This and that for your Sunday reading. – Michal Rozworski examines the factors which have contributed to Canada’s ongoing housing crisis, including public austerity, consumer debt and undue speculation. Dan Fumano points out how homelessness is growing in Vancouver despite a few preliminary steps being taken to provide long-absent housing,
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Accidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Nick Hanauer discusses the futility of “educationism” which treats schools as the only factor in social outcomes without recognizing the importance of inequality and precarity in restricting opportunities for far too many children. And PressProgress points out that Brian Pallister’s Manitoba PCs –
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This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Heather Mallick discusses the pattern of right-wing governments obsessing over undoing the good done by their predecessors, rather than paying the slightest attention to the public interest. And Mariana Mazzucato and Josh Ryan-Collins examine (PDF) about the importance of having leaders who
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Afternoon Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Lana Payne comments on the war being waged by Canada’s right-wing governments against workers. – Dion Rabouin writes about the product of decades of giveaways to the rich – as the obscenely wealthy literally can’t find any use for massive amounts of money
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Evening Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Jonathan Aldred calls out the combination of handouts to the rich, cultivated attitudes of self-reliance and antisocial assumptions which have exacerbated inequality over the past few decades: European countries have, on average, more redistributive tax systems and more welfare benefits for the
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This and that for your Tuesday reading. – In his Arnold Amber Memorial Lecture, Alex Himelfarb offers his take on the dangers of austerity and the loss of collective action: 1. Austerity is toxic.2. It is built on a lie, and on a withered idea of freedom and a hollowed
Continue readingAlex's Blog: Austerity and the Decline of the Collective
(Notes for Second Annual Arnold Amber Memorial Lecture, Toronto, May 29, 2019) I am honoured to be celebrating the life and values of Arnold Amber. Celebrating social justice and human rights and a life of activism has never seemed more important. Thank you to Arnold’s family and to all for
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – The NDP has released its Power to Change climate plan, including steps to create green jobs and give effect to Indigenous rights while meeting emission reduction targets needed to contribute to the international fight against climate breakdown. And Christo Aivilis offers his first
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Joseph Stiglitz points out the need to move beyond neoliberalism and offers a useful policy framework to do so – though framing an alternative as “progressive capitalism” cedes far more ground than necessary in continuing to prioritize capital over social well-being. – The
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This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Peter Eavis points out how U.S. CEOs are only seeing their exorbitant pay soar even further due to Donald Trump’s tax giveaways. Kara Swisher interviews Anand Giridharadas about how “philanthropists” are bribing the public with small parts of the obscene concentrations money
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Jo Davies points out the widespread recognition that Canadian corporations need to pay their fair share for a functional society. And Eric Levitz notes that Donald Trump and other right-wing pseudo-populists are ensuring the opposite, as the IRS has stopped any meaningful
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Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Leslie Hook offers a reminder of the dangers of methane as a particularly damaging type of carbon emission which is both associated largely with fossil fuel production, and poorly tracked when it is emitted. And the Edmonton Journal makes the case for Jason
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – The Guardian offers a few expert perspectives on how to fix the U.S.’ broken economic system. And Hassan Yussuff writes that the centennial of the Winnipeg General Strike should remind us of the importance and power of mass political action. – Randy
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Stiglitz – Neoliberalism has Gutted the Middle Class
Nobel laureate and former World Bank chief economist, Joe Stiglitz, contends we urgently need to replace neoliberalism with progressive capitalism. Three years ago, President Donald Trump’s election and the United Kingdom’s Brexit referendum confirmed what those of us who have long studied income statistics already knew: in most advanced countries,
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Daniel Drenzer reviews Joseph Stiglitz’ People, Power and Profits, while noting the importance of pairing progressive policy ideas with a plan for implementation. And Laura Davison points out how Donald Trump’s massive tax losses which kept him from contributing to the U.S.’ public
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Lana Payne discusses why we can’t afford another Harper government – but also why we shouldn’t merely accept the Libs as the only alternative no matter how dishonestly and angrily they try to limit our choices. And Tom Parkin highlights the need to
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Edward Kleinbard argues that citizens should be asking the question of whether markets actually serve society’s best interests – while pointing out the compelling evidence to suggest they don’t at the moment. And David Love writes about the increasing recognition among the exceedingly
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Afternoon Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Ethan Cox reports on the massive public support in Canada for a wealth tax. David Hetherington writes that the wealthy few go out of their way to avoid any personal interaction with the realities of economic inequality – making it absurd to accept
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Rick Smith and Ken Neumann write about the importance of developing a Green New Deal that includes participation from (and protection for) the workers affected by an economic transition. – Meanwhile, Aditya Chakrabortty notes that the oil-backed right’s personal attacks on Greta
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Emilie Prattico comments on the need to move past an economy that generates billionaires and widespread precarity in order to ensure that collective problems can be meaningfully addressed: While the public has never been as outspoken in its support of urgent and ambitious
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