Faisal and Azeem, getting it done! Platitudes and paternalism aside, the 21st century actually does belong to the young. And not that they’re OUR future, like an extension of us, but that we are stewarding the future for them. And we’re doing a pretty horrible job of it. But since
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A Puff of Absurdity: Munk Debates: Are Men Obsolete?
While I was waiting for the newest Munk Debate to show up on the site, I watched an old one. An excellent debate between Tony Blair and Christopher Hitchens on, of course, religion. There’s little I enjoy more than watching really intelligent thinkers go at each other with carefully and
Continue readingThings Are Good: Economists: Reduce Time Spent Working
Since roughly the end of the 70s productivity at workplaces has increased yet wages have stagnated (except for the top 1%) meaning that we are relatively worse off than before. All one has to do is look at the graph below to get the basic idea of this global issue.
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: The deeper reasons for the “war on drugs”
There is a deeper reason for the war on drugs, which is the central reason for the policy, even outweighing profits from private prisons and seizure of property by law enforcement officers, both of which no doubt are also significant and strong motivations for keeping the “war on drugs” going.
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Untangling the Temporary Foreign Worker Knot
Banks as predators? Surely, no! Temporary foreign workers have become a lightning-rod topic in Canadian labour in recent months with the high-profile news of the Royal Bank of Canada replacing staff with TFWs. But the issue is not about RBC, which is merely the latest flashpoint. The temporary foreign worker
Continue readingknitnut.net: The Fountain of Youth contains….water?
GC and I marched in the Pride parade last weekend! First time for both of us. I was working there and GC volunteered to pitch in. It was a terrific event for people-watching. The people lining the streets to watch the parade were, I think, more entertaining than your average
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Labour Day 2013: Say Hello to the Pavement!
Workers in Canada and around the world have been under assault for decades, but most of our recent tactics to stop the bleeding have been ineffective. Are we lazy, complacent, overworked, obedient, compliant, subdued, afraid, docile, or fully tamed and intimidated by the one per cent? If we don’t get
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: The Hudson’s Bay Retail Sweatshop
Sweatshops ‘R Us! Ripping off employees by paying them less than a living wage [the Metro Vancouver 2013 living wage is $19,64], all to pad shareholder profits, is the glory of exploitative capitalism! Long live capitalism! Oh wait, what happens when your own employees can’t afford to shop at your
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: The Occupy Movement Vs. Maquiladoras
Workplace justice: a pipe dream, or something to build solidarity to fight for? I had the distinct, and creepy, pleasure of sitting in front of a group of fellows yesterday in, ironically, the cheap seats at the Seattle Mariners game. They were discussing business. One fellow, who of course may
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: On a Four-Hour Workday
Stephen Elliott-Buckley echoes Bertrand Russell‘s idea of the 4-hour workday. Russell in brief: Above all, there will be happiness and joy of life, instead of frayed nerves, weariness, and dyspepsia. The work exacted will be enough to make leisure delightful, but not enough to produce exhaustion. Since men [and women]
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Are You Just Too Tired? We’ve Known Why for Decades
You actually do deserve a break today. What ails us? A large proportion of the total produce goes to a small minority of the population, many of whom do no work at all. Owing to the absence of any central control over production, we produce hosts of things that are
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: IKEA’s (Sad) Spin Reply to My Boycott Letter
Solidarity means an attack on one is an offense to all! So if you have sent your letter to IKEA explaining why you are boycotting them for locking out their Richmond workers for 10 weeks, you may have received this precious reply from the corporation, below. I will re-spin it
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: It’s 12 O’Clock, Have You Boycotted IKEA Yet Today?
$3.85 billion in profit is just not enough. Union busting and global greed now! Gratitude, then and now. It used to include a t-shirt and more, for all employees around the world. Now, union busting. The best part of the Teamster Local 213 rally in Richmond on Saturday was the
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: What Young People Are Teaching Us About Empathy
Click the chart to see more inspiring charts! Descending/increasing lines indicate less/more concern among different generations of high school graduates for the various ideas. I have so much hope for the future. Sometimes I get bogged down by negativity, but that’s usually just circumstantial. It passes. Much of my hope
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Walmart and McDonald’s Pretend They’re Great Employers!
We need to work harder to ensure everyone earns a living wage! I love when gross corporations try to spin reality to defend against criticisms. For instance: Walmart used to take out dead peasant life insurance on its employees, putting itself in a conflict of interest: do their best to
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Ikea’s Union-Busting Lockout in Richmond, BC Reaches Two Months
Is Walmart Ikea’s labour relations mentor? Ikea, that family-friendly darling of home decor and Swedish innocence is trying to break its union, Teamsters Local 213. They have locked out their Richmond, BC workers for two months now, while deciding to bargain in reverse: Start with a pathetic offer, then as
Continue readingThings Are Good: Get Help Choosing an Ethical Career
80,000 Hours is a student run organization at Oxford University that helps people find a job or career in something that makes the world better. This is great for so many obvious reasons – but the one I love the most is that it shows how philosophy can be applied
Continue readingThings Are Good: A Sense of Purpose is More Important Than Money for Workplaces
In this TED Talk Dan Ariely presents his research into what motivates people to do work and how they feel about their workplace. The findings are interesting because it’s not necessarily what people do but the reactions to what has been done that provides motivation.
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Inconvenient Truths for White Men
Men, especially white men, sleep too easily at night while women earn 70 per cent of what we do. Secretly, I think we’d prefer to not have to talk about this much. Sure, March 8 and December 6 are days we set aside for reflecting on this, but, most likely,
Continue readingknitnut.net: A day in the life
This is what my day looks like so far: 9:00-12:00 – all-staff meeting at work to do a SWOT analysis of the organization (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) 2:00-3:30 – Conference Call 3:30 – meeting with funder 5:30-6:30 – House of Commons to watch Bill C-279 being debated. That’s the
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