Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Robert Reich offers a reminder that the Trump administration is just the most glaring example of the utter breakdown of any pretense of meritocracy in the U.S. – Daniel Zamora interviews Niklas Olsen about the dangers of replacing the idea of government representing
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Accidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Isabel Sawhill and Christopher Pulliam discuss the gap between a U.S. populace which wants to see more progressive taxes to fund improved social programs, and a political class blocking any progress. And PressProgress offers a reminder that Canada too has relatively low
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – The Courage Coalition makes the case for Canada to pursue a Green New Deal of its own. And Hadrian Mertins-Kirkwood points out the intergenerational harm of leaving climate breakdown to continue unabated, while Alastair Sharp reports on a new paper as to the
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Roderick Benns points out the disruptive effect of the cancellation of Ontario’s basic income trial – signalling the importance of being able to plan on a stable source of income. And Jessica Chin reports on an anticipated wave of renovictions to push tenants
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Henry Bewicke charts the worst offenders when it comes to per-capita carbon pollution – with the U.S. and Canada sharing an ignominious place at the top of the list. And the Star’s editorial board points out that we shouldn’t trust politicians who claim
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Afternoon Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Tom Parkin discusses the contrived war between the Libs’ fake progressives and the Cons’ phony populists: In Canada, under Conservatives and Liberals, income polarization continues, social programs get cut, workers’ economic strength weakens, infrastructure is turned into a finance rent-seeking scheme and oil
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Linda Solomon Wood writes that Canadians need to be wary of fake news being propagated in our midst: (W)e face a continuous, deliberate, planned assault on the truth. Not just on the facts themselves, but on truth as an idea. On truth
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Oliver Milman reports on new indications that we’re far beyond any reasonable pace in trying to rein in climate change. – The Star’s editorial board discusses why lower-income Ontarians are right to feel like they’re under attack from Doug Ford’s government. And Noah
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Sam Pizzigati discusses the predictable social consequences of allowing inequality to grow: What sort of unintended consequences [result from increased inequality]? The British epidemiologists Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett have some compelling answers in their powerful new book, The Inner Level. The more
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Notwithstanding common sense, no one should be surprised by Doug Ford’s use of Section 33 to shore up his lousy law
No one should be astonished Ontario Premier Doug Ford plans to use the Canadian Constitution’s Notwithstanding Clause to wiggle out of a judge’s scathing ruling declaring his hurried and sloppy legislation to cut Toronto City Council from 47 to 25 members to be unconstitutional. Mr. Ford and a lot of
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: Monday Morning Links
Assorted content to start your week. – Robert Reich examines how a concerted attack on organized labour has pushed the vast majority of American workers into living paycheque-to-paycheque (or worse) while income and wealth have become increasingly concentrated at the top end of the spectrum: Almost 80% of Americans say
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Afternoon Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Vanmala Subramaniam reports on the move by real estate developers to push tenants out of desperately-needed housing in Canada’s largest cities to chase after short-term profits. – David Wallace Wells asks how the rapidly-materializing worst-case climate change scenarios are being met with
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: New column day
Here, on the need for Canada’s immigration policy to actually respect the human dignity of refugees and asylum seekers – contrary to both the rhetoric of the Cons and the actions of the Libs. For further reading…– The Canadian Press reported on the Cons’ anti-immigrant advertising – as well as
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Paul Krugman highlights how work requirements and other barriers to social benefits serve only to needlessly increase poverty without improving employment rates. And Patricia Cohen writes about the growing gap between soaring profits and eroding wage gains in the U.S., while Irina Ivanova
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Lisa Gennetian discusses how behavioural economics can inform the development of programs to end child poverty – including by ensuring a guaranteed income to help parents avoid needless financial stress. And Annie Lowrey makes the case for a basic income as a matter
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – David Callahan writes about the U.S.’ billionaire-dominated political system – and why nobody should be satisfied merely with having an ideologically-agreeable set of tycoons buying elections: Depending on your politics, you may either cheer or fear the influence spending of specific top
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Matt Bruening comments on the National Low Income Housing Coalition’s research showing that minimum-wage workers are unable to afford basic housing across the U.S. – Sarah Butler reports on the UK’s latest parliamentary study of precarious work. Jordan Press reports on the state
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Julian Baggini discusses the importance of talking about taxes as a force for the common good – particularly as a response to (and inoculation against) inane “tax freedom” rhetoric: (W)e need to counter the subtle ways in which we are complicit in the
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Ed Broadbent examines how Doug Ford’s platform (such as it is) would only further enrich the wealthy, while causing catastrophic results for everybody else: Just imagine waking up on Friday morning and having to hear the phrase “Premier Doug Ford” for the
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