The second step to corporate tyranny was adoption by the US of the WTO and NAFTA agreements. It is commonly thought that these benefit the United States. Wrong. The agreements deprive US citizens and authorities of the ability to make decisions about their local environment and trade, giving power to foreign bureaucrats who meet in secret. NAFTA's effect on Mexico, where eight million fell from the middle class into poverty, has been well documented. But in the US 2.6 million jobs vanished (many to be replaced by part-time or low-pay service sector jobs), workers lost $28 billion in bonuses, wages fell 28%, working hoursincreased, environmental laws were overruled and the trade deficit soared. It was only corporations that benefited, through being able to overturn local laws and force down the cost of labour.
All the protections against corporate power sought by the American Founders have been lost. Corporations, with the right to 'personhood,' now have the right to meet and influence 'their' elected representatives. Chemical corporations, quoting the Santa Clara case, claim the right to privacy to prevent uninvited inspections of their toxic sites by the Environmental Protection Agency. Corporations have the right to sue an objector at a public meeting for, say, slander and frequently exercise it, not hoping to win but to intimidate with the threat of legal fees. Corporations, asserting the right to free speech, used a perverse advertising campaign to kill off Clinton's proposal for health-care protection to the 40 million uninsured.
