This and that for your Thursday reading. – Dan Hancox discusses how both work demands and consumerist force are causing people to lose sleep. And Jodi Dean writes about the need for a sense of comradeship to counter the impossible expectation of self-reliance. – Anand Giridharadas argues that the wealthy
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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
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Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Paul Krugman writes that complaints by the U.S.’ wealthiest few about Elizabeth Warren reflect their insistence that extreme wealth be coupled with absolute and unquestioned power: The point is that many of the superrich aren’t satisfied with living like kings, which they will
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Taylor Scallon discusses how GDP numbers fail to capture the precarious circumstances facing far too many Canadians. Kerri Breen reports on Ipsos’ polling showing a majority of Canadians seeing the political system as being rigged in favour of a privileged few. But in
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Owen Jones offers a needed reminder that no matter how often it gets trotted out as a basis to ignore the ideological underpinnings of parties oriented toward the concentration of wealth and power, the concept of compassionate conservatism is nothing more than a
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Derrick O’Keefe, Robert Hackett and Shane Gunster highlight how the TransMountain pipeline bailout and SNC-Lavalin scandal have cemented Justin Trudeau’s status as a Potemkin progressive just in time for voters to hold him to account. And PressProgress offers a reminder that the
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Patricia Cohen and Maggie Astor discuss what they perceive as the boldness of the emerging debate about taxing the wealthiest in the U.S. But John Nichols points out that even the most “radical” progressive tax plans under discussion would only restore the principles
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Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Ploy Achakulwisat writes about the health emergencies emanating from an ongoing climate breakdown. And Andy Kroll points out that even in the U.S., a concerted effort of corporate spinmeisters and anti-environment politicians hasn’t been able to override the public’s concern about climate change.
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Dennis Gruending writes about the difference between genuine populism focused on the interests of the public at large, and the discriminatory politics of the right which are often given the same label: The Oxford English Dictionary defines a populist as someone who is
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Matt McGrath and Dahr Jamail each point out some of the most important immediate effects of climate change. And Kate Marvel discusses the challenge we face in trying to avoid more severe breakdown in the longer term: You may have heard that we
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Afternoon Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Anna Bawden reports on new research from the Health Foundation showing the multiple ways in which young people face the burden of growing economic inequality. And Owen Jones points out that working-class children have borne the brunt of the UK’s financial crisis and
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Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Andrea Germanos discusses the problems with relying on the charity of the uber-wealthy rather than stable and sustainable public revenues to meet the needs of the people with the least. – Dan Fumano reports on the City of Vancouver’s call for a shift
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Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Owen Jones writes that a four-day work week being developed by UK Labour could represent an important step toward genuine personal freedom: (I)t is extremely welcome that Labour’s John McDonnell has approached eminent economist Lord Skidelsky to head an inquiry into potentially cutting
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Chuck Collins discusses the obscene wealth being hoarded by the U.S.’ few richest families. And Owen Jones comments on the need for UK Labour to plan to push for far more revenue – especially from the top end – than it’s proposed
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – CBC News examines the state of consumer debt in Canada. Jake Johnson writes that despite the growing recognition of inequality as an issue, 2017 saw an unprecedented amount of money funneled into the fortunes of billionaires. And Owen Jones highlights the importance
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This and that for your Thursday reading. – Jim Stanford discusses how abusing precarious workers has become the primary job of big business. But Owen Jones notes that strikes against McDonald’s in the UK represent just the latest example of workers taking collective action to fight for a more fair
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Oliver Bullough writes that the combination of increased wealth concentration and the free flow of money across borders to attacks currencies and governments represents an urgent threat to democratic governance. And Owen Jones argues that now is the ideal time to push for
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Arno Kopecky points out that new highs in nominal standards of living around the globe are being paired with unprecedented environmental damage which puts our future at risk. And Laila Yuile responds to John Horgan’s version of the line that any smaller jurisdiction
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Owen Jones discusses the need for wealth taxes as part of any plan to meaningfully reduce economic inequality: Much is made of income inequality, and rightly so. Labour’s 2017 manifesto, which proved the tombstone for a neoliberal political consensus that has prevailed for
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Joseph Stiglitz discusses how the Republicans’ tax scam is designed for the sole purpose of further enriching their already-wealthy donors, while Theodoric Meyer notes that it also stands to make loads of money for lobbyists. – Jagmeet Singh makes the case for Canada
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