As Richard Wilkinson says, “Something we instinctively know, inequality is divisive and socially corrosive.” In this TED talk he takes us through the data, charts and numbers that demonstrate the effect this has on us all:
Continue readingTag: Income Inequality
NEW MEDIA AND POLITICS CANADA: Occupy Wall Street: Income Inequality Harms Societies
As Richard Wilkinson says, “Something we instinctively know, inequality is divisive and socially corrosive.” In this TED talk he takes us through the data, charts and numbers that demonstrate the effect this has on us all:
Continue readingNorthern Insights / Perceptivity: Street protests ignored
The one-percenters and their agents in government remain deaf.
As rage at Wall Street rises, its moneymen shower cash on candidates, David Goldstein, McClatchy, October 17, 2011:
“WASHINGTON — Even as protests over its political influence grow loude…
Northern Insights / Perceptivity: Robert Reich readings
Robert Reich is an American political economist, professor, author, and political commentator. He served in the administrations of Presidents Ford, Carter and Clinton.
Reich is currently Chancellor’s Professor of Public Policy at the Goldman School of…
Continue readingNorthern Insights / Perceptivity: To every action, expect an opposite reaction
The most brazen disdain for democracy in modern times, Simon Jenkins, The Guardian, January 12, 2010
“There will be a tidal wave of rage. Over the next two weeks the executives of the leading British and American banks will announce that some £50bn i…
Continue readingNorthern Insights / Perceptivity: "You can talk at your own town hall meeting"
Terrance Heath produces an excellent piece on the American ‘Tea Party’ movement brought to life by the Koch brothers and other plutocrats and apparatchiks. Is The Tea Party Over? Maybe. – published by The Campaign for America’s Future :
“It’s always s…
Northern Insights / Perceptivity: Finding tax sources that fit today’s economy
Financial Transaction Tax: Making the financial sector pay its fair share
Brussels, 28 September 2011 – Today the Commission has presented a proposal for a financial transaction tax in the 27 Member States of the European Union. The tax would be levi…
Northern Insights / Perceptivity: Union guy stealing my cookie
From BNET,
Today’s CEOs think Henry Ford was a chump. Case in point: Larry Young, the CEO of the Dr. Pepper Snapple Group. In 2009, DPS made $555 million in profit and has never been in better financial shape. Young’s strategy going forward: c…
Northern Insights / Perceptivity: Callow victims supported billionaires’ coup
Coup: A quick, brilliant, and highly successful act; a triumph. By extension, a takeover of one group by another.
Guardian columnist George Monbiot provides his view of a coup against democracy in How the Billionaires Broke the System. The campaign, a…
Northern Reflections: A Just Society?
The phrase was Pierre Trudeau’s, and it caught on. Canadians like to think of themselves as citizens of a Just Society. Certainly, they believe, things are better here than in the United States. But, Carol Goar wrote recently, we have been emulating ou…
Continue readingNorthern Insights / Perceptivity: Demand Creates Jobs
10 Years Of Capital Gains Tax Cuts Proves: Rich Win, You Lose, by Dave Johnson
Why are “capital gains” taxes so much lower than taxes on other income?
The reason capital gains taxes are lower is because most of the income of the rich is from c…
Northern Insights / Perceptivity: Labour Day – Canadian heritage moment – Rerun
First published here in 2009
I was flipping the radio dial on Labour Day and noticed that CKNW’s Christy Clark featured a guest who seemed a strange choice. It was a Fraser Institute automaton, there to talk once more about our “unsustainable medic…
Continue readingNorthern Insights / Perceptivity: They won big but it’s still not enough
Forty years ago, American (and, by logical extension, Canadian) business worried about future survival of free enterprise. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce commissioned Lewis Powell, later a Nixon appointed Supreme Court Judge, to report on the crisis an…
Continue readingNunc Scio: Tomorrow you’re homeless, tonight it’s a blast
In 1982, the Dead Kennedys released the song “Riot“. If there is such a thing as a ‘public rage’ sub-genre, this track represents its creative peak (other notable entries: The Clash’s “Guns of Brixton” and Sublime’s “April 29, 1992 (Miami)“). Among Riot’s more timeless observations is the basic irony of the unrest we’re seeing in […]
Continue readingThis Disparity Is Criminal
Gravy boat vs. rubber dinghy: comparing executive salaries at B.C. and Washington state ferry corps. – Victoria’s Secrets Filed under: BCLiberals, Income Inequality
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: Gender Pay Inequality – Still Going Strong
Raiding Sociological Images is a pastime of mine as SI manages to succinctly highlight important issues in our society. One issue is gender inequality and how prevalent it remains in our society. The neat graph, along with some of their interpretation: “First, notice that women with more education (the lighter bars in each age bracket) […]
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