Assorted content to end your week. – Astra Taylor points out that we should be far more concerned about a planetary carbon budget which actually involves inflexible limits, rather than delaying action in the name of avoiding spending on government balance sheets. J. David Hughes highlights how choices which subsidize
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Accidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Eugene Lang takes note of the connection between rising populist anger and stagnant or falling wages for far too many people. And Chloe Rockarts writes about Jason Kenney’s plans to make matters even worse in Alberta by declaring war on workers. –
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Yves Engler writes that the Libs’ SNC-Lavalin scandal represents a fully expected consequence of a foreign policy based on acquiescing in corruption: …Trudeau went to bat for SNC after the firm had either been found guilty or was alleged to have greased palms
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This and that for your Thursday reading. – Don Pittis writes that the disastrous results of the U.S.’ giveaways to corporations and wealthy individuals – including a ballooning deficit which isn’t contributing to any improvement in the rate of economic growth, together with an expectation that people will pay the
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Ainslie Cruickshank reports on Grand Chief Stewart Phillip’s call to prevent catastrophic climate change rather than devoting public money toward fossil fuel subsidies. And Eric Holthaus points out that the recent “hothouse Earth” report includes the recognition that it’s not yet too late
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Afternoon Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Joan Hennessy writes that instead of limiting ourselves to holiday-season charity, we should insist on fair wages and dignity for our fellow citizens throughout the year: ll the while, the economy has been on the mend and corporate earnings have risen, but the
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Afternoon Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Joseph Stiglitz writes about the need to learn from past mistakes in order to build a sustainable economy for the future: To someone like me, who has watched trade negotiations closely for more than a quarter-century, it is clear that US trade
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Ben Steverman examines the unfairness of the U.S.’ tax system – which, like Canada’s, offers gratuitous giveaways to wealthy investors which force workers to pay more: Politicians have intentionally set tax rates on wages much higher than those on long-term investment returns. The
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Roderick Benns interviews Ryan Meili about the value of a basic income in freeing people from perpetual financial stress. And Doug Cameron reminds us that we have a choice whether to show empathy toward people facing homelessness – even if far too many
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Naomi Klein highlights how capital and power combine to turn disasters into profit-making opportunities – while noting that the Trump presidency is just such a disaster. And Linda McQuaig discusses why we should see the income tax and other collective funding mechanisms as
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Assorted content to end your week. – Patrick Gossage discusses the desperate need for Canadian governments at all levels to take meaningful action to eliminate poverty: The reality is that low-income Canadians are invisible and lack political clout. In Toronto, they are concentrated in downtown areas close to the gleaming
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Alex Himelfarb and Trish Hennessy offer their take as to what we should expect out of Ontario’s basic income experiment: Critics rightly argue that basic income is no magic bullet, that indeed there are no magic bullets. The history of the idea of
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Afternoon Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading.
– Don Pittis writes that it will take far more than words and sentiments to reverse the trend of growing income inequality. Elaine Power points out that Ontario’s social assistance programs – like those elsewhere – far fall short of meeting basic human needs. And Christopher Mackie reminds us that the effects of poverty go well beyond immediate financial consequences:
Canada has free, high-quality healthcare for everyone. So why do the richest 10% of people live seven years longer than the poorest? Deep poverty can be associated with a drop in life expectancy of 20 years or more. If we look at both life expectancy and years lived with disability, the rich are 39% healthier than the poor.
Income affects health in several ways, including the direct impact on the resources needed for healthy living, access to healthy physical environments and access to healthy social environments.
Poverty limits access to nutritious food, recreation opportunities, adequate housing, and the education needed to pull oneself out of poverty. Each year, the Middlesex-London Health Unit issues a report that compares the cost of nutritious food to income received from minimum or welfare wage. This Nutritious Food Basket Report consistently shows that it is impossible for people on low income in London and Middlesex County to afford healthy food once basic costs such as rent and utilities are paid.
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The benefits of policies that address poverty go far beyond simply helping the poor. Research has consistently shown that everyone is better off in societies that are more equal. Comparisons of countries which are part of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) consistently show that in societies that are most equal, even the poor are healthier than the rich in societies that are the least equal. In other words, greater income equality means better health for everyone – including the rich.This paradox – that my income is linked with my health, but that my society’s income equality is also linked with my health – is not fully understood. One theory is that it is linked with the social environments we live in. More unequal societies tend to be more competitive, with fewer opportunities for upward mobility. This can be associated with stress and hopelessness. Stress is linked with a number of health problems from heart disease to cancer. Hopelessness can be devastating, reducing motivation to seek employment and leading a person to neglect their health or even engage in self-harming behaviours like addiction to alcohol and drugs.
In more equal societies, a feeling that friends, neighbours and fellow citizens will offer help when needed can be motivational, even leading to an increased sense of self-worth. Reduced stress can allow us to see past day-to-day challenges and make better decisions for the long term.
– Christopher Adams exposes how employers are exploiting millenial workers. And Evelyn Kwong and Sara Mojtehedzadeh report on a temporary employee’s workplace death in Toronto, while Adam Hunter discusses the appalling trend of people being killed on the job in Saskatchewan.
– Tonda MacCharles reports on the Libs’ discussion paper on security laws. And Jeremy Nuttall notes that there’s ample reason for concern that they want to make matters even worse by reviving dubious “lawful access” provisions rather than correcting even the overreach found in Bill C-51.
– The Star’s editorial board writes that we should be strengthening our universal public health care system rather than destroying it as Brian Day and others want to do.
– Finally, Kathy Tomlinson details how Canada’s tax laws are being flouted by the investors making millions off of the explosion of Vancouver’s real estate market.
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week.- Owen Jones interviews Ha-Joon Chang about the foreseeable harm caused by the UK’s austerity, as well as the false claims used to push it. – The Stoney Creek News rightly argues that Canada Post should move toward pos…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: New column day
Here (via PressReader), questioning why so many of our political leaders spend so much time talking about pipelines which are neither economically necessary nor environmentally sustainable.For further reading…- J. David Hughes’ study cited in the col…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your Monday reading.- Ben Schiller talks to Joseph Stiglitz about the link between technology and inequality – and particularly the lack of current incentives to work on improving standards of living rather than capturing win…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Assorted content to start your week.- Don Pittis rightly notes that there can be a significant difference between an economy trumpeted as growing due to share prices and profits, and one which actually provides benefits to workers – and that the U.S. l…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Chris Hedges weighs in on the Trans-Pacific Partnership’s entrenchment of corporate control over mere citizens, while PressProgress highlights just a few of the more obvious dangers it poses. And Blayne Haggart points out that the TPP has nothing at all to do
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Paul Krugman discusses the U.S.’ multi-decade pattern of income stagnation. David MacDonald and Kayle Hatt study the price we’ve paid to suit the Cons’ political purposes, while Kristin Rushowy reports on two new calls for a genuine child care system. And Andrew
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