Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Ben Chu reports on a new study showing that the UK’s economy is broken in failing to translate GDP gains into any help for workers whose wages are falling. And the Canadian Press reports on the latest survey showing how many Canadians are
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Accidental Deliberations: Book Review: Politics Without Stories
David Ricci’s Politics Without Stories was released in the midst of an election campaign which upended many assumptions about U.S. politics. But it nonetheless offers a plausible explanation for much of the U.S.’ political environment as it’s continued to evolve – while leaving open what strike me as interesting questions
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Alex Himelfarb writes about the need to expand our idea of what’s possible through collective action: Is Trump the product of over forty years of attacks on the very idea of government, of decades in which government seemed to back away from our
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Sarah Anderson studies how corporate tax cuts enrich CEOs, but don’t do anything to help workers. And she then follows up with this op-ed: If claims about the job-creation benefits of lower tax rates had any validity, these 92 consistently profitable firms
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Melanie Schmitz writes that Donald Trump’s plan to hand giant tax goodies to the rich is opposed by nearly three quarters of Americans. – CNBC reports on the skepticism among U.S. workers as to their future opportunities. And Jim Stanford offers a historical
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Amira Elghawaby comments on the loss of empathy in Canadian politics – particularly due to a disproportionate focus on the perceived self-interest of a narrow group of upper-middle-class swing voters, rather than speaking to and about the people with the greatest need
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This and that for your Thursday reading. – Owen Jones calls out the dogmatic centre for first laying the groundwork for the rise of the populist right, then trying to vilify anybody working on a progressive alternative. And Chris Dillow zeroes in on what’s wrong with the neoliberal view of
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Asher Schechter examines new studies showing how massive markups are enriching corporations at the expense of workers: The two standard explanations for why labor’s share of output has fallen by 10 percent over the past 30 years are globalization (American workers are
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Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Angella MacEwen offers her suggestions as to what a fair and progressive trade agenda should look like: Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) mechanisms are especially unpopular, as they prioritize investor rights over investor responsibilities. Canada and Mexico have had similar dismal experiences under NAFTA
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Mariana Valverde examines how P3 schemes are putting financiers in charge of deciding what public infrastructure to build, while leaving future generations of citizens with massive bills to pay. And the Star Phoenix’ editorial board rightly warns Brad Wall against selling off Saskatchewan’s
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Mike Konczal responds to a pathetic attempt to drain the word “neoliberal” of all meaning (which seems to have won favour with Canadian Libs desperately trying to disassociate themselves from their own governing ideology) by discussing its application in both the political and
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This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Tom Parkin writes that the economic boost provided by an expanded child benefit offers another indication of how action to fight poverty ultimately helps everybody. And Dylan Matthews discusses how much more could be done through a well-designed basic income – while
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – The Economist observes that the effects of climate change fall disproportionately on poorer people, rather than the wealthier ones who have caused more of the damage: The costs of global climate change will again be unevenly (and uncertainly) distributed, but harm will often
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Susanna Rustin reports on a new study from the London School of Economics demonstrating the lifelong personal impacts of childhood poverty. And Colleen Kimmit writes that the solution to food insecurity (along with other elements of personal precarity) is a guaranteed income,
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Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Michael Rozworski discusses the importance of workers exercising power over how our economy functions. Robert Booth reports on a forthcoming UK study showing the desperate need for improved quality of work and life among low-income individuals. And Lana Payne writes that a strong
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Naomi Klein highlights how capital and power combine to turn disasters into profit-making opportunities – while noting that the Trump presidency is just such a disaster. And Linda McQuaig discusses why we should see the income tax and other collective funding mechanisms as
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: New column day
Here, on Ottawa’s Canada 150 event which was planned solely for the benefit of VIPs and businesses rather than mere people – and how that reality fits the Trudeau Libs’ general governing themes. For further reading…– Again, CBC reported on the Canada Day fiasco, while the Ottawa Citizen published accounts
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Danny Dorling writes about the connection between high inequality and disregard for the environment: In a 2016 report, Oxfam found that the greatest polluters of all were the most affluent 10% of US households: each emitted, on average, 50 tonnes of CO2 per
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Ben Tarnoff discusses the growing number of basic public services which are being converted into private rents as profit motives are given precedence over democracy: A profit-driven system doesn’t mean we get more for our money – it means someone gets to
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Afternoon Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Abi Wilkinson writes that we’ll be far better served fighting inequality generally rather than limiting our focus to issues of social mobility: When we talk about social mobility, we’re talking about movement between the strata of our social class system. (Generally upwards
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