Note: Do not expect deep thinking in this post. Reader expectations should be guided by the imaginary lava lamp in our newsroom. It is small, transparent and only works when you put in energy, which creates confined blobs that rise, merge, and tumble - you get the idea.
The big economic news of the past few days were closure of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) "trade deal" and the EU Court of Justice nixing the transatlantic Safe Harbor agreement.
Faced with the complexities of the TPP and its European cousin TTIP, the blogster follows the guidelines of our famously grumpy TheEditor, who postulated: Nothing good comes out of this amount of secrecy coupled with laughable examples of benefits. If Danish cakes, Spanish peppers, German pottery, and changing the color of car indicator lights is all the European Union negotiators can come up with, you are not getting a good deal. And don't forget the investor dispute settlement system. That's a parallel system of justice the public will only understand if you can change the acronym from ISDS to SHARIA.
What TTIP/TISA won't do for you
There is no reason to assume that, for example, Hewlett Packard and other printer companies will stop using their rip-off "region code" on printer ink cartridges. There is also no reason to assume that a universal charger for smart phones will really come to Europe by 2017, not to speak of a global standard like the one proposed by the IEC.
Do not expect U.S. drug store companies like Walgreen's to be able to sell their company brand 100 aspirin bottles to German consumers or Austrian pot plants to go on sale in Colorado.
Don't expect a California driver's license will become magically convertible into a German one by filling out a half page form and relinquishing the California card. No amount of TTIP or TISA will save you the 2 000 Euros or so for the mandatory German driving classes and test.
Public Service Announcement: Move to the "right" state in the US for a week, exchange the license for less than 50 bucks, move to Deutschland, exchange for another 40 or so Euros, done *.
Free trade is all nice and fun if are into stuff, data or anything you slap a copyright on, but the one investment every human makes - many years of education - may not even be "good enough" in the state next door, not even to speak of the other end of the world.
The conservative approach: consider your degrees worthless
Okay, that's the pessimistic version, which is true for foreign physicians who want to work in the U.S., for American doctors who want to work in Europe (except for the American Hospital of Paris) and a huge raft of other professional qualifications.
Within the European Union, things have improved quite a bit with the push to standardize college/university degrees around the BA/BS and MA/MS degrees. Yet, even there, restricted professions continue to exist.
Mind you, real differences justifying caution or extra training can be found. Just take the Anglo-Saxon legal system versus the German one. The U.S. jury system made a household concept across the world by Hollywood is just one difference, but not the crucial one.
When it comes to the medical profession, the hurdles currently in place really have no basis in education and training in the U.S. vs. Europe context. The same holds for many other fields, as you can see in sectors where the job market and the country's culture allow flexibility.
Recently, a reporter of German magazine Der Spiegel wrote a long piece about having to take an English language test for a visa application for Australia despite a degree in American studies and despite having studied in the U.S. for some time.
Or how about the same pencil pushing government job being restricted to citizens in one country but open to any nationality in another country?
* They will generally make you wait for six months, but that's because you can exchange a German license for any European license when you move to another EU country. Which is really cool...
[Update] Added text starting with "Recently, a reporter..."
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