Reply #25: But we do set the standard of living in other countries -

[rman]

it's what those Free Trade Agreements do. And we call it capitalism, not communism.

Question is why do we affect the standard of living to the disadvantage of the local population rather then to their benefit.

The large corporations that push for those agreements (as part of creating a global market), see things such as unions and environmental protections as "trade barriers" that have to be removed in order to be able to "help" the economy of those countries. In reality it works out to the benefit of those large corporations (the owners and investors) and to the disadvantage of "the people".