I’m currently reading a book called Weapons of Math Destruction, inside Cathy O’Neil details how ‘Big Data’ (via the use of opaque algorithms) is increasing inequality and threatening democracy in the industrialized world. About half-way done and the sad word of the day that I’ve learned from the book
Continue readingTag: The Precariat
Politics and its Discontents: Pondering The Precariat
California, as you have likely heard, is raising its minimum wage to $15 by 2022. Although the efficacy of the increase is being hotly contested, with some claiming it will lead to substantial job loss and others citing studies that show just the oppos…
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Where Is Help To Be Found?
Over the past several weeks I have been reading a number of letters to the editor from ‘concerned’ citizens about the arrival of Syrian refugees in Canada. Some offer a racist perspective thinly disguised as concern for our fellow Canadians (Instead of…
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: It’s About Labour, Not Captial
http://www.amazon.co.uk/ We’ve been told that this election is about growing the economy. But all of the parties are still focused on capital, not labour. Murray Dobbins
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: More On The Precariat
In yesterday’s post, I wrote about Angel Reyes, the 61-year-old member of the precariat terminated from his five-year ‘temp’ job at a recycling company one week after speaking to The Star about his inability to secure a full-time designation for the work he was doing, which meant that he was
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Punishment For A Member Of The Precariat Who Spoke Out
Human nature is a funny thing, especially in its ability to compartmentalize things. For example, I suspect that the vast majority of us are able to witness the plight of suffering around the world with a certain dispassion; images from halfway across the world of disaster, for example, we are
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: A Precarious Existence
The Toronto Star last week concluded an excellent series on the plight of the precariously employed. If you haven’t read it, I strongly recommend it for the insights and possible solutions offered into what is becoming far too common an employment situation for far too many: irregular hours, absence of
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: The Life And Death Of Worker Resistance
When it comes to jobs, we live in very precarious times, with fewer and fewer people securing full-time work with benefits. Paradoxically, union membership continues to decline, while right-wing propaganda about the evils of such associations flourishes. As a society, we seem to have lost the will to fight for
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Can Stephen Harper Buy Your Conscience?
Stephen Harper offers so much to so few – tax cuts, increased Tax-Free Savings Accounts, income-splitting, to name but a few of his ‘gifts.’ His disingenuous rhetoric notwithstanding, however, Harper is really offering all kinds of bribes inducements for you to think only of yourself, and to ignore the niggling
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Spoof, Or Not A Spoof?
Were it not for the telltale insignia on the bottom-right of the screen, it might be hard to tell. High School Student, Teacher Applying For Same Summer Waitressing Job Recommend this Post
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: If This Isn’t An Indication Of Moral Bankruptcy And Depravity
…please tell me the term you would use. It seems that provinces are alarmed by the fact that millennials and the precariat are not so keen to throw away their money on lotteries. The two national lottery products (Lotto 6-49 and Lotto Max) are experiencing historic levels of decline for
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: The Precariat – Where we are going to…
Finding a way out of the the seemingly permanent global economic crisis is going to require looking at the factors that got us there. Noam Chomsky opines that the downfall really started in the 1970′s and has been on an ever increasing spiral of ruin ever since. One of
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