Or, The Big Picture: Economic Strength vs Economic Insolvency: US, Canada and Uruguay compared Uruguayan national debt in 2023:$40 billion USD(52% of GDP) Canadian national debt in 2023:$1.4 trillion USDOr$1,400 billion USD US national debt in 2023:Roughly $30 trillionOr$30,000 billion(Not including corporate and household debt, which brings the total to
Continue readingTag: wealth
Things Are Good: To Increase Equality Tell People the Rich Don’t Have to Work
The rich keep getting richer because we think they work for it. The thing is, they don’t work for their wealth that separates the wealthy from everyone else. What allows the rich to keep increasing their wealth is capital gains instead of money earned though labour. Most of us have
Continue readingTHE FIFTH COLUMN: Imagining A Post Capitalist World
This is not meant to be a comprehensive analysis but an imagining of some of the features of a post capitalist world. OK lets get this over with first. The first thing we will notice is the numbers we use to measure the success of a capitalist economy, GDP, GNP
Continue readingThings Are Good: Taxing the Rich Will Save the Planet
Luxury taxes can save us from climate collapse and we should start raising taxes now. You, the reader, will not have your taxes increased and nor are you likely to be impacted by a luxury tax; however, the benefits you will gain from a luxury tax are immense. We already
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: The secret is equity, not wealth
No society has ever created wealth like the United States. And no other society does today. Its dynamic capitalism with freer markets and smaller welfare states than other industrial nations puts its economy consistently in the lead. In 2022, the U.S. accounted for a full 58 percent of the GDP
Continue readingThings Are Good: Taxing the Ultra Wealthy Can Save the Planet
A wealth tax could be a way to not only address inequality, it’s also a way to reduce the damage done to the planet by greedy billionaires. Oxfam looked into the investments that the ultra rich hold and found that their investments alone do more damage to the planet than
Continue readingThings Are Good: Only a Small Number of People Need to Change to Avert Climate Destruction
You’re not the problem! The problem is the 1%. Our global carbon footprint has risen dramatically since 1990, but only a few people are to blame for the worst of it. The wealthy have been increasing their carbon output without regard for anybody on the planet (or future generations). Reducing
Continue readingThings Are Good: Patagonia Billionaire Donates Company to Fighting Climate Change
The family who owned the Patagonia clothing company recently gave the company to a new trust which will take all the profits and dedicate it to fighting climate change. Meaning that the $3 billion company will now spend the $100 million in profits it generates annually on good things. The
Continue readingThings Are Good: Your Carbon Footprint is Fine, it’s the Wealthy that Need to Change
There’s no doubt that we can all reduce our carbon footprint, but there’s one segment of the population who drastically need to cut their carbon output: the rich. Recent headlines have made it clear that the poor are impact most by climate issues, while the rich can afford solutions the
Continue readingTHE FIFTH COLUMN: Money Cannot Buy Happiness But …
They say money cannot buy happiness but it certainly can buy food and shelter and education that can make the difference between misery and happiness, not to mention that health is directly related to economic status. Yet people still claim people are poor because they are lazy and all we
Continue readingExcited Delirium: Covid Journal, Sept 29, 2020
Are we getting more ‘false positives’ with Covid testing? Will the so-called ‘second wave’ bring about more harsh restrictions on supporting local businesses, generating more upward movement of wealth around the world?
Continue readingThings Are Good: Let’s Make Billionaires Pay
Democracy is rule by the people and it’s up to the people to ensure that this continues to be the case. Currently the growing inequality in democracies is threatening the very existence of these societies to continue, but there is a simple solution. If we ensure that billionaires give back
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Ten things to know about poverty measurement in Canada
I’ve written a blog post providing an overview of poverty measurement in Canada. Points raised in the post include the following: -One’s choice of poverty measure has a major impact on whether poverty is seen to be increasing or decreasing over time. -Canada’s federal government recently chose the make the
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Trudeau’s proposed speculation tax
I’ve written a blog post about the Trudeau Liberals’ recently-proposed speculation tax on residential real estate owned by non-resident, non-Canadians. The full blog post can be accessed here.
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Taxing Wealth to Create a More Equal Canada
This is a longer, wonkier version of a piece I wrote for National Newswatch. As part of a broader fair tax agenda, Jagmeet Singh and the federal New Democratic Party have proposed a wealth tax. This is intended to fight obscene and rising levels of economic inequality by limiting the
Continue readingTHE FIFTH COLUMN: On Inequality, Democracy and Taxing the Rich – A Modest Proposal
No doubt many raised in our capitalist society, where inequality rules and excessive incomes and wealth are seen as a right (and where even the NDP only proposes a measly 1% tax on excessive wealth), will consider this proposal to be radical but it is actually quit a modest proposal.
Continue readingThings Are Good: Fight Inequality by Taxing Corporations
Unless you earn more then $200,000 a year corporate tax cuts likely make your life worse. Even though it’s a myth, it’s long been argued that by cutting taxes for wealthy companies jobs will magically pop into existence. Indeed, this myth is so pervasive in modern capitalism that we’re increasing
Continue readingThings Are Good: Big Boxes Have Failed us; Supporting Downtowns will Save us
We’ve all heard about how downtowns have failed in smaller cities while big box stores like Walmart succeed; what we don’t really talk about is why and what’s the solution. First we need to establish that suburban big box stores are horrible for people and the economy (which is easy);
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Extreme Wealth Inequality Persists
There was little or no media coverage of the release of data on the distribution of the wealth of Canadians in 2016 last week, perhaps because there has been little or no change since the last Survey of Financial Security in 2012. The top 20% of Canadians own 67.3% of
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