TFW you ban people who disagree with you, but its your sub so whatevs, then your sub gets shutdown, but actually it was your mods who did it, so you brigade a sub that doesn't ban disagreement and complain about their hatred of free speech

TPP makes a lot less sense than NAFTA from a US perspective. It's definitely not the best deal we could have made considering that if any of those countries lost access to US markets completely, there would be death on a massive scale, while if the US lost access to Asian markets and products, it would be a manageable crisis. Bearing that disparity in mind, America's positions in the negotiations were softened in the interests of "good will" and "stability." Unfortunately, this is not Europe, and it's not North America for that matter. These countries do not care about those kind of diplomatic niceties, which you already know if you've ever done business there. Good will gets you exactly nothing in China, other than making it more likely they'll try to rip you off. They're operating with absolute pragmatism, while the Obama administration operated from a position of pragmatism mixed with internationalist idealism. China, Japan, The Philippines are all intensely nationalistic countries, they are totally motivated by self-interest, which is the attitude America must bring to the table in negotiations there. It's not the same as the European Union or Canada.

TPP would not have been that bad, don't get me wrong, but it's not as important as people think. It protected American intellectual probably, but it was not strong on increasing access for American corporations to Asian markets, which can be difficult in some industries. I am hoping and waiting to see if we get a deal that does that, and like Wall Street, I'm cautiously optimistic.

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