capitalism ← Progressive Bloggers // Blogues progressistes

The Progressive Economics Forum: Ease up on shareholder payouts, pay your workers more instead

Aug

16

2017

With Alberta and Ontario raising their minimum wage to $15 per hour, and BC possibly following suit soon, the usual suspects have begun their predictable howling about how this is a bad time, or it’s happening too fast, or how it will simply hurt those we are trying to help. It is true that increasing ...

Parchment in the Fire: A despot in disguise: one man’s mission to rip up democracy

Jul

26

2017

George Monbiot The Guardian It’s the missing chapter: a key to understanding the politics of the past half century. To read Nancy MacLean’s new book, Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right’s Stealth Plan for America, is to see what was previously invisible. The history professor’s work on the subject began by ...

The Political Road Map: Don’t Be Afraid of Raising The Minimum Wage!

Jun

2

2017

I decided to write this post in response to the usual chatter that is generated, whenever the government decides to impose an increase on minimum wage. Usually, you will hear some form of Libertarian or Anarchist arguing that the increase in minimum wage will not only lead to higher prices, but also directly result in ...

Joe Fantauzzi: Desmond Cole, the Toronto Star and Another Existential Crisis for Professional Journalism

May

7

2017

DISCLOSURE: I worked as a mainstream news reporter between 2003 and 2012. I see this as a two-fold issue; firstly, actions and secondly, words. I’ll consider both briefly and then elaborate on my concerns. Actions There is no point in rehashing here the now well-known details of what lead to Desmond Cole’s departure from the Toronto ...

The Canadian Progressive: The role of NGOs in Africa: are they a force for good?

May

2

2017

Some critics argue that the neo-liberal policies advanced by powerful non-governmental organizations, NGOs, limit states’ influence and sovereignty while benefiting NGOs. In Africa, NGOs also place Africans at the mercy of donors. The post The role of NGOs in Africa: are they a force for good? appeared first on The Canadian Progressive.

Dead Wild Roses: Brazil Having it Own ‘The Jungle’ Moment – Capitalist Meatpacking Woes

Mar

30

2017

“They use everything about the hog except the squeal.” ― Upton Sinclair, The Jungle Driving into work today I listened to a story about how many large countries of the world had recently banned imports of Brazilian beef and chicken into their countries. Reports from a whistle-blower about cardboard being ground up with raw chicken, ...

Dead Wild Roses: The DWR Quote of the Day – Susan Rosenthal on Capitalism

Feb

23

2017

“As children, we count each birthday, eager to become adults so we can do what we want and make our own decisions. Once arrived, we discover that adult freedom is an illusion. Our childhood dreams of an exciting life are replaced with never-ending work and little to show for it. We feel like failures. What ...

Dead Wild Roses: Gender and Coffee – Socialization in Action

Feb

18

2017

We can change society in the (sociological) blink of an eye. Unfortunately, it is usually in service of making a buck. Highlights from JSTOR’s public section. “For caffeine addicts, a morning without a pot of coffee is a no-go. But it hasn’t always been as convenient to make coffee as it is today—and as ...

The Progressive Economics Forum: Can Capitalists Afford a Trumped Recovery? Guest post by Jonathan Nitzan & Shimshon Bichler

Feb

2

2017

This provocative guest post submitted by Jonathan Nitzan and Shimshon Bichler, was published earlier this year on their bnarchives website. Nitzan, professor of political economy at York University, and Bichler, who teaches political economy in Israel, are authors of Capital as Power, a Study of Order and Creorder and numerous related articles. To quote from the ...

Dead Wild Roses: Democracy and the Crisis of Confidence – Christopher Lasch

Jan

17

2017

The excerpt is from a great piece by Christopher Lasch writing in the short lived journal “Democracy”. Written in the 80’s, details the systemic problems facing US democracy. The situation described shows the roots of where we are now, and how (unfortunately) we have arrived here. “The centralization of power in the United ...

Alberta Politics: How to put Christ back in Christmas: It starts with Christians pressing ‘Reset’

Dec

25

2016

ILLUSTRATIONS: Santa Claus … not Jesus. Below: Karl Marx (not mentioned in the story) … also not Santa Claus. Jesus Christ (quoted at length) … not Santa Claus either. This is an edited version of a post that first appeared in this space in 2012. With the Right in Alberta working itself into a full-blown ...

Dead Wild Roses: A New Title for Black Friday – Lemmings Day!

Nov

24

2016

Happy Lemmings Day! a.k.a Black Friday Should we besmirch this plucky rodent’s escutcheon by associating Lemmings as the embodiment of greed and feral-consumerism known to a good chunk of the western world as ‘Black Friday’? It isn’t really fair (hey, just like capitalism) to play on the misunderstood ‘suicidal tendencies’ of the much maligned lemming. ...

