Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Donald McNeil discusses how inconsistency in state-level policies and a lack of federal leadership have combined to result in the coronavirus epidemic manifesting in radically different ways across the U.S. And Karen Wang points out the ticking clock facing Canadian students, parents and
Continue readingTag: Housing
The Progressive Economics Forum: Trudeau government should spend more on affordable housing and homelessness
On July 21, the Alternative Federal Budget Recovery Plan was released. The document aims to provide public policy direction to Canada’s federal government, in light of the current COVID-19 pandemic. I was author of the Recovery Plan’s chapter on affordable housing and homelessness, which can be accessed here.
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: Architecture & Home Design: Raising the Bar
This is my favourite home design so far. (Video below) Every home and building should be passive solar, and every home or building should be an Earth Home – meaning, it uses heating and cooling from the sun and the earth. Anything less is radically substandard, and in light
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Afternoon Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Radheyan Simonpillai discusses new polling showing how COVID-19 has caused stress on multiple levels. Al Etmanski writes about the importance of continuing to operate based on a mindset of caring for each other even once the worst of the pandemic is over. And
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Afternoon Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Mariana Mazzucato and Robert Skidelsky propose a new economic framework in which our elected governments actually set priorities and ensure that development is carried out in the public interest. Seema Jayachandran reminds us that social programs can more than pay for themselves, while
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Crawford Kilian discusses Rutger Bregman’s work in noting that we can build a better society in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. Asun Lera St Clair interviews Jason Hickel about the prospect of redefining our economy based on human-centric measures of development. –
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Afternoon Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Mark Smolinski writes that wearing a mask to limit the spread of COVID-19 is best characterized as a sign of mutual respect. (But sadly, that goes a long way toward explaining the anti-mask movement among adherents to political movements built on exclusion and
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Afternoon Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Lee Stevens writes that the coronavirus pandemic has exposed longstanding weaknesses in our social safety net which have caused large amounts of avoidable poverty: A generation ago, our income support and social service programs were working (albeit not perfect) since it was possible
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: David Hulchanski class discussion
I recently participated in a panel discussion in David Hulchanski’s graduate-level social housing and homelessness course at the University of Toronto. Points raised in the blog post include the fact that all English-speaking countries of the OECD have relatively low levels of public social spending, relatively low levels of taxation,
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Duncan Cameron makes the case for a transition to a more fair and democratic economy. And Paris Marx proposes the development of publicly-owned options – including the increased use of passenger trains along with more accessible transit – as part of an improved
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Evening Links
Assorted content to end your week. – George Monbiot writes that the UK Cons are using their own botched Brexit as an excuse to set up a disaster capitalist’s paradise. – Canadians for Tax Fairness discusses how the Libs’ inclination to attach draconian penalties to their pandemic income benefit signals
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Andrew Niikiforuk discusses why we shouldn’t count on a COVID-19 vaccine to emerge at all – nor to fully resolve the dangers of the coronavirus even if it is eventually developed. – David Suzuki argues that a mere return to normal isn’t
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Afternoon Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – David A. Green, J. Rhys Kesselman, Lindsay Tedds discuss some of the complications involved in designing a basic income system. And David Roberts makes the case for a universal basic services model to ensure people have access to the necessities of life
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Evening Links
Assorted content for your mid-week reading. – Christine Boyle, Penny Gurstein, Matthew Norris and Jim Stanford make the case for a public option in housing. And PressProgress documents how for-profit seniors’ homes are dominated by board members with no knowledge or experience in caring for people’s health. – Toby Sanger
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Afternoon Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Robert Reich argues that U.S. corporations need to prioritize the health of their workers over immediate profits. But James Galbraith writes about the wider need to move past disaster capitalism, including through government action to take core economic decisions out of the
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Afternoon Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – The Globe and Mail’s editorial board argues that Canada has put far too few resources toward actually stopping the spread of the coronavirus, focusing instead on immediate financial concerns rather than the underlying health issue. Justin Kong and Tsui Yee Wu make
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Maxwell Smith, Ross Upshur and James Downar warn us against mistaking a temporarily flattened curve for a final victory over the spread of COVID-19. – Leilani Farha questions how it’s possible for people to help fight the coronavirus by staying at home
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Andrew Nikiforuk highlights where we stand in responding to the coronavirus – including the dangers of declaring victory at a point where there’s still every risk of waves of death. – Janice Braden writes that the Saskatchewan Party’s idea of reopening the province
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Rochelle Baker interviews David Suzuki about the lessons from the coronavirus pandemic which we should apply equally to the threat of a climate breakdown. And Mike Layton writes that we need a Green New Deal as our recovery program once the pause on
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Afternoon Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Lauren Leatherby and David Gelles examine how people are spending money differently in the midst of a pandemic, while Lucia Mutikani reports on a massive drop in prices as declining consumer spending outweights any disruption to supply chains. And Armine Yalnizyan comments
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