On 3 March 2014 13:51, Platonist Guitar Cowboy <[email protected]>wrote:
> Trans-Atlantic Free Trade Agreement comes to mind. It's seen as a silent, > gradual but finalizing invasion of Europe/US sovereignty by large corporate > interests, according to "Le Monde" as example. "Harmonization" of for > example environmental and health standards entail the imposition of the > "lowest, market friendliest standards for all..." > > Otherwise of course, this whole thing will not make sense according to the > most powerful lobbies. Not just large US corporations, but the UK's > "financial industry" is pushing hard for the lowering of standards as well. > > Labor unions in Europe will have to scale back demands and expectations, > because we need lower standards across the board, to harmonize. Apparently, > Europe's standards in way too many areas, including agriculture, food > production, industrial waste, hydraulic fracturing, or limiting corporate > interests' legal power to sue for losses due to balance sheet losses, > consumer protection etc. are way too high/strong. > > If you're some large fossil fuel based corporation, you should be able to > sue governments and taxpayers more effectively for their irresponsible > market behavior in developing more sustainable technologies, because this > costs jobs and slows real growth and profit. > > Germany will be interesting to watch in this regard, because popular > opinion/protest is mobilizing against much of this, but government and the > ever present German guilt over the war, puts the country in no position to > "say (dictate...)" much, even if many politicians are convinced by > sustainability concerns, via their records. So no say there. Especially not > to allied interests of large corporations and US/UK savior alliance, that > saved the world AND them from themselves. Germany is said to have sent > "lightweight obedient" to the negotiations, and at this point you can't > expect more from a country who's head of state has her phone bugged and > manages a "Spying among friends is not good" statement, as consequence. > > Media is fed bits and pieces of "transparency" in EU, as in some US > lobbyist going "your food safety standards are way too high... why not dip > your chickens in Cl before packaging to save on all these stupid costs of > keeping farms clean you impose etc." (as if you could eat from the floor of > an EU farm...), but members from European Parliament are barred from seeing > the actual texts being negotiated, that lobbyists are said to be actively > penning, "helping us to harmonize properly". > > And guess what? The European Centre for International Political Economy, > that should ideologically be favoring this "endeavor", predicts GDP growth > of 0-point something percent! This relies on you giving faith to "lower > customs means increased growth", which is quite blue eyed. If you don't buy > this, according to the authors of the study, then indeed, GDP growth will > increase only by 0.06 percent... from 2029 onwards though. So a family of > four will increase its income per member by around 4.54 Euros a month, in > about a ten year span. > > Not hard to see who has the upper hand here and where things are headed > concerning this. Uhm...lower standards for the growth. But we really > want/have to test our luck to not even produce that growth, don't we? PGC > > Thank God I live in New Zealand! Although of course we're doing our best to screw it up... -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
