inequality ← Progressive Bloggers // Blogues progressistes

Accidental Deliberations: On unequal treatment

Apr

25

2018

With the Trans Mountain pipeline dominating as much news coverage as it has, it’s inevitable that we’d see the usual debate as to the relative desirability of different types of economic paths come to the surface. And I’ll point out just a couple of the which look to signal a distortion of the actual impact ...

Accidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links

Apr

25

2018

Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Oleg Komlik takes note of Wade Cole’s research showing how income inequality affects political dynamics. And Hannah Finnie recognizes that young people are joining unions (among other forms of social activism) in order to gain some much-needed influence on both fronts, while Paul Krugman weighs in on the ...

Accidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links

Apr

24

2018

This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Louis Uchitelle discusses how the decline of organized labour in the U.S. has harmed not just workers’ direct interests, but the economic sectors where unions previously thrived: Want to make America great again and keep factories in the United States? Try strengthening labor unions. That may seem ...

Accidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links

Apr

23

2018

Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Robert Costanza reviews Mariana Mazzucato’s The Value of Everything, and highlights its focus on attaching proper importance to priorities that aren’t reflected in prices: (T)he current mainstream ‘marginalist’ concept bases value on market exchanges: price, as revealed by the interaction of supply and demand in markets, determines value, ...

The Progressive Economics Forum: Ten things to know about the 2018 Saskatchewan budget

Apr

20

2018

I’ve written a ‘top 10’ blog post about the recently-tabled Saskatchewan budget. Points raised in the blog post include the following: -This year’s budget was quite status quo. -Last year’s budget, by contrast, included a series of cuts to social spending. Last year’s budget also announced cuts to both personal and corporate income taxes that ...

Accidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links

Apr

15

2018

Assorted content for your Sunday reading. – Nick Falvo offers a useful summary of the federal-provincial framework on housing – including its lack of any specific mention of homelessness and supportive housing among other deficiencies. – Meanwhile, Justin McElroy reports on the Horgan government’s plan to ensure more rights for tenants, including by applying significant ...

Accidental Deliberations: Friday Afternoon Links

Apr

13

2018

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 best. – Nicole Goodkind analyzes ...

Things Are Good: Productive Companies Include Workers on Their Board

Apr

11

2018

Since the late 1970s (coinciding with the rise of neoliberalism) wages have stagnated while executive pay keeps rising. This has led to inequality being one of the largest issues facing companies and countries in the 21st century. Accordingly, people sick of neoliberalism have been looking into ways to address inequality and the subsequent economic stagnation. ...

Accidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links

Apr

8

2018

This and that for your Sunday reading. – Michael Savage discusses new projections showing that the luckiest 1% could control two-thirds of the world’s wealth in a little more than a decade: World leaders are being warned that the continued accumulation of wealth at the top will fuel growing distrust and anger over the coming ...

Accidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links

Apr

5

2018

This and that for your Thursday reading. – The Canadian Press reports on new research showing how wealth shocks at any level of income or wealth are associated with a higher risk of mortality: Middle-aged Americans who experienced a sudden, large economic blow were more likely to die during the following years than those who ...

Accidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links

Apr

3

2018

This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Amy Remeikis reports on new research showing how educational inequality translates into an even wider economic gap. – Hannah Johnston and Chris Land-Kazlauskas examine (PDF) the gig economy and the need for workers to be able to organize around it. But Rebecca Moss discusses another of Donald ...

Accidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links

Apr

2

2018

Assorted content to start your week. – Charlie May writes that the inequality which is radically reshaping the American political scene receives short shrift compared to other stories. And Thomas Piketty studies (PDF) the political realignment which is seeing relatively well-defined class politics replaced with “multiple-elite” models. – Meanwhile, Tom Parkin notes that Justin Trudeau’s ...

Accidental Deliberations: Friday Afternoon Links

Mar

30

2018

Assorted content to end your week. – Benjamin Austin, Edward Glaeser and Lawrence Summers make the case for economic policy focused on reducing regional disparities. And Chad Shearer and Isha Shah highlight how inclusion is a necessary element of sustainable economic development: (B)etter performance on one measure [out of growth, prosperity and inclusion] is associated ...

