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Eulogy becomes rallying cry for the left
Tuesday, August 30th, 2011
Aug 29 2011
The economic reality is that we get richer every year as a country; our GDP has grown massively since 1937. Yet, as Lewis noted, we now have “an economy that excludes so many from our collective wealth.” It’s not that we don’t have enough collective wealth — our cup overfloweth — it’s that we’ve accepted a rigid and illogical ideology, preached by conservatives, that teaches us we can no longer afford what we plainly managed to afford when we had less money.
Tags: featured, ideology, participation
Posted in Equality Debates | No Comments »
The trouble with the TFSA
Monday, May 2nd, 2011
Apr 30 2011
While corporate tax cuts have been fiercely attacked in recent weeks as giveaways to big business, the Conservatives have managed to avoid controversy over another costly election promise that seems poised to deliver an even bigger windfall to the Bay Street crowd. The promise involves Tax Free Savings Accounts (TFSA)… the program does little for moderate earners, and is really about eliminating taxes on capital gains and other income from capital – something the financial community has long lobbied for but been unable to achieve.
Tags: budget, economy, ideology, standard of living, tax
Posted in Child & Family Debates | No Comments »
Luxury for the rich but ‘realism’ for the rest of us
Monday, March 21st, 2011
Mar 21 2011
As deficits pile up, we are soon to be inundated with the message that we are living beyond our means and must learn to do with less. Certainly, our small wealthy super-elite seems determined to ensure that nothing gets in the way of its right to fully indulge its greed, and that the burden of deficit-reduction is imposed on others. A conflict appears to be looming therefore between Canada’s elite, typified perhaps by Kevin O’Leary, and the aspirations of millions of Canadians who don’t want to see programs they value — health care, education, pensions — sacrificed to deficit reduction.
Tags: economy, ideology, privatization, standard of living, tax
Posted in Equality Debates | No Comments »
The hedge fund manager and the nurse
Tuesday, March 8th, 2011
Mar 07 2011
… the Harper government introduced legislation that effectively strips women in the public service of pay equity coverage. On this rather sombre International Women’s Day, it’s worth reminding ourselves that the gigantic incomes of the financial elite and the low incomes of nurses have little to do with merit — or even the workings of a “free market” — and a lot to do with who gets to make the rules.
Tags: economy, ideology, standard of living, tax, women
Posted in Equality Debates | No Comments »
Vindication for G20 protesters
Tuesday, December 14th, 2010
Dec 14 2010
The war measures powers only compounded the problem created by the massive police presence assembled by the federal government… with almost 20,000 police to monitor some 10,000 demonstrators, there were two “guardians of the peace” for every unarmed demonstrator. All this not only alerts us to the dangers of creeping authoritarianism, but amounts to a vindication of the demonstrators, who were often dismissed as troublemakers. On the contrary, we need more these sorts of citizens, who take seriously the notion that dissent is essential to freedom…
Tags: crime prevention, ideology, participation, rights
Posted in Governance Delivery System | No Comments »
Public better than private on pensions
Tuesday, November 30th, 2010
Nov 30 2010
The notion that we can’t afford strong public programs — that we’re better off buying services or benefits on our own — is one of the central falsehoods blocking meaningful progress toward improving Canadian well-being… management costs at Canadian mutual funds eat up nearly 2 per cent of assets — the highest rate in 20 countries surveyed. By comparison, CPP management costs were just 0.17 per cent last year. This enables the CPP to pay out more in pension benefits.
Tags: economy, ideology, pensions, standard of living
Posted in Social Security Debates | No Comments »
Where are the champions of equality?
Tuesday, November 16th, 2010
Nov 16 2010
There may be more appetite for wealth redistribution than we think. A fascinating new study… surveyed more than 5,000 Americans to determine the level of inequality they favour… fully 92 per cent of these randomly selected Americans chose the Swedish wealth distribution! Imagine if there was some inspired political leadership that didn’t just fold its tent when confronted by the army of privilege, but instead waged a fierce campaign championing the popular yearning for greater equality.
Tags: economy, ideology, participation, standard of living
Posted in Equality Debates | No Comments »
Tax-exempt fortunes feed inequality
Tuesday, October 5th, 2010
Oct 05 2010
With income and wealth increasingly concentrated at the top, Canada is now a highly unequal society, compared with our own history and international standards… Strikingly, if Canada were to once again tax large inheritances — the way just about every other advanced nation still does — we could raise enough revenue to put $16,000 into an educational trust fund for every Canadian child on his or her 16th birthday. Under this simple plan, developed by Osgoode Hall tax professor Neil Brooks, Canadians could inherit up to $1.5 million tax-free. Above that, a gradually rising tax would apply.
Tags: ideology, standard of living, tax
Posted in Equality Debates | 1 Comment »
Registry no threat to freedom
Tuesday, September 21st, 2010
Sep 21 2010
It’s hard to grasp exactly what freedom is under assault here. All that’s required is registration — which is about as coercive as being obliged to put recyclable garbage into a separate bin… But licensing and registration help prevent guns falling into the wrong hands… The system holds gun owners accountable, allowing guns to be traced back to their owners. This discourages owners from storing guns carelessly, or giving or selling them to unlicensed individuals.
Tags: crime prevention, ideology, rights
Posted in Child & Family Debates | No Comments »
Making it easier to ignore the poor
Tuesday, July 27th, 2010
Jul 27 2010
We hear a great deal about the lives of the rich, much of it sympathetic and often fawning… The poor rarely get such sympathetic attention; indeed they rarely get much attention at all. And they’re soon to get even less. That is the real reason for the Harper government’s decision to scrap the long-form census matters, and why the debate over it is more than a bizarre obsession with statistics in this overheated summer.
Tags: ideology, participation, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Inclusion Debates | No Comments »
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