Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Robert Reich discusses the right’s utter lack of – and aversion to – empathy as either a personal or political value. Bob Norman reports on a particularly galling example of that phenomenon, as Fort Lauderdale has begun arresting people for feeding the homeless.
Continue readingTag: Privatization
THE FIFTH COLUMN: Started Enjoying Our New Community Mail Box Last Week
I know as a progressive I am supposed to oppose the transition to community mailboxes (CMBs) for all urban and suburban residents but logic prevents me from doing so. Indeed this only seems to have become an issue when it was announced that downtown urban areas would join suburban areas
Continue readingTHE FIFTH COLUMN: Started Enjoying Our New Community Mail Box Last Week
I know as a progressive I am supposed to oppose the transition to community mailboxes (CMBs) for all urban and suburban residents but logic prevents me from doing so. Indeed this only seems to have become an issue when it was announced that downtown urban areas would join suburban areas
Continue readingTHE FIFTH COLUMN: Started Enjoying Our New Community Mail Box Last Week
I know as a progressive I am supposed to oppose the transition to community mailboxes (CMBs) for all urban and suburban residents but logic prevents me from doing so. Indeed this only seems to have become an issue when it was announced that downtown ur…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
This and that for your weekend reading. – Geoff Stiles writes that instead of providing massive subsidies to dirty energy industries which don’t need them (and which will only have more incentive to cause environmental damage as a result), we should be investing in a sustainable renewable energy plan: (W)hereas
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Michael Rozworski observes that the NDP’s $15 per day national child care plan has irritated all the right people – while still leaving ample room for improvement in the long run once the first pieces are in place. And PressProgress notes that the
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Michal Rozworski responds to idealized views of Canadian equality with the reality that we fall well short of the Scandinavian model: Canada appears on many accounts much closer to the US than Sweden, the stand-in for a more robust social democratic and
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Happy Thanksgiving! Would the Tories praising our health care system please stop trying to privatize it!
Edmonton’s Misericordia Hospital waaay back in the day. Below: The modern Mis, the one in Edmonton’s west end that after 45 years is falling apart. Alberta Health Minister Stephen Mandel. Happy Thanksgiving! With a case of a “potential contagious illness” in an unidentified Edmonton hospital last night, I guess we
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On abuses of power
Shorter Ontario Libs: It turns out that the public sees privatizing power as only slightly more desirable than the plague. But to ensure a swift transition of profits toward the private sector, we’re fully prepared to falsely claim those are our only two options.
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Remember where you heard it first: privatizing the Alberta government air fleet in haste was a lousy business decision
A flight steward welcomes well-connected passengers aboard a chartered government of Alberta flight sometime in the near future. But don’t worry about it. You’ll never know if Alberta’s privatized air services are not exactly as illustrated because there will be no accountability. Below: Premier Jim Prentice, the business guru who
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Aaron Wherry reviews what the last week has told us about the functioning (or absence thereof) of our House of Commons – and points out that the most important problem is one which hasn’t yet surfaced in headlines or memes: (T)he most important
Continue readingDefending Public Healthcare: For-profit LTC beds attract fewer applicants than not-for-profit beds
Government data suggests for-profit long-term care beds are less desired by the public than not-for-profit beds. There are long wait lists for a beds in long-term care (LTC) facilities. (This is driven by the government’s decision to add only a few new LTC beds despite the rapid growth in
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Privatization of Alberta’s air fleet will cost citizens money and change nothing
A typical government airplane explained. The politics and financing are more complicated. Below: Jim Prentice. Privatization of the Alberta government’s four-plane air fleet, announced this morning by unelected Premier Jim Prentice at his first official news conference, makes plenty of political sense, but will end up costing citizens more and
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
This and that for your weekend reading. – James Meek observes that decades of privatization in the UK have eliminated public control over housing and other essential services – and that privatization takes far more forms than we’re accustomed to taking into consideration. And Rick Salutin offers his take on
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – The Broadbent Institute studies wealth inequality in Canada, and finds not only that the vast majority of Canada’s capital resources remain concentrated in very few hands but that the disparity continues to grow: The new Statistics Canada data show a deeply unequal
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: New column day
Here, on how the corporate sector is taking advantage of Brad Wall, Michael Fougere and their respective administrations at the expense of citizens who both fund and rely on public services. For further reading…– Murray Mandryk and the Leader-Post editorial board each weighed in recently on the latest developments from
Continue readingDefending Public Healthcare: Sharp decline in for-profit health insurance efficiency costs employers
A new study from the Canadian Medical Association Journal shows sharply increasing inefficiency in the Canadian for-profit health care insurance industry. The study indicates that less and less of the premiums in employer health insurance plans are paid out in benefits by the for-profit insurance industry. Since 1991, the amount paid
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Paul Buchheit highlights how inequality continues to explode in the U.S. by comparing the relatively small amounts of money spent on even universal federal programs to the massive gifts handed to the wealthy. Christian Weller and Jackie Odum offer a U.S. economic
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
Assorted content for your Sunday reading. – James Meek writes about the UK’s privatization scam, and how it’s resulted in citizens paying far more for the basic services which are better provided by a government which actually has the public interest within its mandate: Privatisation failed to demonstrate the case
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – David Leonhardt offers a revealing look at the relative priorities of wealthier and poorer regions of the U.S. And Patricia Cohen discusses the disproportionate effect of inequality and poverty on women: It’s at the lowest income levels that the burden on women stands
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