Brief Explanatory Note: This was written in the last days of 2019 and the first days of the current year. In early March, before doing an initial private circulation, I made a few additions to relate some of the argument to the emerging Pandemic which was clearly a very relevant
Continue readingTag: capitalism
THE FIFTH COLUMN: Why #DeleteFacebook
Not because Mark Zuckerberg is a self-entitled white-privileged frat boy who based Facebook on an app he developed called Facemash to rate students “hotness”. Not because of Facebook’s Predatory Business Model that leverages users and their friends personal information to maximize profits. Not because Facebook wants to replace the open
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: We’re Getting Re-opened in the Morning!
I’m picturing Alfred Doolittle singing that title. Here’s a rundown of my facebook page, where information mainly comes in images, saved here for the memories of what it was like the day before Ontario re-opened for business. Remember, just because you CAN go shopping again, doesn’t mean you SHOULD! According
Continue readingCowichan Conversations: NORMAL is Cancelled Due To COVID Pandemic
“Capitalism’s shield has been breached — we can now see its soul,” writes Brad Zarett in a recent article first published in Medium. Brad writes about avoiding the trap of getting ‘back to normal’ once Read more…
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: Inequality Poisons the Roots of Democracy – Paul Street
We need to flatten the wealth curve for our society to continue to move forward and prosper. The out of balance economic shakedown that has been the status quo for so long needs to change. Paul Street writing for Counterpunch lays out the grim details: “+ 23. Capitalist Inequality
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: Atlas Failed.
The Pandemic is debunking cherished capitalism mythos one weary chestnut at time.
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: Efficiency Versus Resilience
One of the many calculations going on in the background within varied historical contexts is the relationship between efficiency and resilience. Consider arch construction from Roman times and now. The Roman arch has a distinct set of design principles that focus on the utilitarian principles of usefulness and longevity in
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Guest Blog: Prof. Harry Glasbeek on Coronavirus and capitalism
The legendary Prof. Harry Glasbeek of Osgoode Hall Law School at York University has penned the following commentary on how the COVID-19 pandemic is revealing and reinforcing the deep flaws in our economic and social order. It ends on a hopeful note: the people will demand better, when the immediate
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Afternoon Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Mike Konczal offers (PDF) a framework for responding to the coronavirus pandemic from a U.S. perspective. And the CCPA is providing ample analysis of the economic and social impacts of COVID-19. – Dakshana Bascaramurty discusses how the pandemic is revealing and exacerbating Canada’s
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: The Central Challenge Of Our Time
What is the central challenge of our time? It is not what most people think it is. It is not race or gender, or climate change, or the environment broadly, or issues of war and peace, or poverty, or justice, or equality, or fighting terrorism, crime or violence, WMDs and
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Benjamin Israel, Jan Gorski, Nina Lothian, Chris Severson-Baker and Nikki Way highlight the reality that increased extraction from the tar sands is fundamentally incompatible with any attempt to meet reasonable greenhouse gas emission targets. And Jonathan Watts reports on new research from the
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: And This, Kids, Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things
It’s not just that governments don’t tax enough. It’s that they don’t tax big incomes and big wealth nearly enough. Economist and professor Richard Wolff argues that modern global capitalism is theft on a massive scale. In modern capitalism, governments routinely borrow money. They do this to finance budget deficits
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Not So Fast, Capitalism
The triumphalism of capitalism can sometimes be hard to take. Platitudes such as “A rising tide lifts all boats” abound, rarely questioned except by the most astute among us, thereby excluding much of the MSM. Fortunately, there are still people like Linda McQuaig to set the record straight on a
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Afternoon Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Andray Domise highlights the importance of fighting back against the excesses and harms of capitalism, rather than accepting it as being necessary or inescapable: There’s no way around a simple reality for people who consider themselves to be on the left side of
Continue readingTHE FIFTH COLUMN: The War Against Holiday Diversity
They call it the War on Christmas, but in reality it is just an opportunity for a few people to get apoplectic, or is it apocalyptic, about the fact that some people acknowledge that many holidays are celebrated at this time of year. Proponents of the theory like to claim
Continue readingTHE FIFTH COLUMN: Towards a Green Social Democratic Economy
Background/Context Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their operation for profit.[1][2][3][4] Characteristics central to capitalism include private property, capital accumulation, wage labor, voluntary exchange, a price system and competitive markets.[5][6] In a capitalist market economy, decision-making and investments are
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Behind Chile’s political crisis
More than one million people marched in Santiago on October 26 to protest the Government’s security response to Chile’s current political crisis and to demand structural economic reforms to reduce inequality and increase social services. In this post I analyze these grievances from a quantitative perspective and explore what it
Continue readingThings Are Good: Campaign to Label Carbon Footprint of Consumer Goods
A team has started a Kickstarter campaign to label a product’s carbon footprint so consumers can make better decisions about which brand to buy. The labels are meant to bring attention to the additional cost of wasteful production and a bunch of brands have already joined the initiative. Of course
Continue readingThings Are Good: We Can Hold 20 Firms to Account for the Climate Crisis
To address the climate crisis we need to cut back on the amount of carbon we pump into the atmosphere and there’s a simple way to do that: get 20 companies to improve their businesses. A mere 20 companies are responsible for a third of all carbon emissions and if
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: Lifting the Poor out of Poverty – Into More Poverty…
I When people talk about how capitalism raises the tide for all boats my skepticism level begins to slowly creep upward. One must be careful when it comes to describing capitalism as panacea for the world and the world’s poor. Eve Ottenberg from Counterpunch takes aim at a few
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