Assorted content to end your week. – Polly Toynbee looks at how the UK is now treating children in need as investment opportunities to be exploited by investors, rather than people to be assisted. And Mark Taliano writes that privatization is a problem rather than a solution when it comes
Continue readingTag: Immigration
Alberta Diary: Explaining the screams for easy-to-exploit Temporary Foreign Workers: Canadians are just too uppity for many low-wage employers
Chinese workers building Canadian railways – another sordid story of “temporary foreign workers.” Below: B.C. Premier Christy Clark and Alberta Federation of Labour President Gil McGowan. British Columbia Premier Christy Clark rose in that province’s Legislative Building in Victoria yesterday and apologized for a stream of racist laws and policies
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Afternoon Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Jared Bernstein takes a look at after-tax inequality, and finds that it fits neatly with Thomas Piketty’s prescription to address the concentration of income and wealth through strong public policy: (W)hile the progressive taxes and transfers that don’t show up in Mr. Piketty’s
Continue readingThe Canadian Progressive: New CCR Report shows established refugees now face loss of status in Canada
by: Canadian Council for Refugees | Press Release | May 7, 2014 The Canadian Council for Refugees today released its report “Cessation: stripping refugees of their status in Canada”. The report provides case examples and shows that, following recent changes to the law, refugees now live in fear of loss of status and
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: New column day
Here, on the conflict between Canadian values including a reasonable quality of life and freedom from an employer’s total control, and the explicitly anti-Canadian message of employers seeking to expand and exploit a temporary foreign worker underclass. For further reading…– Once again, Dan Kelly’s comments were caught by PressProgress, while
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Polly Toynbee writes about the continued spread of privatization based solely on corporatist dogma even in the face of obvious examples of its harm to the public: In the Royal Mail debacle, shares sold at £1.7bn rose to £2.7bn. The 16 investors
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – David Atkins highlights how public policy and corporate strategy have both instead been directed toward squeezing every possible dime out of the public: The less noticed but potentially more consequential way that policymakers across the industrialized world set about accomplishing this goal was
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
Assorted content for your Sunday reading. – D.L. Tice writes that it’s becoming more and more difficult for the right to ignore the spread of income inequality – and the reality that only public policy, not faith in the market, can produce a more fair distribution of income. Which is
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Crawford Kilian discusses the growing influence of Thomas Piketty’s observations about wealth inequality and the unfairness of a system which inherently perpetuates privilege: What I take away is this: We are playing in a rigged game. The deck has always been stacked
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Andrew Jackson reviews Thomas Piketty’s Capital in the 21st Century, while Paul Mason offers a useful summary. And David Atkins applies its most important lesson in response to some typical right-wing spin prioritizing assets over incomes: (I)nstead of doing something about radical inequality,
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
Assorted content for your Sunday reading. – Joe Conason discusses the increasingly widespread recognition that inequality represents a barrier to growth. And Heidi Moore takes a look at Thomas Piketty’s place in making that point: This is a deep point. Many American households, if they are lucky, will grow their
Continue readingLeft Over: Canada’s Burger King Kenney Doubles Down
http://montrealsimon.blogspot.ca/2014/04/the-monster-burger-and-inner-torment-of.html It’s even creepier than you know, Simon..yesterday, our NDP politicians here in BC were speaking to the media after a meeting with the Victoria, BC TFWs that will “not be getting their work permits renewed or be able to apply for permanent status” now that their Golden Arches
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Edward Greenspon’s report on the Keystone XL review process is well worth a read – particularly in exposing how the Harper Cons have handled their U.S. relations (along with many other policy areas) based on the presumption that nobody will ever see fit
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Larry Bartels highlights how class plays a particularly large role in U.S. politics, as opinions about the role of government are particularly polarized based on income. And Paul Krugman notes that as a consequence, any demand to “stop class warfare” in favour of
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Thom Hartmann discusses how Reaganomics were designed to crush the U.S.’ middle class – and have succeeded in that goal: Progressive taxation, when done correctly, pushes wages down to working people and reduces the incentives for the very rich to pillage their
Continue readingParliamANT Hill: Mickey D’s foreigAnt worker practices halted in face of investigation
Inspired by this headline: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/mcdonald-s-foreign-worker-practices-halted-in-face-of-investigation-1.2619431
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Frances Russell writes about the corrosive effects of inequality. And Robert Reich points out one creative option California is considering to address inequality at the firm level: tying corporate tax levels to wage parity, under the theory that shareholders will then have an
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content for your Friday reading. – Robert Kuttner discusses Karl Polanyi’s increasingly important critique of unregulated markets and corporatist states. Sarah Kendzior writes about the latest cycle of workers stuck in poverty who are striking back against a system designed to suppress their standard of living. And Michael Rozworski
Continue readingPolitical Eh-conomy: The Temporary Foreign Worker Program and labour solidarity
Yesterday, I took a look at the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP) and how it helps enforce labour discipline on all workers, and low-wage workers in particular. Today, I want to explore the migration side of the migrant worker equation. The context of migration not only makes it easier for
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Angella MacEwen takes a look at the large numbers of unemployed and underemployed Canadians chasing a tiny number of available jobs. And Carol Goar calls out the Cons and the CFIB alike for preferring disposable foreign workers to Canadians who aren’t being offered
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