This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Saeed Kamali Dehghan reports on a new World Health Organization study showing the utter lack of progress toward sustainable development, particularly due to the harms caused by our climate breakdown. Mahita Gajanan focuses on the reality that every child’s future is threatened
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Accidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Joseph Stiglitz discusses how decades of laissez-faire economics and deference to the rich have undermined any effective democratic decision-making. Bruce Boghosian observes that structural change is needed to avoid a tendency toward the concentration of wealth and concurrent rise of inequality. And
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Evening Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Stephen Mihm writes that among other positive outcomes, wealth taxes and other progressive tax options reliably produce a boost in life satisfaction for a large number of people (while having little impact on the positional interests of the ultra-rich against each other). And
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Richard Partington discusses the rise of inequality and some of the options to combat it. And PressProgress points out the Parliamentary Budget Officer’s conclusion that the NDP’s plan for a wealth tax can turn money currently being hoarded by the ultra-rich into tens
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Mia Rabson reports on a new Climate Action Network report card showing that Canada’s plans for greenhouse gas emissions are as bad as any in the G8, projecting to lead to the same 4 degree temperature increase which would result from from Donald
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Alex Hemingway writes about the need for Canada’s federal election to include a discussion about democratizing ownership and control of our economy. Nicole Aschoff notes that any discussion about industrial policy needs to include a serious analysis as to who benefits from economic
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Erika Beauchesne discusses the benefits of a wealth tax as both a means of reducing inequality, and a source of revenue for public priorities: Canada’s NDP has proposed a one per cent tax on wealth over $20 million as part of its
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Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Josh Bornstein writes that in Australia like elsewhere, the combination of increasing corporate profits, stagnant wages and resulting inequality can be traced to the reduced bargaining power of workers. Jim Stanford notes that New Zealand offers an example as to how to reverse
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Paul Krugman duly mocks Donald Trump’s attempt to turn any discussion of social investment into a threat of “socialism”: Some progressive U.S. politicians now describe themselves as socialists, and a significant number of voters, including a majority of voters under 30, say
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Afternoon Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Joe Vipond and Noel Keough highlight the gap between the global impetus to avoid climate breakdown and the narrow self-interest of the Alberta oil industry. Michael Bueckert discusses Jason Kenney’s attempt to turn the government apparatus against the exercise of fundamental freedoms through
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Avi Lewis contrasts the real crises which demand our attention against the manufactured ones which are instead promoted by far too many of our political leaders: Even for those of us who have not yet experienced personal loss and trauma from climate catastrophe,
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Evening Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Nick Charity reports on the observations of the UN’s envoy on poverty and human rights that callous and cruel austerian political choices have caused harm to millions of UK residents. – Tess Kalinowski reports on the reality that Doug Ford’s move to remove
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Giri Sivaraman and Jim Stanford challenge the right-wing dogma that unions – and unions alone among private actors – should be expected to provide benefits independent of any contributions. Fiona Onasanya discusses the need for collective action to push back against exploitation by
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Quirks & Quarks examines the potentially devastating effects of a dilbit spill on British Columbia’s coast. And David Climenhaga warns that Kinder Morgan is looking at NAFTA to provide it an alternate source of risk-free profits at public expense. – Mia Rabson reports
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Ann Pettifor discusses the trend toward financialization which has led to regular economic disasters – and suggests the public is well aware it’s getting left behind in the policy choices which have created it. – ScienceDaily takes note of the strong connection between
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – The New York Times’ editorial board comments on the predictable flow of the Trump tax cuts toward primarily the few who already had more wealth than they could possibly put to productive use. And Tom Parkin discusses Jagmeet Singh’s expectation that Canadians
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On historical perspective
I’ll give Roland Priddle this much: he’s absolutely right in his impression that the best way to argue for waving through expanded tar sands pipelines without an unbiased review is to pretend that nobody has learned anything about environmental protection, oil or dilbit spills, climate change, or energy industry trends
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Paul Krugman reminds us of the fraud that is right-wing bleating about deficits: There have been many “news analysis” pieces asking why Republicans have changed their views on deficit spending. But let’s be serious: Their views haven’t changed at all. They never really
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Afternoon Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Linda McQuaig discusses how Justin Trudeau, Bill Morneau and the federal Libs are focused mostly on further privileging the rich: There’s lots of lamenting about the way the rich keep getting richer while ordinary folk struggle to keep their heads above water. Along
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Karri Munn-Venn argues for a federal budget focused on social well-being – not merely on economic productivity. And Tom Hale discusses the harm done by social isolation. – The BBC reports on new research showing that the UK’s public support for parents
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