I've been in manufacturing management most of my career. In 2003 the company I worked for explored the feasibility of moving operations to China. While labor costs were much lower, the cost of shipping, cost of inventory on the water for 30 days and other factors made the overall cost close to the same as keeping the manufacturing here in the good ole' USA. The deal breaker was tax savings. Yep, 500 of my closest friends and I lost our jobs because from a business standpoint, it made more sense financially.
As a result of our jobs being "offshored," we qualified for TAA. It was great for the unskilled and semiskilled employees as along with job training there were ESL classes and placement assistance. I am so grateful for that. For the management, job training wasn't appropriate, so we were able to get extended unemployment benefits. It helped.
So now we have TPP with a side order of TAA, which will be paid for with funds siphoned from "entitlement" programs. Follow me under the orange thingy - crap, I don't have a creative name for it at the moment - to tell you how this sucks.
More manufacturing jobs will be outsourced as a result of TPP. The powers that be anticipate this, otherwise they wouldn't make TAA a requisite for TPP to pass.
So here's the rub. I am a member of the baby boom generation. Manufacturing jobs are few and far between as it is. After TPP it's likely that those jobs will become much more rare. I'm too young for social security, and at an age where most companies will not be willing to hire me. I'm not alone. Our generation is huge and aging.
What the fuck will TAA retraining retrain me to do? Flip burgers? Greet shoppers at Walmart? While those are honest work, they won't pay the bills.
Thanks, President Obama for your super secret ultra-uber trade deal. It will make life so much better for the people you represent. Not.