Assorted content to end your week. – The Globe and Mail’s editorial board rightly recognizes that attempts to challenge federal carbon pricing on constitutional grounds represent nothing but a politically-motivated waste of money. Ross Belot laments the Trudeau Libs’ decision to respond by watering down already-insufficient plans while making it
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Accidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Annie Lowrey points out the massive amounts of money being directed toward stock buybacks in the U.S., with the predictable effect of further enriching the people who already have the most. And Andrew Jackson’s review of Mariana Mazzucato’s The Value of Everything
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Scott Santens writes about the flaw in markets which fail to distinguish between goods and services which lack value, and those which people lack the money to acquire through the market. – Lisa Cox reports on new research suggesting that the harm
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Ed Finn offers a reminder that Canada’s social safety net is leading to the perpetuation of poverty despite ample resources to end it. And Niall McCarthy discusses the worsening state of financial inequality across the developed world. – Hadrian Metrins-Kirkwood points out that
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Lisa Gennetian discusses how behavioural economics can inform the development of programs to end child poverty – including by ensuring a guaranteed income to help parents avoid needless financial stress. And Annie Lowrey makes the case for a basic income as a matter
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – James Galbraith reminds us of the danger extreme inequality poses to any social bonds – and the need for political action to counteract the current momentum toward further concentration of wealth: Controlling inequality—like controlling blood pressure—is good for your economic health. Economies with
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Claire Connelly calls out the perennial right-wing spin that there’s always money available for corporations or the security state, but that anything which would actually help people is invariably unaffordable. And Jim Pugh discusses how Republicans are looking to punish and impoverish
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Shaun Richman reviews David Graeber’s Bullshit Jobs – including the inevitable inference that there needs to be some means for people to be supported without having to seek out useless work: Much of the “bullshitization” of white-collar work is purely accidental, but Graeber
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Kenan Malik reminds us of the ongoing importance of unions in fighting for fairness and equality. Frank Witsil reports on a push to rebuild labour strength in the service sector in the U.S, while Cole Stangler points out that U.S. youth have
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – CBC talks to Robert Frank about the role of luck and privilege in generating concentrated wealth. And Kate Bahn highlights the reality that collective action is needed to help level a playing field currently tilted to benefit those who already have the most.
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Lambert Strether points out that standard estimates of income inequality (jarring though they are to begin with) tend to ignore the capital gains which accrue disproportionately to those who already have the most. – Scott Alexander makes the case for a basic income
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Alan Freeman discusses the U.S.’ decline based on anti-tax dogma – and warns of the same result in Canada if we don’t stand up for our collective interests: The U.S. has always been a capitalist society but it always believed in meritocratic principles,
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This and that for your Thursday reading. – Jake Johnson writes about the obscene amount of money handed to the wealthy in the U.S. by the Republicans’ tax scam. And Robert Reich discusses how the spread of inequality and isolation helped to lay the groundwork for Donald Trump’s destructive presidency.
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Louis Uchitelle discusses how the decline of organized labour in the U.S. has harmed not just workers’ direct interests, but the economic sectors where unions previously thrived: Want to make America great again and keep factories in the United States? Try strengthening
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Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Quirks & Quarks examines the potentially devastating effects of a dilbit spill on British Columbia’s coast. And David Climenhaga warns that Kinder Morgan is looking at NAFTA to provide it an alternate source of risk-free profits at public expense. – Mia Rabson reports
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Paul Constant discusses a new study showing that the positive effects of minimum wage increases for low-income workers actually grow over time. And Sheila Block highlights how a $15 increased minimum wage stands to offer far more to workers than Doug Ford’s
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This and that for your Thursday reading. – Dylan Walsh interviews Jeffrey Pfeffer about his book Dying for a Paycheck, and the ways in which employer demands make people worse off: Has this connection always been there, or has there been an evolution in workplace culture that got us to
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Thomas Walkom and Andre Picard took the time to wonder whether the Libs actually planned to deliver on pharmacare before Bill Morneau confirmed otherwise. – Joe Fries examines the history of P3s in British Columbia. And Alex MacPherson breaks the news that
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – J.W. Mason reviews Yanis Varoufakis’ Adults in the Room with a focus on how damaging austerity was forced on Greece by other governments. And Jan Rovny comments on the need for Europe’s left-wing parties to adapt to the precarious economy and evolving social
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Anna Coote discusses some of the potential problems with a universal basic income on its own – particularly to the extent it takes momentum away from the prospect of universal basic services. – Scott Sinclair examines how little has changed – and how
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