Posts Tagged ‘globalization’
Stephen Harper’s stealth EI changes are a worry.
May 18 2012
The Harper cabinet intends to spring a new set of “stealth” rules on us by way of regulation, months from now, after it has amended the Employment Insurance Act to strip away existing rights to refuse lousy jobs… But hurrying skilled people into menial jobs out of some misplaced sense that any job will do is a waste of resources. They should have the time to canvass for jobs that make productive use of their know-how. The current rules reflect that reality.
Tags: economy, globalization, ideology, rights, standard of living
Posted in Employment Policy Context | No Comments »
Shrugging off Canada’s competitiveness shortfall
May. 18, 2012
There is very little that can be done about Canada’s gaping competitiveness shortfall. Almost three-quarters of the gap is due to the soaring loonie, which is out of our control… Could Canadian workers be the problem? Again, the answer is no. Canada has among the highest rate of postsecondary education graduates in the world, performs well above average (and the United States) in international testing, and has a superior (and more rapidly improving) labour quality than the United States… during periods of high commodity prices, resource-intensive countries like Canada shed competitiveness. But this is paired with no obvious diminishment to well-being,..
Tags: economy, globalization, standard of living
Posted in Employment Delivery System | No Comments »
The Structural Revolution
May 7, 2012
There are several overlapping structural problems. First, there are those surrounding globalization and technological change. Hyperefficient globalized companies need fewer workers. As a result, unemployment rises, superstar salaries surge while lower-skilled wages stagnate, the middle gets hollowed out and inequality grows… The current model, in which we try to compensate for structural economic weakness with tax cuts and an unsustainable welfare state, simply cannot last. The old model is broken… Structuralists face a tension: How much should you reduce the pain the unemployed are feeling now, and how much should you devote your resources to long-term reform?
Tags: economy, globalization, ideology, standard of living, tax
Posted in Employment Debates | No Comments »
Canada must actively recruit the best and brightest immigrants
May. 05, 2012
Ottawa must do more to ensure newcomers can convert their foreign credentials and job experience. It must address discrimination in the labour market, and gate-keeping by professional associations. But first and foremost, Canada needs to change its mentality around immigration. It should be designed as much around whom Canada wants, as who wants Canada… Canada must learn to compete. Educated professionals, entrepreneurs, leaders, will not waste their most productive years trying just to get through the door.
Tags: economy, globalization, ideology, immigration, multiculturalism, standard of living
Posted in Inclusion Policy Context | No Comments »
Paying doctors and wait times: How does Canada compare?
May 02 2012
A recent paper put out by the OECD suggests that in 2004 Canadian GPs were paid about the same in PPP dollars as doctors in Switzerland and Austria, but less than those in the U.S., U.K. and Germany. Using the comparison to average wages, however, Canadian GPs are among the highest paid in the OECD, just below the United States (3.2 times the average wage versus 3.4 in the U.S.)… Simply spending more doesn’t seem to solve the wait time problem, but targeted spending on agreed upon targets that increases productivity appears to deliver better results than across-the-board increases to any part of the health-care system.
Tags: budget, globalization, Health, ideology, standard of living
Posted in Health Delivery System | No Comments »
Greed loses its glamour, even on Wall Street
Apr 24 2012
… a few isolated voices — left-wing economists, academics, social activists, labour organizers, church leaders and corporate renegades — warned that Canada was becoming a highly inequitable nation… The volume went up a couple of notches last fall when thousands of young people took to the streets chanting: “We are the 99 per cent.” … Last week brought two developments that couldn’t be shrugged off or attributed to left-wing agitation. The first was a shareholders’ revolt at one of Wall Street’s biggest banks… “This is a shot across the bow of every corporate boardroom in America,”
Tags: economy, globalization, ideology, participation, rights, standard of living
Posted in Employment Debates | No Comments »
What is Dutch Disease, and How To Cure It
April 16, 2012
We need more industries that add value to our resources (rather than exporting them in raw form); that generate more high‑income, high‑quality jobs; that embody technology and innovation; and that contribute to greater suc‑cess in world markets. These policies, and the fiscal tools that could fund them, formed part of the 2012 Alternative Federal Budget (published in March by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives).
Tags: budget, economy, globalization, ideology, standard of living, tax
Posted in Employment Debates | No Comments »
Harper and McGuinty should look to Sir John A. on debt
April 12, 2012
… the temptation when public finances are bad is to think small. Let’s cut a little here, trim back our vision there, and eventually things will be okay. But Confederation provides a stirring example of why thinking big is exactly what we need to do in the face of public debt… Now is not the time for a new National Policy, per se. .. But our current financial challenges should be viewed as an opportunity to think that big.
Tags: budget, economy, globalization
Posted in Employment History | No Comments »
Tax cuts would hold aging workers
April 12, 2012
At a time of continued concern about the federal deficit, it may seem strange to suggest that the way to deal with rising retirement costs and looming labour shortages in Canada is for the federal government to collect less tax from workers. But unless we undertake a major overhaul of Canada’s progressive income tax system to bring tax policy more in line with public policy, a growing number of older Canadians are going to leave the workforce, taking their skills with them and reducing their ability to save for a more secure retirement in their later years.
Tags: economy, globalization, pensions, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Employment Debates | No Comments »
North America is out of touch with ‘Ideas Economy’
March 14, 2012
Every increase in value added in Canada will come from the Ideas Economy, and if you’re going to have an educational system that’s suited to that and prepares people, you have to train original thinkers, people who are willing to challenge authority, not follow hierarchy or teach to the test. Memorization, harmonization, standardization; these make an easier job for educational bureaucrats and teachers, but what we need to do is teach our children, and teach ourselves throughout our careers, to keep re-learning how to learn.
Tags: economy, globalization, ideology, participation, standard of living, youth
Posted in Education Debates | No Comments »
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