
The revolving door: greasing the wheels of the TTIP lobby - walterbell
http://corporateeurope.org/revolving-doors/2015/07/revolving-door-greasing-wheels-ttip-lobby
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lliinhhvvv
Europe transformed into a corporate-fascist entity under the guise of beign
socialism some time ago. America is practically the same.

The law protects and serves the corrupt, and the citizens it harms pay for
their enslavement.

Policy makers wont listen to the rabble, they no longer keep up even the
facade. These people only understand wealth and power, believing otherwise is
ignorance. They are evil and selfish, and do not hesitate to destroy those
that oppose them.

~~~
TheMagicHorsey
Give me a break.

Yes there are problems in the US and EU with regards to spreading the benefits
of increased productivity in the last few decades, but our societies are far
from fascist states.

Yes the TTIP has to be scrutinized and yes we should be skeptical of public
officials going into the same industries they regulate, however, trade
negotiation isn't necessarily the same sort of situation.

Frankly, negotiating trade deals in the open is difficult precisely because
trade usually creates winners and losers. Protected groups, like Europe's
coddled farmers, are on the losing end of liberalization, but ALL citizens
when with liberalization with falling food prices. But in an open negotiation
the future beneficiaries have neither interest nor motivation to fight for
their small price improvements, but the protected industry has every reason to
marshal all its resources to spread FUD.

And this is what happens all the time. Right now I'm witnessing car
dealerships in America spreading FUD about Tesla. Right now I'm witnessing
taxi companies spreading FUD about Uber/Lyft. Hilton and other hotel chains
are spreading FUD about AirBnB.

Always there is some cosmetic argument about some social protection, but it
never stands up to scrutiny.

The logic of protecting EU farmers from competition rests on the concept of
preservation of traditional landscapes, traditional ways of life, etc. But
nobody analyzes the total cost placed on urban dwellers in EU to sustain these
quaint things. If the true accounting is made and everyone is aware of the
costs its one thing ... but rather the true costs are hidden behind layers of
obfuscation, and people only suspect something is badly wrong when they come
to Asia or America and see how cheap food actually is on the world market.

Being vigilant against corporate abuse doesn't mean you fall for every
bullshit anti-establishment flavored FUD pushed by people trying to enforce
the status quo so their favorite little protected industry survives.

~~~
touristtam
Corporation have not the society's greater good at heart.

If you think trade deals like this one are beneficial to you as a citizen, you
are either delusional or disingenuous. Sure, the price of food might go down
at the retail, but at what cost? What's the impact of these policies on the
ecosystem we are inhabiting? What's the political cost both to the directly
concerned country and to their partners? You like to have cheap goods, but
can't bear to see the peripheral human (social, political and economical) and
environmental cost of this?

We should all know by now, the market is far from pure and perfect, and every
single actor participating is trying to bend the rules in their favor. If on
top of that, we have non-elected decision maker walking hand in hand with big
corporation (which are incidentally supra national private entities), it
should make question the direction of such trade talks.

As for the FUD spread in specific market against new entrance, it more akin to
a cartel system than anything else. like the car manufacturer in Europe
blocking the liberalization of retail cars back in the mid to late 90s. It
should have not have happened, but it did, thanks to corporate lobbyist.

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squeeze
Link seems to be down.

Archive:

[https://web.archive.org/web/20150720071434/http://www.corpor...](https://web.archive.org/web/20150720071434/http://www.corporateeurope.org/revolving-
doors/2015/07/revolving-door-greasing-wheels-ttip-lobby)

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NicoJuicy
Karel De Gucht, the belgian guy who did everying to let TTIP succeed. Send
even a letter to all parlement members that everything what they read on the
internet is a lie...

~~~
mcv
I believe he's been on the wrong end of more big laws and agreements,
including at one time even tempting Neelie Kroes to the dark side. (Kroes,
despite belonging to the wrong party, is pretty much the only Eurocommissioner
I can respect.)

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JupiterMoon
gorgak you have been hell banned...

