In today’s age of populism, with ideology apparently dead, how do you now if you are on the left or right or in the centre. There are indeed some basic philosophical positions that determine if you are on the right, left or in the centre. If you are on the
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THE FIFTH COLUMN: Build a Better City – The Ultimate Reality Show
The worlds biggest reality challenge – two groups of 10,000 workers in 100 groups of 100 each face of to see who can build the better city on two separate plots of virgin land. The first group has each team of 100 competing with the other teams each trying to
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: Oil Industry Disses the Free Market
The free market, who needs it. Not the oil industry obviously. Not the industry nor the governments that depend on its largesse for royalties and taxes. We just had a taste of it and it horrified all parties concerned. OPEC and its erstwhile collaborators recently fell out and instead of
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: The Cartel Still Rules … Sort of
It isn’t easy to convince nominally free-market Albertans that monopoly and government interference in the market made us rich, but of course they did. Nothing has contributed more to the province’s coffers than OPEC, the oil-producing countries’ cartel. OPEC’s control of supply has kept oil prices well above what a
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: Excuse me, your ideology is showing
When conservative politicians run out of meaningful things to say about Alberta’s NDP government they whip out the “ideology” card and last week’s debate featuring candidates vying for the seat left vacant by Jim “all-or-nothing” Prentice was no exception. The Wildrose candidate, Prasad Panda, accused the NDP of carrying out
Continue readingParchment in the Fire: Growth, what growth? Thatcherism fails to produce the goods | Business | The Guardian
Growth, what growth? Thatcherism fails to produce the goods | Business | The Guardian. Katie Allen Margaret Thatcher’s policies of privatisation, light-touch regulation and low income tax failed to boost growth, according to a new study that casts doubt on the merits of free market economies. In a wide-ranging analysis
Continue readingMolly'sBlog: A Freer Market
A FREE-ER MARKET One of the perpetual myths of our so-called capitalist society is that we have the closest approach to a “free market”, and that this is all to the good as it connects with our other freedoms. Is this true ? Certainly some like the left libertarians who
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: FreedomWorks Fails Basic Math And Economics To Smear Renewable Energy Investments
Freedom_Works_Logo.gif The corporate funded, Libertarian/Conservative “think tank” FreedomWorks is doing their best to convince Americans that taxpayer-funded energy subsidies and loans are a waste of our resources. Of course, that doesn’t apply to the massive giveaways to the dirty energy industry, only to the federal loan programs established to invest
Continue readingbastard.logic: Has Centralization of Power to the PMO Put Canadian Democracy on Life Support?
Don Lenihan has a must-read column up today, on how centralization of power to the Prime Minister’s office over the past several decades has atrophied the connection Canadians — especially youth — had with our government, and what he believes this could mean for Canada’s system of democracy: In the early 1970s,
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Republican Claims About Gas Prices Demonstrate Lack Of Knowledge About “Free Market”
gas prices.jpg As the national average for gas prices pushes closer and closer towards $4 a gallon, Republicans have wasted no time in attempting to convince the public that President Obama and his “hostility” towards the oil industry is the reason we’re feeling the squeeze at the pump. read more
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