The Progressive Economics Forum: Five things to know about the 2018 Alberta budget

Mar

26

2018

On March 22, the NDP government of Rachel Notley tabled the 2018 Alberta budget. I’ve written a blog post discussing some of the major ‘take aways’ from the standpoint of Calgary’s homeless-serving sector (where I work). Points made in the blog post include the following: this was very much a status quo budget; Alberta remains ...

Accidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links

Mar

23

2018

Assorted content to end your week. – Owen Jones discusses the need for wealth taxes as part of any plan to meaningfully reduce economic inequality: Much is made of income inequality, and rightly so. Labour’s 2017 manifesto, which proved the tombstone for a neoliberal political consensus that has prevailed for a generation, pledged modest rises ...

The Progressive Economics Forum: Ten proposals from the 2018 Alberta Alternative Budget

Mar

21

2018

The 2018 Alberta Alternative Budget (AAB) was released yesterday—it can be downloaded here. An opinion piece I wrote about the AAB appeared yesterday in both the Calgary Herald and the Edmonton Journal. Inspired by the Alternative Federal Budget exercise, this year’s AAB was drafted by a working group consisting of individuals from the non-profit sector, ...

The Progressive Economics Forum: Inequality-redistribution in Canada update

Mar

18

2018

Two years ago I posted my first guest blog focused on income inequality, specifically how changes in Canada’s redistribution over the last three decades have increased after-tax income inequality, and how these changes compared to OECD trends. The figures and analysis in this post update the earlier blog, based on the most recent OECD data ...

The Progressive Economics Forum: Homelessness and employment: The case of Calgary

Mar

17

2018

I’ve just written a blog post about homelessness and employment, with a focus on Calgary (where I live and work). Points raised in the blog post include the following: -Persons experiencing homelessness usually have poor health outcomes, making it especially challenging to find and sustain employment. -There are several non-profits in Calgary that assist persons ...

Accidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links

Mar

15

2018

This and that for your Thursday reading. – Matt Bruenig highlights Norway’s high level of social ownership, with 76% of non-home wealth in public hands in an extremely prosperous country. And Patrick Collinson reports on the latest World Happiness Survey, showing Norway within a group of relatively equal Nordic countries at the very top. – ...

Accidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links

Mar

14

2018

Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Amir Sufi and Atif Mian discuss how household debt tends to drive both the booms and busts of the business cycle. Which means there’s plenty of reason for concern about a Canadian economy reliant on household debt to paper over income insecurity and inequality – and Michal Rozworski ...

Michal Rozworski: Jobs data doesn’t say much about the minimum wage (yet) but lots about growing inequality

Mar

12

2018

We’ve had two months of jobs data in Canada since Ontario increased it’s minimum wage from $11.60 to $14 on January 1, 2017. When January’s Labour Force Survey numbers came out and showed some of the biggest month-over-month losses in years, there was a slew of predictable, reflexive commentary blaming Ontario’s minimum wage hike. Now ...

Accidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links

Mar

6

2018

This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Lucas Chancel points out the myths underlying any claim that corporate globalization does anything but voluntarily exacerbate inequality: It is often said that rising inequality is inevitable — that it is a natural consequence of trade openness and digitalization that governments are powerless to counter. But the numbers ...

Accidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links

Mar

4

2018

This and that for your Sunday reading. – Andrea Gordon offers the latest on the inequality caused by forcing schools to rely on fund-raising for basic equipment and activities. And Wanda Wyporska comments on the class pay gap which sees children of less wealthy parents face lifelong disadvantages: The report pointed to the intergenerational dominance ...

The Canadian Progressive: It’s time to take our charities to the cleaners

Feb

28

2018

The Oxfam sexual exploitation scandal signals the arrival of the moment for an honest public conversation about charities’ role in society, the white saviour mentality, gender relations, charity accountability, and the impact of western aid and power in developing countries. The post It’s time to take our charities to the cleaners appeared first on The ...

Accidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links

Feb

24

2018

Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Noah Smith comments on the damaging effects of corporate concentration for workers, consumers and even the financial sector: The biggest threat from the increasing dominance of big companies isn’t to Goldman Sachs, or even to retirement plans; it’s to workers and consumers. When companies squelch wages and raise ...