Populist Reform of the Democratic Party

may pay their workers a lot less than American workers can get by on. Lowest bidder wins and this is a deliberate race to the bottom. A foreign company can sue if a contract was only given to American businesses to bid on, or if an American company won a contract even though their bid was higher.

This means that Bernie Sanders' lovely idea to rebuild American infrastructure while giving Americans jobs would be a non-starter. The money paid to out of country companies would not even necessarily be spent in America - most of the H-1b visa folks I worked with sent most of their money back to the head of the family in India, and got an allowance, roomed three to five people in an apartment leased by their contracting firm, shared the home internet and a car. Brought their lunch to work, etc. Nothing wrong with being thrifty, but they did not exactly boost the local economy. It was hilarious when the giant telecom I worked for (I got a contract job there after I was RIFed (reduction in force)) complained that the number of friends and family referrals for new installations was way down. Heh, they replaced a lot of long time employees with folks whose friends and family lived overseas.

Anyway, the TPP says that over a certain dollar amount, government contracts have to be let out for bids to signatory countries. Who probably will bid lower due to lower wages and benefits.