This and that for your Sunday reading. – David Suzuki discusses the merits of a four-day work week in improving both working and living conditions: It’s absurd that so many people still work eight hours a day, five days a week — or more — with only a few weeks’
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Accidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Jesse Ferreras reports that Canada’s supposed job growth has included almost nothing but part-time and precarious work. And Louis-Philippe Rochon points out how the influence of the financial sector has led to economic choices which serve nobody else’s interests: What makes governments
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Afternoon Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Jonathan Sas highlights why we’re best off having public services delivered by the public sector: The three decades long bashing and diminishing of the redistributive capacities of the state has led to pronounced inequality, degraded infrastructure stock, and a blunted ability of government
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Afternoon Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Lana Payne points out the significance of even central bankers like Mark Carney recognizing the desperate need to combat inequality. And Iglika Ivanova discusses how British Columbia’s election-year surplus represents a wasted opportunity to start addressing the social problems which the Libs have
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Stephen Dubner discusses the importance of social trust in supporting a functional economy and society: (S)ocial trust is … HALPERN: Social trust is an extraordinarily interesting variable and it doesn’t get anywhere near the attention it deserves. But the basic idea is
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This and that for your Sunday reading. – Andrew Nikiforuk highlights how Donald Trump’s election is just one more predictable consequence of the end of shared growth – even as it figures to perpetuate that reality. And Andrew Coyne argues that Trump’s win under the U.S.’ warped electoral rules should
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: New column day
Here, on what we need to do to clean up political funding – and how both the Saskatchewan and federal systems offer painful examples of the problems with big money in politics. For further reading…– Brad Wall’s top-up pay from the Saskatchewan Party – being one of the many noteworthy
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: New column day
Here, comparing the Conservative Party’s leadership race based on fear and division to the NDP’s which looks set to bring a progressive coalition together. For further reading…– Bob Hepburn also notes that fear and hatred are the main themes emerging from the Cons’ candidates so far. And while it’s fair
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Owen Jones highlights the toxic stress and other health problems borne disproportionately by members of the LGBT community who face systematic discrimination. And Tayla Smith and Jaitra Sathyandran discuss how temporary foreign workers (and others facing precarious work situations) tend to suffer
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Vanessa Williamson writes that plenty of Americans want to see wealthy individuals and corporations pay their fair share of taxes – only to have that strong desire ignored by policymakers. And Joseph Stiglitz and Erika Siu discuss the glaring need for stronger tax
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Jim Stanford writes about the obvious problems with globalization as it’s currently structured – and the need to meaningfully take into account the public interest before anybody other than the investor class can be expected to participate in the process: The reality is
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Valerie Strauss discusses the disastrous effects of corporatized education in the U.S. And Alex Hemingway examines how B.C.’s government (like Saskatchewan’s) is going out of its way to make it impossible for a public education system to do its job of offering
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week.
– David Dayen and Ryan Grim write that “free trade” agreements are in fact turning into little more than cash cows for hedge funds and other big-money speculators:
Under this system, a corporation invested in a foreign country can appeal to arbitration panels, consisting of three corporate lawyers, if that country enacts a law or regulation that violates a trade agreement or discriminates against the company. The ISDS courts can then award billions of dollars to the corporation to compensate it for the loss of expected future profits.
The problem is that these courts can also be used by speculators, who buy up companies for the sole purpose of filing an ISDS claim, or who finance lawsuits from corporations for a piece of the claim award.
“ISDS allows a small group of ultra-rich investors to extract billions of dollars from taxpayers while they undermine financial, environmental and public health rules across the world,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), an early opponent of ISDS, told HuffPost. “Our trade deals should not include ISDS in any form.”
…
The use of ISDS as a moneymaking engine, rather than for its initial purpose ― to protect foreign investors from having their factories expropriated or their businesses nationalized ― raises the question of whether there’s a better system available.“Why should hard-won sovereign advances, like rules against polluting or consumer protections, be at risk when the obvious solution is for the investors to put their skin, not ours, in the game?” wondered Jared Bernstein, former chief economist to Vice President Joe Biden and a critic of TPP. “The simple solution is to have them self-insure against investment losses.”
– Mike Balkwill highlights the need to stop consulting endlessly about poverty, and instead take action by ensuring people have enough resources to meet at least their basic needs. Ann Hui reports on the especially dire circumstances facing First Nations families in Northern Ontario who have to spend upwards of half of their income on overpriced food. And Miguel Sanchez criticizes the Wall government’s attack on benefits to people with disabilities in Saskatchewan.
– Nicole Thompson points out how the Libs’ changes to the temporary foreign worker program are actually making matters worse for caregivers by eliminating any right to apply for permanent resident status. And Martha Burk documents how workers can lose out when employers force them to accept payroll cards rather than paycheques.
– Erich Hartmann and Alexa Greig argue that it’s long past time for Canada’s federal government to provide stable funding for health care in partnership with the provinces, rather than contributing only as much as it wants to at any given point. And Tom Blackwell reports on the dangers of relying on private providers by highlighting how they inevitably leave the public system to deal with complications.
– Finally, Tom Parkin notes that we should base our discussion of electoral reform on the actual experience of similar countries, not the obviously-false claims of people wanting to fearmonger us into accepting the status quo. And Andrew Coyne draws a parallel to the census as an argument for mandatory voting.
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week.- PressProgress points out that a large number of Canadians are justifiably concerned about our economy, with a particular desire to rein in income and wealth inequality. And Guy Caron notes that there’s no reason for …
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: New column day
Here (via PressReader), on the Brexit vote as both a dangerous step toward an even more business-biased system of international relations, and a cautionary tale about basing votes on frustration.For further reading…- John Hilary highlights the trade …
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Jason Kenney’s bizarre ‘Brexit’ broadsides: the explanation is in the dog-whistle
ILLUSTRATION: Press Progress’s take on Jason Kenney’s “Brexit” broadsides Thursday night and yesterday morning (Press Progress image). Below: The Acme Professional Dog Whistle, now commanding attention all over the world. It is made in U.K. You…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading.- Andrew Coyne argues that the Senate’s role in overruling elected representatives – which only seems to be growing under the Trudeau Libs – represents an affront to democracy. And Duncan Cameron has some suggest…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading.- Hamilton Nolan interviews Branko Milanovic about inequality on both a national and international scale – and how there’s little reason to take heart in reductions in the latter if it’s paired with increases in t…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Afternoon Links
Miscellaneous material for your Sunday reading.- David Korten writes that despite the trend of the past few decades, there’s nothing inevitable about international agreements inevitably favouring capital over citizens rather than the other way around.-…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Assorted content to start your week.- Karen Palmer writes about a push by U.S. doctors to follow in Canada’s footsteps with single-payer health care – even as a few profiteers seek to tear our system apart:Global evidence shows that private insurance …
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