This and that for your Sunday reading. – Scott Santens argues that a basic income represents the best way to ensure that the gains from technological advancement are shared by everybody. And Thom Hartmann makes the case for a guaranteed income based on its simplicity and cost-effectiveness, while Mark Sarner
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Accidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Sheila Block points out the problems with the spread of low-paying, precarious jobs. And PressProgress fact-checks the CFIB’s attempt to make as many workers’ lives as precarious as possible by suppressing minimum wages and standards. – But Sara Mojtehedzadeh reports that Ontario’s provincial
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Mark Anderson reports on the Change Readiness Index’ findings that the growing concentration and inequality of wealth is making it more and more difficult for countries to deal with foreseeable disasters. But Jon Queally points out that a concerted effort to quit
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Roderick Benns reports on Ryan Meili’s argument for a basic income: Dr. Ryan Meili was in Kingston, Ontario, recently to talk to more than 100 people about the importance of the social determinants of health in an event that was hosted by Basic
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Afternoon Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Sam Becker discusses the economic harm done by growing inequality, while Alexandra Zeevalkink previews Katharine Round’s upcoming documentary on the issue. And Carol Goar argues that Canadians are eager for leadership to ensure that everybody shares in our country’s wealth. – Meanwhile, Laura
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Juxtaposition
Sure, it might be tempting to say there’s no difference at all between this… The federal government touted a number of initiatives Wednesday for improving First Nations’ well-being but could not explain why a new report showed the prosperity gap between aboriginal and non-aboriginal people was widening in some cases.
Continue readingWill Republicans keep invoking God if the Pope keeps pissing on their philosophy?
American politicians are particularly prone to invoking their Christian faith as a guide to their political beliefs. Although members of both major parties freely trot out scripture at the drop of a writ, conservative Republicans are especially inclined to pepper their appeals with references to their faith, God and Jesus.
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – David Cay Johnston looks into new research showing just how much distance the U.S.’ highest-income .001% has put between itself and the rest of the country’s citizens: (F)or the first time ever, the IRS offers a close look at the top .001 percent
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Afternoon Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Scott Santens rightly notes that even if every single person without a job was willing to accept absolutely anything, we have no reason to expect job markets to make enough work available to support a livelihood for everybody: (T)here are more unemployed people
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Daria Ukhova summarizes the OECD’s findings on the links between inequality, poverty and the economy: Inequality, economic growth, and poverty. In the new report, the OECD has tried to establish the links between these three phenomena, which so far have been mostly
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Afternoon Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – The World Bank’s latest World Development Report discusses how readily-avoidable scarcity in severely limit individual development. Melissa Kearney and Philip Levine write that poverty and a lack of social mobility tend to create a vicious cycle of despair. And James Ridgeway examines
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your Saturday reading. – Joseph Heath looks at the spread of the McMansion as an ugly example of competitive consumption which benefits nobody. And Victoria Bateman discusses the need to question the assumptions underlying laissez-faire policymaking: Science and technology are central to rising prosperity, but, as cases
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Why People Hate the Translink Police
Replace “driver” with Translink cop. I had a hard time reading all the way through this article, the one about Translink cops terrorizing bus passengers on Friday night. I also had a hard time reading about the two Translink cops found guilty of assault on Friday. I’m sure it was
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Sean McElwee examines new evidence of the deliberate choice of past U.S. governments dating back to Ronald Reagan to completely discount the policy preferences of anybody but the rich: In a new book, political scientists James Druckman and Lawrence Jacobs examine data
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Citizens for Public Justice provides a useful set of fact sheets on the importance of tax revenues in funding a civilized society. And Daphne Bramham follows up with a look at what we’ve lost from tax cuts – and the public demand for
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – LOLGOP discusses the important role unions play in ensuring widespread freedom and prosperity – and why they’re thus target number one for corporatists seeking to hoard more wealth at the top: When Scott Walker promises to bring his anti-union policies that have
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Evening Links
This and that for your Saturday reading. – Keith Banting and John Myles note that income inequality should be a major theme in Canada’s federal election. And Karl Nerenberg points out that voters will have every reason to vote for their values, rather than having any reason to buy failed
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Afternoon Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Lana Payne writes that the great Canadian revenue debate is well underway, with far more leaders willing to push for needed taxes than in recent years: There is new political space to talk corporate taxes again, to talk about raising them. Rachel Notley,
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Joseph Stiglitz laments the corporate takeover of policy-making processes, including by imposing trade rules which impede democratic decision-making: The real intent of [investor protection] provisions is to impede health, environmental, safety, and, yes, even financial regulations meant to protect America’s own economy
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – The Vancouver Sun interviews Andrew MacLeod about his new book on inequality in British Columbia. And Tanara Yelland talks to Guy Standing about the need for governments responsive to the needs of the precariat: One central demand Standing makes is for the
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