Posts Tagged ‘globalization’
‘China Syndrome’ rears head in coming U.S. election
Feb. 02, 2012
The truth is we are no longer living in “one nation under God” – we are living in one world under God. Globalization is working – the world over all is getting richer. But a lot of the costs of that transition are being borne by specific groups of workers in the developed West… The irony today is that the real internationalists are no longer the bleeding-heart liberals, they are the cutthroat titans of capital… Smart policy, however, can make a big difference… Americans might want to study how Germany has turned the China Syndrome to the benefit of both its chief executives and its blue-collar workers.
Tags: economy, globalization, standard of living
Posted in Employment Policy Context | No Comments »
Bow Down Canadians, Corporations Are King
Jan. 30, 2012
What kind of society beggars those of its citizens who worked all their lives and now want to retire in dignity while privileging the rich and super-rich by slashing their income taxes and allowing them to transfer wealth to their children untouched? … Since the mid-1980s, and accelerating with the signing of the Canada-U.S. “free trade” deal, the guiding principle of neo-liberalism seems to have been “Ask not what your economy can do for you, ask what you can do for your economy.” … The economy is now defined as the narrow interests of global corporations.
Tags: budget, economy, featured, globalization, ideology, privatization, standard of living, tax
Posted in Employment Debates | No Comments »
The Liberals need a new leader: What about Bob?
Jan. 28, 2012
Mr. Rae is one of the people “driving this vision” of the party as an engaged, open network that reaches out across all kinds of channels to build community and draw young people into a real discussion about ideas. “The party needs a leader who understands this generation, their culture, their modus operandi… as a self-defined “recovering politician,” he developed a reputation for taking on difficult issues: the Air India bombing, the restructuring of the Red Cross, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the crisis at Burnt Church and nation-building in the Forum of Federations.
Tags: economy, globalization, ideology, multiculturalism, Native, participation, standard of living, youth
Posted in Governance History | No Comments »
Policy, not technology is killing Canadian manufacturing
Jan. 24, 2012
… technology can explain some of the job loss, but not most of it. It certainly cannot explain the disproportionate carnage in Canadian manufacturing… The loss of 500,000 manufacturing jobs in Canada over the last decade was far more dramatic than most jurisdictions. Many factors contributed to this miserable record… [but] Caterpillar’s demand to cut Canadian wages in half has nothing to do with technology. It reflects power: a global company’s ability to isolate and threaten workers, one factory at a time. And it reflects policy: an active decision by governments (like Canada’s) to let them do it.
Tags: economy, globalization, ideology, rights, standard of living
Posted in Employment Policy Context | No Comments »
Where Did All the Workers Go? 60 Years of Economic Change in 1 Graph
Jan 26 2012
The big story about American jobs in the post-war period is this: The manufacturing/agriculture economy shrunk from 33% to 12%, and the services economy grew from 24% to 50%… as manufacturing and agriculture got more efficient, they required fewer American workers, while the services industry (which had slower efficiency gains since it has more person-to-person work) required more employees to keep up with the rising demand for consulting, nurses, teachers, computer technicians… Manufacturing jobs have declined as a share of the economy. But manufacturing hasn’t declined as an industry. It’s grown. By a lot.
Tags: economy, globalization
Posted in Employment Delivery System | No Comments »
Squeezing the middle
Jan. 23, 2012
Most Canadians are guaranteed nothing by our lean, mean, globalized economy. Even university-educated specialists (like accountants or programmers) have been squeezed by new technology, and by trade rules which allow corporations to outsource any job to the lowest global bidder… About the only structural protections most Canadians have going for them are public programs (like health care, education and pensions), and unions (to help equalize their power with employers). Yet these are under attack, too, from the same governments that allow (even glorify) the social irresponsibility of corporations. Governments are cutting the social wage as employers try to slash money wages.
Tags: economy, globalization, ideology, rights, standard of living
Posted in Employment Debates | No Comments »
Stephen Harper and the Big Oil Party of Canada
16 Jan. 2012
Canadian governments pre-Harper actually balanced their promotion of corporate interests… That practice, where no budget was ever presented to Parliament before being vetted by the most powerful CEOs in the country, effectively ended when Stephen Harper became prime minister… It might have something to do with the fact that they can’t buy favours anymore, with the new election financing rules. But actually, it goes back 20 years to the formation of the Reform Party… Not only was Alberta the most “free market” province of all, it was the one that resisted most vigorously the social democratic state that evolved in the 1960s.
Tags: economy, globalization, ideology
Posted in Governance History | 1 Comment »
Five ways to boost Canada’s economy
Jan. 01, 2012
Keep Canada’s future retirees from sliding into poverty… Six leading Canadian pension experts… recently urged an expansion of the CPP… Build critical infrastructure… From crumbling bridges and choked roads to inadequate public transit, the needs outstrip available funds… Deregulate the relics of the pre-Internet economy… Low-cost competitive telecom services are a must-have… Unleash the innovation potential of Canadian companies… Canada spends 1 per cent of GDP on business R&D, compared to 1.6 per cent among wealthy countries
Tags: budget, globalization, ideology, pensions, standard of living
Posted in Employment Debates | No Comments »
There’s no way out but a new politics of fairness
Jan. 01, 2012
… this is an epochal restructuring of the global economy, the first downturn in which the developing world is gaining power, wealth and jobs at the expense of the developed… The age is crying out for a different kind of politics, one that rallies people around the idea of fighting the great fear together… Recessions at first divide, but as they persist and deepen, even the rich discover that their own prosperity will be threatened… A politics of fairness is also a politics of growth. Fair societies are more dynamic and more innovative.
Tags: economy, featured, globalization, participation, standard of living, tax
Posted in Equality Debates | No Comments »
Tech-Savvy Classrooms to Personalize Learning
Dec. 26, 2011
BYOD or “bring your own device” policies, which started a few years back as cost-saving measures in the workplace, are now being considered in school districts worldwide… why ignore this obvious resource? Since young people have taken so readily to mobile technology, it makes sense to teach them how they can use that tool for mobile learning. BYOD policies could also help realize “personalized instruction”… Schools will thrive under a BYOD policy, but only if the change is implemented as part of a well-crafted strategy.
Tags: globalization, standard of living, youth
Posted in Education Debates | No Comments »
Recent Posts