I got a couple of emails about my post yesterday that posed the idea that the danger from trade deals is higher than the spying uproar underway. And those emails were, how should I say, skeptical about my point. Fair enough. Let me expand.

To start with, ask yourself the following questions:

1. Are you shocked that you are being spied on by the National Security Agency or the CIA? I’m not — and, if you are, brother, you are not paying attention. There were media reports in the past about the programs. I, for one, live my life assuming that anything I write in email or say on the phone can be accessed by the government. I’m not paranoid (really, even if you don’t believe me…ever). The opposite: what’s out there is out there.

2. Seriously, how does the government spying hurt you day-to-day. I am not saying I condone it. Not all. But, ask yourself this in the context of what troubles you around the kitchen table every night.

Now, once you’ve answered those questions, think about this:

How much did you know about the secrecy of the negotiations around the current trade deal, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Free Trade Agreement (FTA), or, for that matter, any previous trade deals? I’m going to guess you absolutely would not be shocked that the NSA and CIA spies on Americans but you had no clue that trade deals that are basically setting in stone how the economy is going to run for decades to come are done in secret and, just as important, the person YOU ELECT to represent you basically can’t make any changes in these deals once the deals hit the floor of the Congress.

I put that, as I said yesterday, as at least an equal threat to the spying, and, actually, I think it’s far more dangerous if you think about what it means about paying your bills every day.

If we think about why wages are low, why good-paying jobs were once fleeing the country and, now, some of those very jobs are coming back ONLY because wage and benefits rates have been cut do much over the past two decades that U.S. workers’ wages are now more “competitive” with wages paid for some jobs abroad — you can tie a lot of that right to trade deals.

Trade deals done in secret and rammed through Congress by this putrid “fast track” authority — authority used by Democratic and Republican presidents. If you want to find a classic spot where the bi-partisan sell-out to corporate America, to bankers, to financiers, to the elite, has screwed people no matter where they live, my friends, welcome to the world of trade and “fast-track” authority.

Over and out for now. And, by the way, I assume, always, that the CIA reads anything I write — taking comfort, however, in the realization that I am an unimportant speck of sand tumbling through the day. Relief.