Capitalism works when companies pay for good and services, when companies make deals and don’t pay for what they ordered then things fall apart. This is exactly what happened last year in the fashion industry, and it was the workers who suffered the most. The owners of companies like JCPenney,
Continue readingTag: Equality
Things Are Good: Basic Income Program In California Improved Lives and Livelihoods
Universal basic income (UBI) is a simple idea: give people a small amount of money so they can at least survive. This isn’t a radical idea yet it keeps getting blocked by governments who despise….government. The argument for UBI keeps growing as more and more studies point out that it
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Rita Trichur writes that an attempt to boost the economy solely through monetary policy will predictably lead to even worse inequality – meaning it’s necessary for governments to instead intervene through fiscal policy to ensure that growth is shaped to be fair and
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Evening Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Stephanie Taylor reports on the Saskatchewan Health Authority’s warning that we can’t afford to loosen the province’s COVID-19 rules – which of course was followed immediately by Scott Moe loosening the province’s COVID-19 rules. And Matt Gurney points out the need for
Continue readingThings Are Good: UK: Uber Drivers are Employees not Individual Entrepreneurs
Uber drivers in the UK will now get better treatment from Uber thanks to the courts ruling the company can’t as robustly exploit their drivers. The way drivers get gigs and subsequently paid by the company structurally mean the company has control all aspects of the process, which means the
Continue readingThings Are Good: The Argument to Shrink the Economy Keeps Getting Stronger
The idea that we can eventually decarbonize our economy to keep it growing has been talked about for decades; sadly we’re far away from a carbon neutral economy and even it we did achieve such an economic system we still need to shrink it. What makes a “good” economy is
Continue readingThings Are Good: Alphabet Union Wants Alphabet to Behave
The workers behind the unionization efforts at Google are expanding to take on the whole Alphabet, the parent company of Google. They’ve formed Alpha Global to be a common voice for issues facing Google workers around the world and for people who are being negatively impacted by the actions of
Continue readingThings Are Good: Why Just Food Matters
Everyone needs to eat, yet even in our democracy there are people with low access to food and the food they can get is low quality. This shouldn’t be the case, so let’s do something about it! Colin Dring created the Just Food website to help educators explain and explore
Continue readingThings Are Good: Now is the Time to Increase Accessibility in the Arts
Making an art gallery accessible is more than providing a ramp for people to enter, an accessible art gallery ought to include accessible art. The bare minimum a gallery or performance space can do is follow the guidelines around accessible buildings (ramps, floor space, etc.). Over at Art News, Sara
Continue readingThings Are Good: Google Workers Create Union
Unions are a reaction to poor working conditions, and it’s clear that some Silicon Valley companies have created the need for unions. Google, which has been actively suppressing workers who stand up against injustices are now seeing their workers unionize. This is a symbolic victory for the labour movement in
Continue readingThings Are Good: South Korea’s Local Basic Income Experiment Demonstrates Success
Due to the economic fallout of COVID-19 a city in South Korea decided to create its own kind of universal basic income. Instead of just getting cash, the payouts are done on a special credit card that only works with local owned businesses, meaning you have to spend locally and
Continue readingThings Are Good: It’s Good to Understand the First 5000 Years of Debt
How can we make sense of governments around the world taking on more debt during the COVID-19 pandemic when beforehand they were repulsed by the concept of going into debt? Step one is to look at our assumptions of debt. About a decade ago David Graeber wrote a book called
Continue readingThings Are Good: Defund the Police, Spend Taxes on Better Things
vote In my life team I have seen nearly every public service get defunded except the police, meaning people who would otherwise be housed, have mental care, or otherwise not be neglected end up in confrontations with the police. This is not working well for anybody. Yet defunding the police
Continue readingThings Are Good: This Billionaire Will Thankfully Die Poor
Chuck Feeney became a billionaire by founding and running Duty Free Shoppers, and since he collected his unimaginable wealth he made it a point to give it all away. This month it has been revealed that Feeney successfully gave away billions of dollars to charitable causes and will die an
Continue readingThings Are Good: Today Scholars go on Strike to Bring Attention to Racial Injustices
The recent strike by NBA and WNBA players has shown that reactionary and direct labour action can make meaningful change beyond just the workplace. In the WNBA & NBA, the workers (players) refused to play in protest of police bracingly killing non-white people, the strike resulted in basketball arenas being
Continue readingThings Are Good: A Feminist Economic Recovery Plan for Canada
The economy isn’t performing too well right now thanks to years of thoughtless growth followed by the hit of COVID-19. The people most hurt by the COVID-19 crisis are the most vulnerable. It’s been widely reported on how women have lost a lot of gains made in the workplace as
Continue readingThings Are Good: This Cambodian Circus Helps Kids out of Poverty
Running away to join the circus is dream many kids have. In Cambodia joining the circus can be the best thing a kid can do, and they don’t need to run away to join the fun. Phare Ponleu Selpak is the circus program, after similar in style to Cirque du
Continue readingThings Are Good: Protests Work: Minneapolis Police Defunding Begins and More
Democracy happens in the streets. Every single person who has supported the Black Lives Matter movement, or has shown support for social justice in a direct way, has helped make change happen in America. The conversation about racist police and blatant police brutality is getting more attention now than ever
Continue readingWe Pivot: Open Letter to the Burnaby School District on #BLM
Hello, I was disturbed to see yesterday’s retweet of the Burnaby RCMP video greeting: This is a messed up world. White supremacy has been rampant for generations and with the deep inaction in BC and Canada about the TRC and … [Read more]
Continue readingThings Are Good: Protesting Works
Democracy is messy and in order for it to function many voices need to be heard, when some groups can’t be heard they peacefully take to the streets. Despite a history of protesting for a good cause resulting in beneficial societal change there are people who doubt the efficacy of
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