Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Bill Kerry writes that extreme inequality serves to reinforce itself – and points out what needs to be done to counter the temptation to kick others down: One of the major difficulties in tackling inequality is the way it coerces many people into accepting
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World Economic Forum backs the Pope on economic inequality
Every year the World Economic Forum hosts a confab of the world’s elite at the Swiss resort of Davos to discuss the state of the world. The Forum is funded by its 1,000 member companies, global enterprises who play a leading role in shaping the future of their industry or
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Robert Reich (via GlenInCA) points out the connection between a strong middle class and curbs on corporate excesses – with may go a long way toward explaining why the business lobby is working so hard to eliminate the concept of a secure livelihood
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – John Cassidy makes the case to call the U.S.’ war on poverty a success – pointing out that there has been a meaningful reduction in poverty over the past 50 years connected almost entirely to government programs. But lest that be taken as
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Afternoon Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Jo Snyder discusses how poverty makes everybody less healthy, and recognizes the need for higher basic wages as a result. And Laurie Penny highlights the futility of trying to badger young adults into service jobs which offer no opportunity for personal, professional
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – The Star’s editorial board sees Canada’s woeful job numbers as a signal that it’s time for some economic management in the interests of people (rather than artificial manipulation of numbers): Economists used words like “dismal” and “ugly” for these results, and no wonder.
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Jim Stanford writes about the myth of a labour shortage in Canada: In this context of chronic un- and under-employment, it is jarring that so many employers, business lobbyists, and politicians continue to complain about a supposed shortage of available, willing, and adequately
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Thomas Walkom points out that many Canadians can expect to lose jobs without any social supports due to the Cons’ focus on political messages over real-life impacts. And Blake Zeff offers a reminder that while progressive economic policy may be receiving more attention
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
Assorted content for your Sunday reading. – Frank Graves recognizes that the dismal mood of young Canadians is based on the economic reality that the expected trend toward intergenerational progress has been reversed. – Meanwhile, Jesse Myerson discusses five policy proposals which would give younger citizens a far more fair
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
This and that for your weekend reading. – The Star offers an editorial on the continued increase in wage inequality in Canada, highlighting the complete lack of any connection between accomplishment and executive compensation: (T)he country’s economic performance has changed dramatically. In 2007, when Mackenzie began, the Canadian economy was
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Ryan Meili highlights the need for a plan to address poverty – rather than the customary bromides about a rising tide lifting all boats: Elimination of poverty requires more than a growing economy; it requires a dedicated plan. When more jobs are available,
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Costas Lapavitsas discusses the disproportionate hold finance has over the global economy: Financialisation represents a historic and deep-seated transformation of mature capitalism. Big businesses have become “financialised” as they have ample profits to finance investment, rely less on banks for loans and
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Dan Leger and Leslie MacKinnon both theorize that 2013 represented a new low in Canadian politics. But while the Cons may have taken some new steps in petty scandals and cover-ups (and Rob Ford’s clown show managed to attract an unusual amount
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Diane Coyle offers a preview of Thomas Piketty’s upcoming book on inequality – featuring a prediction that absent some significant public policy intervention, we may see a return to 19th-century levels of concentration of wealth. – Meanwhile, Murray Dobbin calls for 2014 to
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Susan FitzGerald reports on new research that growing up in poverty has a significantly more damaging effect on a child’s development than exposure to drugs – leading to obvious questions as to why so many governments loudly wage a nominal war on
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Lana Payne writes that Canadians care plenty about the well-being of hungry children even if the Cons don’t: After a firestorm of shocked responses from Canadians, Mr. Moore apologized for his “insensitive comment” uttered days before Christmas. What he did not apologize for
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: New column day
Here, on the need to keep the holiday message of peace and goodwill in mind throughout the year – while working to foster both in our homes and in the world around us. For further reading, I’ll point back to a couple of pieces about the effects of poverty and
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Paul Krugman writes about the effect of a precarious labour market on even the relatively few workers who enjoy relatively secure employment: (T)hese are lousy times for the employed, too. Why? Because they have so little bargaining power. Leave or lose your
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On questionable remedies
Shorter Donald Johnson: My preferred cure for poverty and inequality is…tax breaks for rich people! (And if anybody’s asking, I’ll be happy to prescribe the same course of treatment for such conditions as gingivitis, economic sluggishness, economic vibrancy, spontaneous combustion syndrome, seasonal affective disorder, out-of-seasonal affective disorder, general malaise, and
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Bill Moyers offers up a superb summary and reading list on inequality: Inequality in America: How bad is it? In 2011, Mother Jones published a series of charts capturing the depth of inequality in the US, which remains one of the best big-picture looks at the problem
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