in the U.S. and manufactured oversees, resting on a table made of Canadian wood and purchased via Overstock.com in what amounted to a cross border transaction.

Is free trade a good thing?  Yes.  When I want olive oil from Greece, Spain or Italy, it is a very good thing.

On the other hand... you make a great point.  Trade doesn't have an obvious a effect on my earnings because I'm not an exporter and I'm not in an easily exported job.  But that second part can change very quickly.  The world is full of people who thought their jobs could not be outsourced.

But I don't know that people are necessarily prey to false consciousness if they support trade agreements that might hurt them when they also get benefits.  This is a complex topic that. on a personal level, could inspire conflicting analysis.  You could support a trade agreement for the access it provides you to products and services while still fearing what it might cost you in terms fo earnings and employment.

In a very general sense, though, we all want trade.  The details become quickly complex and hard to render judgment over. 

The trouble with the TPP is ISDS (investor state dispute settlements.) The corporations are on a international power grab.  They want to over ride sovereign nations' laws by using arbitration board of lawyers.  This is why it is so secret because they know countries will pull this out before they will approve of the treaty.  This is worse then the Trusts that formed in the late 19th century because they are bigger and more dangerous. They don't want any restrictions to produce and sell for profit.  There is ISDS written in earlier trade treaties. It used to be rare when there was cases of ISDS but not anymore.

I will pick one example he has in the letter. A Quebec Providence is being sued over it's banning of fracturing for gas under the St. Lawrence River using the ISDS in a treaty.  I check regularly with the USGS for earthquakes and volcano eruptions. There is a whole lot of shaking going on from fracking operations.  Oklahoma had around 300 hundred quakes last month.  Just think if the rock slips under the river and effects the motion of the water.  This is a bigger head ache then window rattling and dishes shaking. 

I also listened to a speech this month from the Director of the IMF.  There is a worry that the mega banks will use ISDS to over ride laws.  She made a point that banks can and do harm to economies when left up to their own governance.  The same thing Sen. Warren has been railing about.  

The media is really useless because this can be explained in easy terms so the population understands this isn't about jobs but about corporate power. People find concepts like this confusing and tend to ignore what they are confused about. UN black helicopters are much more in their paradigm to be afraid of .

Hal, one of the definitions of true intelligence is to be able to hold two seemingly countervailing views in mind at the same time. For example, I might think both things at once--- overall the trade deal is good, along with it won't necessarily create jobs or raise wages.

As we were discussing on another thread, pardon me, the direct labor jobs may not be where the operatives are in terms of the broader positive economic effects of the trade deal.

Part of the reason I keep taking you up on these trade blogs is that if one combined the possible positive effects of the deal with worthwhile associated reforms, like higher minimum wages, it would be better than just harping on how bad this deal is.