Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Sarah Hansen reports on new research showing that the U.S. could save 5% of its GDP merely by imposing a mask mandate during the coronavirus pandemic. (And it’s particularly worth noting how that economic impact from a single, simple step to improve public
Continue readingTag: inequality
Accidental Deliberations: Tuesday Afternoon Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Jason Markusoff discusses Jason Kenney’s race to the bottom as he uses a pandemic as an excuse to sacrifice yet more public money and workers’ rights to corporate freeloaders. – Richard Cannings points out how inequality is a drag on our economy
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Afternoon Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Alex Hunsberger writes that the CERB may be a flashpoint in determining whether the cost of the coronavirus pandemic will be borne primarily by people who can afford it, or people who merely can’t avoid it. Alison Pennington highlights how Australia’s government
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Afternoon Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Mark Smolinski writes that wearing a mask to limit the spread of COVID-19 is best characterized as a sign of mutual respect. (But sadly, that goes a long way toward explaining the anti-mask movement among adherents to political movements built on exclusion and
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Afternoon Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Lee Stevens writes that the coronavirus pandemic has exposed longstanding weaknesses in our social safety net which have caused large amounts of avoidable poverty: A generation ago, our income support and social service programs were working (albeit not perfect) since it was possible
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Afternoon Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Julia Horowitz discusses how the coronavirus pandemic has exacerbated wealth inequality in the U.S. And Jason DeParle writes that the U.S.’ temporary COVID-19 relief resulted in a lower poverty rate in the midst of a pandemic-induced recession than would normally exist – signalling
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Afternoon Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – PressProgress examines the strong public support for the ability for all workers – including gig workers – to be able to engage in collective action to improve their pay and benefits. And Anthony Forsyth notes that the coronavirus pandemic has highlighted the
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Afternoon Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Eric Levitz points out how the damage COVID-19 has caused to the U.S.’ economy arises largely out of underlying ailments, including its dependence on discretionary spending by people with extreme wealth. And Robert Reich highlights how Donald Trump’s racist demagoguery has distracted
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Edward Lempinen reports on new research showing that the response to COVID-19 in just six countries has prevented 500 million infections and millions of deaths. And Amanda Follett Hosgood writes that stopping the spread of the coronavirus is especially important in remote
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Yaryna Serkez highlights how COVID-19 has both exploited and exacerbated the U.S.’ existing inequalities. And Alexander Panetta writes about the perpetuation of racial inequality in the U.S. for upwards of five decades after civil rights legislation was supposed to establish a nominally
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Eric Cadesky writes about the psychology behind adherence to – and deviation from – the social distancing rules needed to keep us all safe. – Nora Loreto discusses how COVID-19 has exposed the lethal problems with Canada’s long-term care system. Karl Belanger points
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Ethan Cox highlights how Canada’s wealthiest few are raking in billions in additional wealth through the COVID-19 pandemic, and returning a pitiful amount in the form of charitable donations. – Karl Nerenberg discusses how people already on the wrong end of social
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Afternoon Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Ethan Cox writes that a large majority of Canadians favours massive public investments funded by more fair taxes on the wealthy as our road to recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. And Aaron Wherry points out the folly of fixating on deficits and public-sector
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Laird Cronk and Sussanne Skidmore offer their take as to how to ensure everybody benefits from British Columbia’s recovery plan. And Trish Hennessy discusses the need to build a more empathetic and inclusive society: COVID-19 has exposed what many of us already
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Through the newly-developed Progressive International, Grace Blakely writes that we don’t have any choice as to whether our future will be planned – only as to whose interest are taken into account in the process: Our choice is not ‘to plan or not
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Linda McQuaig warns us not to tolerate yet another around of austerian demagoguery when investment in people’s well-being is a positive step toward every end other than the goal of pushing people into additional precarity. And Marilyn Watkins examines how Washington state was
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: Gender, Hierarchy, Civilization & Collapse: A Few Thoughts
What did Sumeria ever do for us? Invented writing, our concepts of time, irrigation, cities, created the first literature…little stuff like that. Sumeria predates ancient Egypt, Babylon, Greece, and Biblical times, though it was a completely forgotten civilization until very recently. The civilization spanned roughly 3,500 years, between 5,500
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Annie Lowrey discusses how essential workers have been consistently undervalued due to political choices. And Patty Coates, Jan Simpson and Pablo Godoy discuss the need to ensure legal protections for workers’ rights in the wake of Foodora fleeing the country after its attempt
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Jim Stanford highlights the drastic difference between Canada’s already-high official unemployment rate, and the much higher level of loss of work. And Aaron Wherry discusses how the workers with the least are bearing the greatest risks arising out of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Afternoon Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Ronan Burtenshaw discusses the British public’s strong support for a New Deal featuring higher wages and more fair tax contributions by the rich as the UK plans for a recovery from the coronavirus. But Naomi Klein calls out how COVID-19 is instead
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