Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2017/03/29/fine-print-by-the-yard.html
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In honor of his writing, I want to expose myself to Ted Cruz
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One thing that this paper probably misses when it assumes a truly efficient market is truly efficient information sharing. That’s what the internet is and nowadays things like this get around pretty quickly. Not perfectly and not in every case but I think enough so that it can’t be ignored in calculating cost/benefit. (In other words, the cost of a bad reputation)
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20 years ago, Ted Cruz
Yeah, once a scum bag, always one.
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The trouble is that his subsequent behavior strongly suggests that “and this is a feature, not a bug” was the other half of his thesis.
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well the old saying is if you’re young and not a liberal you have no heart if you’re old and not a liberal you’re an evil scumbag sellout.
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“You might think…that the market could sort it out” ??? Is this really what most people think nowadays about everything? Good lord, we are doomed.
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Awesome! Now, since 45 appointed his son-in-law as CEO of America and we’re all now considered customers by him, I’m expecting quite a lot of changes to the terms of service contract we’re all now a part of. I wonder what happens if I don’t accept…
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Anybody have, or know where to get, a copy of the paper? It’s behind a paywall…
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They make you President of the USA?
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So far my favorite tweet to Ted Cruz:
@tedcruz welp guess you’ll get another shot in 4 years if the parasitic brain worm wearing your body doesn’t give up on you like america has.
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Can anyone comment on the equations? Are they workable or lawyerly BS?
Hey Ted:
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The best example of this I know of is the WTO General Agreement on Trade in Services which is effectively the most restrictive “terms of service” imaginable-- it represents an attempt at corporate capture of the entire planet that is on the verge of succeeding. All of the deregulatory changes enacted by Speaker Cruz are ratcheted in, and nobody in the nation, seems to realize this. Actually, that’s not a joke, I am completely serious. And this is The World Trade Organization and Health Care. The “ratchet” is called “progressive liberalisation” and its one way. Voting cannot reverse it. This ratchet began on January 1, 1995, and you’ll notice that not a single nation has initiated universal health care or any wide reaching new social programs after that date. (Switzerland, home of the WTO was the last, in 1994) The changes that have been made are all essentially [self-ratcheting and silent]- so the noose gets tighter on its own. People in effected countries (especially the US) have no inkling of the real conditions causing their frustration and politicians continue to make promises they know are barred by the agreement (unless carved out before certain changes occur) confident that those lies are reliable vote getters. While the people suffer. Since the WTO’s legitimacy has recently come into question, two new agreements, one proposed and almost completed by the US, the other just proposed around a week ago by India, hope to deliver the final stroke. The effect will be the destruction of the “middle class”, and one way de-regulation of all “measures of general application affecting trade in services” basically all laws or policies of any kind- and a barring of new public services that are not explanation of the meaning of the “governmental authority exception” Only the most narrow definition of noncommercial services (free and without competition) are exempt from privatization and monetization and eventually, globalization. This will push all wages down to global norms and prohibit new safety nets, while dismantling the old ones. The people of the US will never know what hit them, lulled into a state of ignorance as they have been by extreme levels of dishonesty by both “parties”. Its really an amazing, unprecedented situation. Its appropriate that Cruz wrote this paper, no doubt he was thinking about these services agreements. Other trade agreements on goods are similar but nowhere near as outrageous in the scope of the takeover they attempt. But they all attempt to do an end run around democracy and make it irreversible. The core concepts are things like “indirect expropriation” which basically give new corporate rights to MNCs that transfer the wealth of the planet silently to corporations, giving them property rights in bad policy, so voters are left unable to vote things back to the way they were, and corporations profits always have to increase with every change in laws or governments are obligated compensation.
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They’re economics equations, not designed to be “workable” but to show how the different variables relate to and influence each other.
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Hard to imagine, but 20 years ago he was less fun at parties.
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So, like the Kardashians.
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Scum bag can’t change it’s scum.
The Free Market is all powerful, All Hail The Free Market (that we don’t actually have due to companies getting to the top and then doing whatever they can to stop others from getting there)!
The Kardashians do generate carbon dioxide for the plants…
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not the only thing that they, and Cruz, make that is good for plants.
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I would think what they spew from the other end would actually kill the plants…
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