This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Tom Parkin discusses the distinction between giveaways to the rich which are perpetually seen as carrying no price, and the expansion of the commons which is treated as intolerably costly: (O)ffer something that is actually free and things get downright snarky. In
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Accidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Assorted content to start your week. – Luke Savage comments on Justin Trudeau’s phony war against inequality: His embrace of Keynesian economics has been equally ethereal. In 2015, apparently rebelling against the prevailing economic orthodoxy of austerity, the Liberal leader pledged to stimulate the economy through modest, deficit-financed social investment.
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Afternoon Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Sean Farrell reports on a new OECD study recommending the application of inheritance taxes to reduce wealth inequality. – And Harry Quilter-Pinner discusses Finland’s confirmation that the obvious solution to homelessness – providing housing to people who need it – is also the
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Linda Givetash reports on the increasing cost and decreasing availability of housing in Canada. And Patrick Greenfield and Sarah March note that an appalling increase in the number of homeless people in the UK is being reflected in the number of deaths on
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: America’s Answer To The Homeless Problem
Call it thinking outside the box, but a U.S. candidate for the Senate has a novel idea about the homeless problem: arm them with shotguns. Here is Libertarian Brian Ellison’s plan, borne, no doubt, out of deep compassion: … homeless people are “constantly victims of violent crime” and providing them
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Michelle Chen takes note of the influx of young energy into the U.S.’ labour movement: (I)n contrast to the myth of millennials’ being economically and politically adrift, they’re stepping in readily to fill the union ranks that have hemorrhaged middle-aged workers over
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Ed Finn comments on the massive amounts of public money being funneled toward Canada’s wealthiest corporations: When it comes to listing countries on the basis of the social services they provide to citizens compared to the subsidies they heap on corporations, Canada doesn’t
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Marty Warren highlights why Tim Hortons workers – and other people facing precarious and low-paying work – need union representation to ensure their interests are respected. And Christo Aivalis writes that the current discussion of minimum wage pairs fairness issues about distribution of
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Tom Parkin writes that job numbers inflated by part-time employment shouldn’t distract us from the consumer debt and wage stagnation which are living more and more people with precarious financial situations. Ben Leubsdorf reports on the recognition by members of the American
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Afternoon Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Lana Payne discusses the divergence between an upper class with soaring incomes, and the bulk of the population facing stagnation and precarity: (W)hile the nation’s wealth or GDP looks good, less of it is getting shared around and more and more of it
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Afternoon Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Tom Parkin discusses how the growing pile of Liberal disappointments is creating opportunities for Canada’s opposition parties. – Julie Ireton reports on the continued problems being caused by the federal government’s Phoenix privatization debacle – including by forcing retirement-eligible employees to hold
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Rupert Neate reports on the latest numbers showing the world’s 500 richest people adding a full trillion dollars to their wealth in 2017. And Will Fitzgibbon and Dean Starkman highlight how offshore tax avoidance schemes are sucking prosperity out of the rest
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This and that for your Sunday reading. – Jessica Corbett charts the U.S.’ unacceptable (and worsening) inequality. Robert Reich discusses how the Republicans’ tax scam represents a triumph for oligarchy. And Ben Steverman notes that the bill passed this month is ripe for abuse – and already being exploited to
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Maia Szalavitz writes that the atmosphere of competition and status signalling which prevails in unequal societies is directly connected to increased homicide rates: While on the surface, the disputes that triggered these deaths seem trivial – each involved apparently small disagreements and a
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to end your week. – Laurie MacFarlane points out how increases in land values have resulted in massive and unearned disparities in wealth. – Kevin Page, Claudette Bradshaw, Geoff Nelson and Tim Aubrey write that a national housing strategy needs to focus on the availability of both affordable
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Stephanie Levitz reports on new polling showing an increasing number of Canadians self-identifying as part of the working class or poor, while also seeing little room for optimism about their futures. And Jared Bernstein offers his analysis as to why wages are remaining
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your Monday reading. – Christopher Thompson highlights how the use of monetary policy to fuel economic growth rather than a progressive fiscal policy alternative has served largely to enrich the already-wealthy. Rachelle Younglai and Murat Yukselir report on Canada’s growing income gap, while Andrew Jackson points out
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Paul Krugman discusses how the Republicans’ latest attempt to undermine U.S. health care is built on a foundation of cruelty and lies – and is entirely consistent with their usual modus operandi. And Joe Watts reports on new polling showing how popular Jeremy
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – The Star’s editorial board offers a needed response to the Fraser Institute’s tired anti-social posturing: The study’s greatest failing, however – the omission that ultimately renders its statistics meaningless – is that it makes no mention whatsoever of what we get in return
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Afternoon Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Owen Jones points out Portugal’s example as a demonstration that that there is indeed an alternative to austerity – and that it’s better for public finances as well as for social progress: During the years of cuts, charities warned of a “social emergency”.
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