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Barack Obama is right — wealth inequality is a threat to capitalism
Jan 25, 2012
Income inequality in the United States now stands at its highest rate since the Great Depression… this fact usually is cast as a social justice issue, which is why too many conservatives snidely dismiss it. In fact, free market capitalists are the ones who should be most concerned about inequality. A mass market consumer economy cannot function when earners cluster at the poles: Poor people buy very little, and wealthy people spend only a small fraction of their income on retail goods and services.
Tags: economy, ideology, standard of living
Posted in Equality Debates | No Comments »
The Tories’ tough-on-crime agenda is intellectually bankrupt
Oct 19, 2011
The Canadian government’s web site points visitors to several Justice Department studies on mandatory minimum sentences for drug crimes. None strongly support the idea that Bill C-10 will reduce drug use or improve public safety. “The evidence points the other way… the bill represents… a complete divorce between policy-making that affects millions of people, and real-life research and experiences…
Tags: budget, corrections, crime prevention, ideology, rights
Posted in Child & Family Debates | No Comments »
Bad science: Global-warming deniers are a liability to the conservative cause
July 15, 2010
… too many of us treat science as subjective — something we customize to reduce cognitive dissonance between what we think and how we live. In the case of global warming, this dissonance is especially traumatic for many conservatives, because they have based their whole worldview on the idea that unfettered capitalism — and the asphalt-paved, gas-guzzling consumer culture it has spawned — is synonymous with both personal fulfillment and human advancement. The global-warming hypothesis challenges that fundamental dogma, perhaps fatally.
Tags: economy, globalization, ideology
Posted in Education Debates | 1 Comment »
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