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> If trade deals were passed like legislation in a parliament or Congress, with time in committee and lots of room for individual legislators to add their input
by WastingMyTime89 3y ago
> If trade deals were passed like legislation in a parliament or Congress, with time in committee and lots of room for individual legislators to add their input, there would be so much more corporate abuse it's not even funny. This would give a chance for every favored sector, major employer in a powerful legislator's district, company that the government favors at the moment etc. to add in clauses favoring them. Doing an up-or-down or vote actually greatly reduces pork.
The idea that there is less corporate interest meedling because everyting is done in secret and people can't see nor control what's happening is so ridiculous I am at loss to how you could come to this conclusion. Considering your disdain for actual democracy, I'm not surprised you like the EU in its current form.
- gruez 3y ago>The idea that there is less corporate interest meedling because everyting is done in secret and people can't see nor control what's happening is so ridiculous I am at loss to how you could come to this conclusion. It's not hard to think of reasons why doing it in secret would have less corporate meddling, eg. done in secret -> less pressure for negotiators to feel beholden to their supporters (eg. representatives to their donors). That said, there are plenty of reasons why doing it in secret is a bad idea (eg. it's undemocratic), but those are independent issues.
- hash872 3y agoBut it gets subjected to an up-or-down vote, right? How is that different from any other law? Normal legislation gets hammered out in committees all the time, in every parliament in every democracy in the world. It's not like committee hearings are personally audio and video recorded for you
- WastingMyTime89 3y agoI don’t know where you live but both committee minutes and debates are public here as they should.