A Faint Ray Of Hope?
Those of us who write blogs on a regular basis, I suspect, have a high tolerance for the uglier aspects of humanity that we regularly confront in our exploration of…
Income Inequality
Investment in society and in human beings?
A paper published in the journal International Political Science Review considered if the International Monetary Fund (IMF) was “Democracy’s Friend or Foe.” It noted that reforms required by the American…
Joseph Stiglitz On Income Inequality
Nobel Memorial Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz recently gave a powerful speech at the annual AFL-CIO convention in Los Angeles. Watching this video leaves one little choice but to feel a…
Conservatives attack on unions a threat to shared prosperity in Canada, says Broadbent Institute
By: Obert Madondo | The Canadian Progressive: The right-wing’s regressive anti-union rhetoric and U.S.-styled attacks on the labour movement threatens Canada’s prosperity, says a report recently released by the progressive…
Puncturing Right-Wing Mythology
I hope everyone will take five minutes to watch this video, originally considered too controversial for TED Talks. The speaker, entrepreneur Nick Hanauer, very deftly cuts through the mythology perpetuated…
Income disparity grows
Incomes of bottom 90 percent grew $59 in 40 years, Natasha Lennard, Salon.com “Pulitzer Prize-winner David Cay Johnston has highlighted yet more statistics that illuminate the spike in income inequality…
Canada’s tax system is in dire need of “fairness” reform: Report
By Obert Madondo | The Canadian Progressive | Jan. 26, 2013: A new study by two economists from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA), an independent left-leaning policy research…
Canada failing to close the income inequality gap
by Conference Board of Canada | Feb. 4, 2013: OTTAWA – Canada has been unable to reverse the rise in income inequality – and poverty rates – that occurred in…
Regression
The Conference Board keeps churning out reports which should embarrass the Harper government. The Board’s latest report ranks Canada 7th out of 17 developed countries in terms of quality of…
Canada’s richest 1% grabbed 10.6% of all income, rich-poor gap widened: StatsCan
by Obert Madondo | The Canadian Progressive, Jan. 28, 2013: Remember Occupy, Canada? A new Statistics Canada analysis of income trends among Canadian taxfilers from 1982 to 2010, released today,…
A road to inevitable unrest
Libs’ ‘Job Plan’ not enough to tackle poverty, Trish Garner, The Province, Dec 2012 “…B.C. has the largest gap between the rich and the poor, and the highest poverty rate…
A society doomed by greed
Is the future healthy when one company’s CEO draws a larger salary between breakfast and lunch, on one day, than a loyal 20 year employee earns in a year? Well,…
Business genius talks
Warren Buffett, the world's third richest man, appeared on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart along with Carol Loomis, senior editor-at-large for Fortune and author of Tap Dancing to Work.…
Trends
A Failed Experiment, Nicholas D. Kristof, New York Times, Nov 21/12 "Since the 1950s, the top federal income tax rate has fallen from 90 percent or more to 35 percent.…
The real Welfare Queen
Walmart: America's real 'Welfare Queen', Paddy Ryan, Daily Kos, October 2012 " As many as 80 percent of workers in Wal-Mart stores use food stamps."Inequality, exhibit A: Walmart and the…
Take from the poor, give to the rich
Further to my comments about homeowners subsidizing industrial power, here is an extract from the blog of Vancouver lawyer Jim Quail, Site C and the Kitimat LNG Export Terminal: Christy…
Even Forbes Gets It. Why Can’t Steve Harper?
Forbes, yes that Forbes, the business magazine understands the damage that income inequality is exacting on America’s economy. New research indicates that growing income inequality isn’t just unpleasant; it is…
Words to ponder
“In any society where wealth and income concentrate overwhelmingly at the top, the affluent will almost always come to sneer at public services and the men and women who provide…