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Make the rich pay? Not in Canada
Monday, August 27th, 2012
17 August 2012
Canada remains remarkably generous towards its well-paid senior executives, public and private. They may make costly mistakes with taxpayers’ money, squander the life savings of their investors, but they still walk away with huge bonuses… Leaving aside instances of fraud, or incompetence, there is an underlying problem with executive compensation in Canada: salaries, bonuses, and severance packages are increasingly unrelated to performance, to economic reality, to the pressures faced by ordinary Canadians.
Tags: economy, ideology, standard of living, tax
Posted in Equality Delivery System | 1 Comment »
Austerity isn’t for everyone
Wednesday, February 22nd, 2012
Feb. 17, 2012
… the austerity refrain is the same: protect the rich, hit the middle class and leave the poor for later. This is not an argument against frugality, or in defence of sacred cows. The sacred cows are able to defend themselves. But it is an illustration of what can happen when political leaders, and their advisers, live in a sheltered world where seniors golf in Florida all winter… They forget — or don’t care — that most Canadians don’t live there.
Tags: budget, ideology, poverty, standard of living, tax
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »
Harper wins when voters snooze
Saturday, January 28th, 2012
Jan. 27, 2012
Many [voters] have given up – in cynicism or despair. They turn their back on politics, don’t bother to vote, even imagine it is fashionable to remain aloof. They claim all politicians are the same, but they aren’t. They claim it doesn’t matter which party holds power, but it does… Nothing seems to penetrate public indifference – to Harper’s benefit… waiting four more years for Conservatives to self-destruct – isn’t a strategy. It’s a confession of impotence.
Tags: budget, economy, ideology, participation, standard of living
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »
Harper could make better pensions a legacy
Monday, August 1st, 2011
July 30, 2011
The present system, especially RRSPs, disproportionately helps those with good, steady incomes… A more generously funded public system could cushion the most vulnerable and ease the retirement of the middle class, while offering low overhead, the benefits of shared risk and relatively small increases in individual contributions… despite opposition, and the potential election of Tim Hudak, a Harris clone, as premier of Ontario, a determined prime minister, with skill, nerve and public support could at least launch incremental improvements to a vital social program.
Tags: ideology, participation, pensions, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Social Security Debates | No Comments »
The working rich [‘job creators’]
Monday, January 10th, 2011
January 9, 2011
… goodbye corporate fat cats, hello job creators… those new corporate tax cuts that seem so ill-timed given the large deficit, so unfair given increases in taxes for the middle class in 2011, are completely justified. They are not going to already richly compensated Bay Street fat cats but to job creators! …Three decades of unrelenting neo-conservative preaching have turned taxes into a dirty word, as left-leaning economist Hugh Mackenzie says, “to the point where even governments don’t defend government.”
Tags: economy, ideology, privatization
Posted in Policy Context | No Comments »
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