Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Jim Pugh argues that we should take a serious look at a basic income, while Livia Gershon examines how even a small amount of guaranteed income has made an immense difference in the lives of families in one North Carolina town. And Walter
Continue readingTag: Poverty
Politics and its Discontents: The Quiet Eloquence Of Harry Smith
His is a quiet eloquence that speaks far louder than all the braying our political ‘leaders’ engage in with abandon. Harry Smith, about whom I previously posted, is a man who has seen much during his long life. He has seen the worst that happens when society treats the majority
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Vancouver’s Co-Working Co-op Stimulates Worker Empowerment
Tuesday night in the back room of The Tipper bar/bistro/restaurant on Kingsway at Victoria we are holding our Inception Meeting for a new kind of co-working space in Vancouver, one structured as a co-op. You can read about the project in The Georgia Straight piece last week, and on the
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Homelessness in Canada’s North
Over at the blog of Northern Public Affairs, I’ve written a post titled “Ten Things to Know About Homelessness in Canada’s North.” Topics covered in the post include the high cost of construction in many parts of the North, the relatively high costs of operating housing in the North, and
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Dennis Howlett reminds us that we can raise enough money to strengthen our social safety net merely by ensuring that a relatively small group of privileged people pays its fair share. And Seth Stephens-Davidowitz examines the glaring nepotism which festers in the absence
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: What’s Wrong with Canada? We’re Not Denmark-ish
And I don’t mean we need to become Denmark, but we need to have the dialogue about why they can do what they do and we choose not to. When Canadians are surveyed, a very large majority of us support these public goods. But those desires get subsumed with corporate,
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Emily Badger discusses Robert Putnam’s work on the many facets of increasing inequality in the U.S.: For the past three years, Putnam has been nursing an outlandish ambition. He wants inequality of opportunity for kids to be the central issue in the 2016
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Carol Graham discusses the high financial and personal costs of poverty: Reported stress levels are higher on average in the U.S. than in Latin America. Importantly, the gap between the levels of the rich and poor is also much greater, with the
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Bryce Covert weighs in on the IMF’s latest study showing a connection between stronger trade unions and greater income equality: While it can be hard to say for sure whether the decline in unionization is a direct cause of growing income inequality, they
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Danyaal Raza highlights how Canadians can treat an election year as an opportunity to discuss the a focus on social health with candidates and peers alike: Health providers are increasingly recognizing that while a robust health care system is an important part of
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Nicholas Kristof discusses how U.S. workers have suffered as a result of declining union strength. And Barry Critchley writes that Canada’s average expected retirement age has crept over 65 – with that change coming out of necessity rather than worker choice. – Alex
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Garfield Mahood and Brian Iler discuss the challenge facing charities as compared to the special treatment of businesses in trying to advocate as to public policy: (T)he solutions to many of society’s problems do not need more research and the criticism-free public education
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Mariana Mazzucato argues that we need to change our conversation and our policy choices on public investment in Canada’s economy: As in many other countries, the conversation about government and public investment in Canada has for decades distorted and underplayed the role
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Cameron Dearlove laments the fact that Canada is failing to recognize and replicate other countries’ successes in using the social determinants of health to shape public policy: Today we know that social and financial inequities — particularly the experience of poverty — has
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Scott Santens links the themes of health and equality by suggesting that we treat a basic income as a needed vaccine against poverty and all its ill effects. – Erika Eichelberger and Dave Gilson highlight how U.S. corporations are siphoning money offshore
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Joe Gunn reminds us that ignoring the issue of poverty won’t make it go away. And Sara Mojtehedzadeh reports on a national campaign demanding a plan to deal with poverty at the federal level. – Roderick Benns discusses the prospect of a
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Ever Wonder How the 1% Talks to Each Other? Shhh. Listen!
It’s not a secret language, it’s a style, an effervescence. A whimsicality. It’s like how people stand when they’re shopping in Tiffany’s. You feel me? Read on about a new luxury property on Georgia in downtown Vancouver [emphasis is mine]: The Penthouse Upstairs, in the 48th-floor penthouse, it is a
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Responsibility for Housing
On Monday I gave a guest presentation to Craig Jones‘ graduate seminar class in Carleton University’s School of Social Work. My presentation sought to answer two questions: 1. Why should government play a role in creating affordable housing? 2. Which level of government is responsible? With those questions as a
Continue readingMontreal Simon: Stephen Harper and the Great War on the Economy (continued)
Yesterday I wrote a post suggesting that the opposition forget about Stephen Harper's Great War on Terror, because it's just a distraction.And that they should concentrate instead on his Great War on the Economy, and the tumbling loonie.Because that one is a real threat to many Canadians, and it has
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Elizabeth Stoker Bruening discusses the effect of poverty at the family level, particularly when coupled with policies designed to force workers to chase jobs far away from home and family: If you want to see the right-wing denuded of its usual bluster
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