inequality ← Progressive Bloggers // Blogues progressistes

Accidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links

Jun

23

2017

Assorted content to end your week. – Patrick Gossage discusses the desperate need for Canadian governments at all levels to take meaningful action to eliminate poverty: The reality is that low-income Canadians are invisible and lack political clout. In Toronto, they are concentrated in downtown areas close to the gleaming bank towers, in huge clusters ...

Accidental Deliberations: Tuesday Afternoon Links

Jun

20

2017

This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Aditya Chakrabortty describes the Grenfell Tower fire as nothing less than social murder of the UK’s poor: Austerity is at the heart of the Grenfell story. Think of the firefighters, who have seen stations closed and colleagues laid off by May, when she was home secretary. Consider ...

The Progressive Economics Forum: The Wage Structure, Rents and Urban Inequality in Canada

Jun

20

2017

Richard Florida’s new book, The New Urban Crisis (Basic Books, 2017) takes a careful look at rising inequality in big cities in the United States. He details the fact that many of the winners of today’s economy, the top 1% and top 10%, are located in a small number of “superstar” cities such as New ...

The Progressive Economics Forum: Fiscal situation of Canada’s ‘oil rich’ provinces

Jun

19

2017

I’ve just written a blog post about the fiscal situation of Canada’s ‘oil rich’ provinces (i.e., Alberta, Saskatchewan and Newfoundland and Labrador). It consists of a summary of key points raised at a PEF-sponsored panel at this year’s Annual Conference of the Canadian Economics Association. Points raised in the blog post include the following: -The ...

Accidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links

Jun

17

2017

Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Danny Dorling sets out how a more equal society leads to benefits for everybody. And Annie Lowrey discusses Richard Reeves’ take on the separation between the top 20% of the income spectrum and the rest of the U.S. – particularly in preventing social mobility. – Meagan Gilmore points ...

Accidental Deliberations: Friday Afternoon Links

Jun

16

2017

Assorted content to end your week. – Wanda Wyporska writes about the scandal of growing inequality and the separation of the ultra-rich from the rest of society. And Richard Reeves calls for the people with the most wealth and privilege to stop denying the advantages they enjoy compared to the vast majority of people. – ...

Accidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links

Jun

15

2017

This and that for your Thursday reading. – Sarah O’Connor examines the inconsistent relationship between job quantity and quality as another example of how it’s misleading to think of policy choices solely in terms of the number of jobs generated. Angela Monaghan discusses how wages continue to stagnate in the UK despite a low unemployment ...

Accidental Deliberations: Saturday Afternoon Links

Jun

10

2017

Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Larry Elliott is optimistic that the UK’s election result will lead to an end of destructive austerity. James Downie comments on the example Jeremy Corbyn’s campaign provides for progressives in the U.S. (and elsewhere). And Karl Nerenberg writes about the importance of youth turnout in boosting Labour’s fortunes. ...

Accidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links

Jun

8

2017

This and that for your Thursday reading. – Christopher Hoy reminds us that as much as people are already outraged by inequality, we tend to underestimate its severity. And Faiza Shaheen writes about the dangers of unchecked inequality which erodes social bonds. – Meanwhile, Andrea Hopkins discusses how Canadians are taking significant financial risks in ...

Accidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links

Jun

7

2017

Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Dennis Howlett comments on the distortions in Canada’s tax system which redistribute money upward to those who need it least: It’s time for Mr. Morneau to deliver a comprehensive and comprehensible tax strategy that will work in 2017 and beyond because, currently, tax breaks for the richest 10 ...

Accidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links

Jun

5

2017

Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Michal Rozworski highlights how UK Labour’s platform provides for a needed move toward the democratization of economic activity along with an end to gratuitous austerity. And a distinguished group of economists has signed on to support the plan. – Charlie Skelton examines how this year’s Bilderberg conference is ...

Accidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links

Jun

4

2017

This and that for your Sunday reading. – Armine Yalnizyan writes that a $15 minimum wage is ultimately good for businesses as well as for people: When higher income households see wage gains, some of it goes to savings. Additional consumption also often flows to vacations and luxury goods, often imported. In other words a ...

Accidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links

Jun

2

2017

Assorted content to end your week. – Don Pittis discusses the growing price everybody pays for more extreme weather events caused by climate change. And Adrienne Lafrance offers a grim look at what’s in store if we can’t curb greenhouse gas emissions in a hurry. – Seth Klein and Shannon Daub write that British Columbia’s ...

Accidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links

May

30

2017

This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Annette Alstadsæter, Niels Johannesen and Gabriel Zucman examine (PDF) the size and distribution of tax evasion and (not surprisingly) find it clustered at the top – with the wealthiest .01% dodging 30% of its obligation to society at large. And Marco Chown Oved reports that the Canada ...

Accidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links

May

29

2017

Assorted content to start your week. – Rhys Kesselman challenges the Fraser Institute’s grossly distorted conception of “tax competitiveness”: Even with lower overall tax burdens, many Americans bear much heavier non-tax burdens than their Canadian counterparts. These costs can be so large as to swamp any tax-rate differentials between the countries. Private health insurance in ...

Accidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links

May

27

2017

Assorted content for your weekend reading. – David MacDonald studies the federal government’s loopholes and giveaways targeted toward those who already have the most – noting that there would be plenty of revenue to fund the programs we’re told are unaffordable if that preferential treatment was ended. And Felicity Lawrence highlights how multinational corporations are ...

The Progressive Economics Forum: Income Inequality Surged Under Harper

May

27

2017

Just as Conservatives gathered to elect a new leader, Statistics Canada released income data for 2015. These allow us to look at trends under the full term of the Harper Government from 2006 to 2015. Average after tax income of economic families rose over this period – from $68,200 to $76,900 in inflation-adjusted dollars. But ...

Accidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links

May

25

2017

This and that for your Thursday reading. – Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett write about the psychological and social harms arising out of inequality: Members of species that have strong ranking systems need social strategies for maximising and maintaining rank while avoiding the risk of attacks by dominants. Although there are many variations in the ...

Accidental Deliberations: Friday Evening Links

May

19

2017

Assorted content to end your week. – Maureen Conway and Mark Popovich argue that something has gone severely wrong if (as seems to be the case) Wall Street is treating higher wages as bad news: In 2017, America has a jobs problem: It’s not that we don’t have enough jobs, but that we don’t have ...

Accidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links

May

18

2017

This and that for your Thursday reading. – Owen Jones discusses UK Labour’s true social democratic platform as a model for progressive parties around the globe. And Simon Wren-Lewis points out that contrary to the spin of opponents and uninformed presumptions of much of the media, Labour’s plan is entirely affordable. – Meanwhile, as part ...

Accidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links

May

14

2017

This and that for your Sunday reading. – Barbara Ellen questions the positive spin the right tries to put on poverty and precarity, and writes that we’re all worse off forcing people to just barely get by: In recent times, there has been a lot said about those people who are “just managing”. They are ...

Accidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links

May

9

2017

This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Derrick O’Keefe highlights why British Columbia’s voters should be careful before lending any credence to the corporate media’s call for yet another term of corrupt Lib government: As expected, The Vancouver Sun and Province, and the Globe and Mail, published editorials urging voters to keep the Liberals ...

Accidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links

May

7

2017

This and that for your Sunday reading. – Branko Milanovic reviews Mike Lofgren’s The Deep State, and highlights how entrenched wealth and power have hijacked our public institutions for their own benefit: The deep state includes the old-fashioned military-industrial complex, top of Wall Street and Silicon valley, think tanks and foundations, and the mainstream media, ...

Accidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links

May

5

2017

Assorted content to end your week. – Clive Hamilton discusses the accelerating calamity of climate change which we’re allowing to happen: Our best scientists tell us insistently that a calamity is unfolding, that the life-support systems of the Earth are being damaged in ways that threaten our survival. Yet in the face of these facts ...

Accidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links

May

4

2017

This and that for your Thursday reading. – James Wilt argues that the labour movement should be putting its weight behind green housing which will produce both social and environmental benefits along with jobs: Workers need affordable homes. Workers also need stable and properly compensated jobs, especially those transitioning from work in oil, gas and ...