DU Poll: Third Way or FDR?

[Baobab]

28. Here is the problem, the system is already fixed and has been since the 1990s

to basically make all of the New Deal type programs, as well as any new public monopolies like health care or education, forbidden.

But they still had to work out the so called "disciplines on domestic regulation" and that has taken 20 years.

One of the main stated purposes of the WTO is helping poor countries get rich like us.. by privatizing everything (which facilitates the extractive industries which are the main point) In echange they get jobs.

Or are supposed to get jobs.

So at Doha, Hong Kong, Cancun, Bali and most recently Nairobi. the Least Developed Countries basically engaged in an incredibly lengthy back and forth with the Developed Countries over a substantial development agenda, the DDA. Part of the DDA, the carrot part - the payoff for the developing countries is Services liberalisation which is a way to lower wages and funnel money to corporations both here and in the developing world - money that would otherwise be spent on wages to "overpaid" developed country indigenous workers like those in the US and EU. Since its temporary its not immigration, its an intra corporate transfer- The rules in any country have to be conformed to be "no more burdensome than necessary to ensure the quality of the service" basically allow corporations to treat many countries as their global job pool, and because the wages are lower in some countries than others they are expected to get a lot of work, while the wages equalize out to some equilibrium point between the higher and the lower extremes- at least in theory- as the GATS mandates privatization of big chunks of the public sector, things like hospitals schools, and IT- when government money is involved and the following test of "For the purposes of this Agreement… Also, infrastructure construction. (Also the EU will get access to bid on those jobs through TTIP)

What is the scope of GATS (the 1994 deal that started the process of banning the New Deal type stimulus) "Services" of course..

One definition of services seems to be "everything that you cannot drop on your foot" - However the 'official" definition is basically everything that doesnt get ecluded by very narrow exclusions, plus the positive list and "specific commitments"- OR in the case of TiSA a "negative list" that basically says "all service sectors and modes of supply" are included unless they are explicitly excluded now!

Official 2 part test from GATS of what is privatized and what is exempted by virtue of being public services (supplied as an exercise of governmental authority).:

(b) 'services' includes any service in any sector except services supplied in the exercise of governmental authority;

(c) 'a service supplied in the exercise of governmental authority' means any service which is supplied neither on a commercial basis, nor in competition with one or more service suppliers."

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So, lots of jobs may be put on their big poker table, for now decades , developing countries have haggled with the developed countries- for those "Mode Four" jobs which are supposed to become available to the lowest bidding firms.

But so far the utilization has remained well under 100k jobs a year in the US under GATS Mode Four.

Its worth reading up on this because our leaders are not being honest with us, obviously, and so overnight the situation could change, and if the WTO rules that for example, quotas are not permissible, a question that is before them right now..

it could potentially become huge - and lower wages a lot.