This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Branko Milanovic discusses how rent theory fits into the glaring gap between productivity and wages: Bob Solow explored a couple of days ago another possibility. Going back to his own initial work on the theory of growth, some 60 years ago, Solow
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Accidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Bill McKibben argues that Bernie Sanders’ run for the presidency should have massive positive impacts extending far beyond both Sanders’ central theme of inequality, and international borders to boot. And Salon interviews Joseph Stiglitz as to how inequality and the economy will affect
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Lonnie Golden studies the harm done to workers by irregular schedules. And Matt Bruening comments on how Missouri, Kansas and other states are passing draconian restrictions on benefits by trying to get the middle class to envy the poor. – Meanwhile, Scott Santens
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Assorted content to end your week. – PressProgress exposes the Cons’ utter detachment from the realities facing Canadian workers. And Kevin Page, Stephen Tapp and Gary Mason all expose their balanced-budget legislation as being at best a distraction tactic, and at worst an incentive for governments to do exactly what
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Noah Smith writes that the renewable energy revolution is further along than was projected just a few years ago: Each of these trends — cheaper batteries and cheaper solar electricity — is good on its own, and on the margin will help to
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Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Jim Pugh argues that we should take a serious look at a basic income, while Livia Gershon examines how even a small amount of guaranteed income has made an immense difference in the lives of families in one North Carolina town. And Walter
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – David Vognar argues that we should push for a guaranteed annual income not only as a matter of social equity, but also as a means of building human capital. – Mike Benusic, Chantel Lutchman, Najib Safieddine and Andrew Pinto make the case
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Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Robert Reich discusses how outsized corporate influence in the U.S. has kept the general public from sharing in any nominal economic improvements: The U.S. economy is picking up steam but most Americans aren’t feeling it. By contrast, most European economies are still in
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Nora Loreto rightly challenges the instinct to respond to tragedy with blame in the name of “responsibility”, rather than compassion in the interest of making matters better: Blame is the projection of grief, sadness or fear. It is the projection of our
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Scott Santens links the themes of health and equality by suggesting that we treat a basic income as a needed vaccine against poverty and all its ill effects. – Erika Eichelberger and Dave Gilson highlight how U.S. corporations are siphoning money offshore
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Joe Gunn reminds us that ignoring the issue of poverty won’t make it go away. And Sara Mojtehedzadeh reports on a national campaign demanding a plan to deal with poverty at the federal level. – Roderick Benns discusses the prospect of a
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – 24 Hours offers a debate as to whether or not we should pursue a basic income – though it’s striking that the “con” case is based almost entirely on a message that a secure income for everybody can’t be achieved, rather than any
Continue readingPolitical Eh-conomy: Re-making markets with unpaid internships
From political proposals to street protests, unpaid internships have been making news in Canada. Rightfully so, as there is a litany of problems with unpaid internships. For individuals, unpaid internships can not only be a form of outright wage theft, they also help entrench class-based privilege that allows some the
Continue readingPolitical Eh-conomy: The political aspects of the minimum wage
Discussion of the minimum wage can easily slide into a technocratic back-and-forth that ignores the vital political aspect at play. We can see this in much of the response to the report just released by the Ontario government’s Minimum Wage Advisory Panel (MWAP). Andrew Coyne, for example, once again argues
Continue readingParchment in the Fire: Rather than savage cuts, Switzerland considers “Star Trek” economics – Salon.com
Rather than savage cuts, Switzerland considers “Star Trek” economics – Salon.com. By gathering over 100,000 signatures – which they delivered last Friday along with 8 million 5-cent coins representing the country’s population – activists have secured a vote by Switzerland’s parliament on an audacious proposal: providing a basic monthly income
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