Things Are Good: Slavoj Zizeck on the Ethics of Consumption

Nov

8

2016

Slavoj Zizeck is a modern thinker that has done a great job of critiquing the overarching assumptions in our society when it comes to power dynamics and the insidiousness of neoliberalism. In the video above his views on capitalistic consumption are summed up rather nicely. It’s worth the ten minute coffee break to watch it. ...

Montreal Simon: The Panama Papers: Now You Can Help Track Down Tax Cheats

May

9

2016

All over the world today some of its richest people are quivering in their boots.Because for over a month hundreds of journalists have been digging through the so-called Panama Papers, the more than 11.5 leaked documents from the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca. Documents that have exposed how the wealthy are stashing their money in offshore ...

Dead Wild Roses: David Cromwell – On Academic Collaboration with the Private Sector

May

4

2016

David Cromwell excels at identifying key points of friction between public and private interests. In this excerpt he examines how higher learning is being bent to fulfil its corporately mandated responsibilities to society. “This [Academia] is a privileged sector where critical thought and enquiry into human society, the natural world and the cosmos ought to ...

Dead Wild Roses: Syrian Human Traffiking

Apr

25

2016

Wouldn’t it be nice if people, for once, didn’t decide to make money of the misery of others? (I know, I know. Capitalism would collapse the End Times would start, et cetera). One news story that caught my eye was the tomfoolery going on with some Immigration Consultants and their business of getting Syrian ...

The Canadian Progressive: How Women-Led Movements Are Redefining Power, From California to Nepal

Mar

29

2016

Around the world, movements led by women are challenging “growing corporate power, land grabs, economic injustice, and climate change, women’s movements offer a paradigm shift,” writes San Francisco-based photojournalist and writer, Rucha Chitnis. The post How Women-Led Movements Are Redefining Power, From California to Nepal appeared first on The Canadian Progressive.

Scripturient: The ‘Sharing Economy’ is a Hoax

Feb

12

2016

Stop calling it the sharing economy. It’s an oxymoron, like ‘creation science’ or ‘sustainable capitalism.’ It’s not collaborative: it’s the new indentured servant economy. If you believe these corporations are all about sharing and collaboration, then you’re mightily gullible. You’ve been had. These are big, multi-billion dollar corporations whose executives are millionaires. They are more akin to ...

Joe Fantauzzi: The Political Economy of The Sharing Economy

Jan

16

2016

Introduction Today, getting a lift to the store is as easy as loading an application on a digital device and summoning a roving car to one’s door. It is fast, cheap and, many argue, less onerous than ownership. The so-called sharing economy is on the radar of interests representing business, various governments in Canada and, ...

Joe Fantauzzi: GOOD READING: @camilacore on the political economy of Uber in Toronto

Dec

9

2015

Today, taxi drivers are demonstrating in Toronto over the city dragging its heels on regulating Uber. Cabbies have also let the politicians at Queen’s Park know how they feel. Ontario also has not moved to regulate Uber. The following post has been re-posted from @camilacore‘s Facebook page with her permission. “The cabbies are doing themselves no favour ...

Dead Wild Roses: Thanks Onion – Socialism vs Capitalism

Dec

8

2015

Filed under: Humour Tagged: Capitalism, Humour, Socialism, The Onion

The Canadian Progressive: These 1 percenters are sharing their wealth with the 99 percent

Nov

2

2015

These 1 percenters are doing what the global Occupy movement demanded back in 2011. They’re sharing their wealth with the 99 percent. The post These 1 percenters are sharing their wealth with the 99 percent appeared first on The Canadian Progressive.

Joe Fantauzzi: Notes on the Political Economy of the Hydro One Privatization or: Why Isn’t The Ontario Business Sector Paying Its Fair Share For Infrastructure?

Oct

30

2015

Ontario’s provincial government faces a massive public infrastructure deficit. The province’s own numbers estimate the deficit at “tens of billions of dollars.” Among the high profile components of this deficit is transportation infrastructure. In response, the government says it has invested billions of dollars into transportation infrastructure since 2003. Ontario’s Liberal provincial government is in the midst of a ...

Joe Fantauzzi: A Brief Note On #Elxn42 And Moving Toward A New Left

Oct

20

2015

This much is clear: with the NDP’s federal collapse last night, the neoliberal Third Way experiment can clearly be declared a failure. But now what? Now, to build ─ not rebuild on a broken foundation. But also this: pillory me as a post-structuralist if you must, but I’m not here for the construction of any next ...

Scripturient: Apps are making us criminals

Oct

16

2015

Almost every week you read in the news about another taxi driver protest against Uber and its drivers. Taxi drivers go on strike, some rage against Uber and attack the drivers or damage their cars. Similar protests – albeit not yet as violent or large – have been made against Airbnb for its effects on ...