A
long con is a lengthy, carefully scripted and choreographed scam involving numerous players, where every action and event inexorably pushes the mark to make specific choices that culminate with his assets in the possession of the grifter. Last week I exposed
the Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) mechanism as a hypocritical fraud, a rigged system to give the appearance of fairness and legitimacy while actually separating the mark (the citizenry) from its money. ISDS serves as one of the classic elements of the long con,
the Outside Authority, which lends a false aura of respectability and integrity to the con.
This week we'll look at TPP through the lens of another classic aspect of the long con: the Face. To run an elaborate swindle successfully, simple greed is seldom a sufficient motivator. Greed may be the steak but what sells the fraud is the sizzle and for that we need a Face.
The Face tempts the mark's dreams and desires with promises of what the future may bring if he completes the final transaction. The Face is usually a beautiful woman, elegant and sophisticated, the symbol of a lifestyle dangling almost within reach of the mark. She dazzles him when he should be analyzing, entices him when he should be doubting, and ultimately leaves him crushed and despairing -- because like all the rest of the scam, she's an illusion crafted solely to maneuver him into turning over his life's savings.
The Face of the TPP is Jobs, Good Jobs, Jobs for the 21st Century! What could be more alluring to an American public which has seen its wages stagnate, its manufacturing base erode, and its skilled labor turned into Walmart greeters?
The Face has been promising that cornucopia of high-wage jobs for 20 years. She first beguiled the mark with NAFTA, cajoled with CAFTA, and tantalized with the South Korean trade agreement (KORUS). Oh, he was captivated each time the Face whispered those hints of paradise to come. And every time, the Face coldly vanished without even a wry smile of regret once the deal was sealed.
And here is what the Face left behind, after the grift played out.
NAFTA directly cost the United States a net loss of 700,000 jobs. The surplus with Mexico turned into a chronic deficit. And the economic dislocation in Mexico increased the the flow of undocumented workers into the United States. - NAFTA, Twenty Years After: A Disaster
Public Citizen states that the numbers are even worse than reported above:
More than 845,000 U.S. workers in the manufacturing sector have been certified for Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) since NAFTA because they lost their jobs due to imports from Canada and Mexico or the relocation of factories to those countries. The TAA program is quite narrow, covering only a subset of jobs lost at manufacturing facilities, and is difficult to qualify for. Thus, the NAFTA TAA numbers significantly undercount NAFTA job loss.
They continue the grim news with "According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, two out of every three displaced industrial workers who were rehired in 2012 experienced wage reductions, most of more than 20 percent." Yet, the Face had vowed that any jobs lost would be for the best because new better-paying jobs would be plentiful.
The Economic Policy Institute reports that KORUS cost us over 75,000 jobs and increased our trade deficit with South Korea by 80.4% ($11.8 billion) in its first three years.
The Face wasn't even able to deliver on her promise that our foreign trading partners would enjoy higher employment, better working conditions and increased wages. Celeste Drake, trade and globalization policy specialist at the AFL-CIO says, regarding CAFTA, "Central Americans have experienced the expansion of sweatshop jobs, and, in Guatemala and Honduras in particular, increasing labor and political repression and egregious levels of violence."
Our political leaders know that the Face is an alluring deception. They know that the jobs of today will depart to foreign climes and that the pledge of future jobs will dissipate like smoke in the wind. Their actions belie their words of certainty that the TPP will benefit the American worker. They are already planning for it, creating weak amends with legislation to retrain soon-to-be newly jobless workers.
But even then, the grift will march on. The new more skilled jobs will also migrate to more hospitable nations, ever in search of the lowest possible wage and least protection of labor. Job flight and reeducation will partner in an endless and bitter tango, danced for the pleasure and profit of the lords of capital.
Yet the Face's teasing murmurs of "millions of new jobs, jobs for a better tomorrow, jobs for America's future" keep the mark unfocused and distracted. He doesn't notice the discrepancy between what he hears and what he sees.
The Face has already sunk not a thousand ships but millions of ships carrying the hopes and dreams of American workers and their families.
But the past is merely the dying ember of easily forgotten memories for the Face. Forever recreating herself to reassure and entice the mark for today's grift, she purrs that this time the jobs will be bountiful, opportunities overflowing, exciting new careers for one and all. And the mark wants to believe the Face, to know that soon his reward will be in his hands. The Face needs him to believe so that he will take the next step toward the inevitable finale of the con.
When she whispers her assurances of prosperity into his ear, the mark cannot see the calculating iciness in her eyes, her naked hunger for the payoff. The Face is a brilliant performer, able to spin doubt into hope and caution into foolhardy boldness for action. She has mastered her craft by now and the mark is bound to be ensnared in her web of illusions. She's spun her gossamer net of winsome deceits before and succeeded in trapping the mark every single time.
The Long Con of the TPP |
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The Trans Pacific Partnership trade agreement has all the elements of a "long con", an elaborately staged swindle whose goal is to steal the assets of the mark (the victim of the scam). This series explains how the TPP actually is a long con and we, the American public, are the targeted mark.
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Stay tuned for the next installment: The Convincer |