Miscellanous material for your Sunday reading. – Sean McElwee highlights the fact that inequality is an avoidable result caused by policies oriented toward rewarding greed: The problem, then, is not machines, which are doing a great deal to boost productivity; the problem is that the benefits from increased productivity no
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Accidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Hakan Bengtsson offers some useful discussion about the challenges facing Sweden’s social democratic system – as the same factors being used to prevent the development of a more equitable society in Canada and elsewhere are being cited as excuses to tear down the
Continue readingThe Liberal Scarf: "Stephen Harper’s climate-change record can’t be ignored anymore" – because it’s putting Canadian jobs and our economy at risk
Worthwhile article from Chantal Hebert here. She’s not the first to link Harper’s gutting of environmental regulations, skeptical attitude towards climate change and attacks on the environmental movement to other countries (particularly our major trading partner south of the border) reluctance to embrace Canada’s natural resources, but in just two
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Angella MacEwen rightly slams the Cons’ attempt to use Employment Insurance funds as a subsidy for employers at the expense of workers. And Don Lenihan sees the Cons’ structure as a cynical means of trying to claim success by ignoring the actual
Continue readingThe Canadian Progressive: Alberta Tar Sands Boom Poses Economic Risks to Canada: Report
A new report by the Pembina Institute and Équiterre warns that the rapid pace of Alberta tar sands development poses economic risks to Canada, other provinces. The post Alberta Tar Sands Boom Poses Economic Risks to Canada: Report appeared first on The Canadian Progressive.
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your Monday reading. – Sean McElwee discusses the crucial distinction between wealth and merit – while recognizing which actually serves to improve the condition of those around a particular individual: Because the wealthy are no longer willing to use their wealth for good, they have decided to
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
Assorted content for your Sunday reading. – Chris Dillow discusses how a shredded social safety net may turn into a vicious cycle – as voters are more prepared to cast ballots based on resentment when their own livelihood is less secure: Marko Pitesa and Stefan Thau first manipulated subjects’ perceptions
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Glen Pearson theorizes that inequality will be the defining theme of the current political era. Tavia Grant and Janet McFarland document the extreme (and continually-increasing) disparity between the top 1% and the rest of the world. And Eduardo Porter writes that education
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your Monday reading. – Nick Pearce offers an interesting discussion of conception of equality that should be placed at the core of social-democratic thinking – with one goal in particular standing out as demanding further attention: (S)social democrats would be more self-consciously political in pursuit of their
Continue readingThings Are Good: Carbon Output Shrinking as Economies Grow
Some odd people think that environmental policies and mandated efficiencies ruin economies, well, now there is another reason why those people are wrong. A report just released will hopefully have an impact on the climate talks in Poland happening this month shows the disconnect between economic growth and destroying the
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Brendan Haley discusses how the role of government should include both a concerted effort to innovate, and a proper share of the benefits when that innovation proves successful: To reinforce her argument, Mazzucato provides detailed histories of some of our most important innovations.
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: NAFTA, “Free Trade” and the TPP: Fast-Track To Full Corporate Rule
“Twenty years ago, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was signed into law. At the time, advocates painted a rosy picture of booming U.S. exports creating hundreds of thousands of new jobs, and economic development in Mexico, which would bring the struggling country in line with its wealthier northern
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Thomas Walkom notes that the Harper Cons’ latest EI cuts look to amplify the pain of unemployment in Ontario while serving the broader purpose of forcing workers to conclude their federal government doesn’t care if they go hungry: The great irony is that
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – David Green asks whether decades of corporate insistence on “flexible” labour markets (i.e. ones which offer no stability for workers) have resulted in the improved wages promised at the outset: Increased wages are how we share the benefits of economic growth among a
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Don Braid comments on Alberta’s complete lack of credibility when it comes to greenhouse gas emissions and other environmental issues. And Andrew Leach nicely sums up the PC/Con position in trying to put a happy face on growing emissions: Suppose you run
Continue readingMelissa Fong: Why Bitcoins aren’t going anywhere: Drugs and Coffee
Bitcoin is going nowhere. I promise you that it won’t and I’m positive that I won’t be eating my words at a later date. I’m going to tell you why: 1) Drugs and 2) Coffee:….
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Thomas Walkom writes that the Harper Cons’ much-hyped economic record in fact offers ample reason to demand a change in government: The Conservatives insist that the economy is their strong suit. And for a while it was. In 2011, voters bought Harper’s pitch.
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: Where Canada Is Going
It’s very important to Canada’s economy that we send a resource (we can’t use without killing the planet) to Communist China so their economy can continue to pollute at record pace as they ship unneeded goods to the United States and Canada so we can bury them in our landfills
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: To Vote, Or To Resolve Change
I noticed maybe a month ago that this Brand guy had a brain, and it’s a good one. Paxman: “You’re not going to solve world problems by facetiousness.” Brand: “We’re not going to solve them with the current system! At least facetiousness is funny.” – To detract from Brand’s point,
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
Assorted content for your Sunday reading. – Martin Regg Cohn discusses EllisDon’s ability to dictate political choices by the Ontario Libs and PCs as a prime example of corporate manipulation of the political system: What Wynne didn’t say was that EllisDon, its subsidiaries and executives, have been shockingly generous donors
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