Archive for the ‘Debates’ Category
« Older Entries | Newer Entries »
With automation (not trade or immigrants, as Trump claims) taking jobs, it’s time to consider a universal basic income
… 47 per cent of existing jobs in the United States are vulnerable to automation in the next 20 years… This is what is really driving the populist revolution… It is only jobs that are being destroyed, not wealth… Or rather, it’s not a disaster unless having no work means no money or self-respect… The UBI would provide everybody with enough to live on. Since everybody got it, there would be no stigma involved in living on it.
Tags: economy, featured, globalization, ideology, participation, standard of living
Posted in Debates | No Comments »
‘All for ourselves and nothing for other people’: The takeover of economics by neoliberalism
Inequality, flat incomes, work-life imbalance and unsustainable debt can all to a large extent be traced to this deliberate government policy. Just reversing it would start a recovery. That means returning EI to an actual insurance program, reinstating the federal Canada Assistance Plan which provided strings-attached (read: humane rates) money to the provinces for social welfare, increase the minimum wage to living-wage levels, enforce and enhance labour standards and their enforcement, and make it easier, not harder, for unions to organize.
Tags: budget, economy, featured, globalization, ideology, participation, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Debates | No Comments »
Do Canadian policy-makers understand how alarming it is that their ‘stimulus’ has proven an utter failure?
Households and provinces are using federal stimulus to bail themselves out of the debt they gorged on for years, not to stimulate… exports of manufactured goods have failed to respond to a lower exchange rate… The Bank of Canada had expected a quick transition from energy to non-energy export growth. Instead, exports of all manufacturing goods have essentially stagnated over the past year… more of the same ineffective medicine isn’t what will get us to better economic health.
Tags: economy, globalization, ideology, jurisdiction, standard of living
Posted in Debates | No Comments »
Don’t blame Keynes for Canada’s low-growth economy
There’s a widespread view that the Canadian economy is struggling and that it needs a fiscal jolt to get it going. That view gets at some fundamental issues about the nature of the current stagnation and… the nature of Keynesian economics… What’s struggling is not the level of economic activity, it’s the rate of economic growth. Contrary to the impression you’d get from the media, those are two different things…
Tags: economy, globalization, ideology, participation, standard of living
Posted in Debates | No Comments »
Precarious Jobs Need Stronger Safety Net
Canada should strengthen the safety net under workers in precarious jobs, according to a new report from the C.D. Howe Institute… “But it would be a mistake for policymakers to emphasize rigid labour legislation over other social policies in search for solutions.” … . Interventions to shape employment arrangements with legislation pose significant risks of stymying job creation.
Tags: economy, featured, globalization, ideology, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Debates | No Comments »
Trudeau Should Forget Infrastructure P3s and Support a People’s Bank
Only a few have called this what it is: a long-term plan to funnel billions from the public purse into giant investment firms. Privatization plans have proven deeply unpopular once they are widely understood, as the Ontario Liberals discovered after announcing plans to sell off Hydro One… postal banks could be similar to credit unions, but they would reach hundreds of small rural communities that don’t have access to banking at all.
Tags: budget, economy, ideology, privatization, standard of living
Posted in Debates | No Comments »
Manufacturing hasn’t vanished – it’s just smarter — The Globe and Mail Published Sunday,
Manufacturers now produce roughly a third more than they did in early 2009, after recovering all the ground lost in the global recession, and then some… manufacturers… are doing more with a lot fewer workers. Robots, sensors and sophisticated software are transforming factory floors. The number of U.S. factory jobs is up a mere 3 per cent since 2008, to 12.3 million. And since the late 1990s, nearly 6 million manufacturing jobs have vanished. The trend shows no sign of abating… Bringing jobs back to the United States will increasingly hinge on building smarter factories, not ones dependent on protectionist walls.
Tags: economy, globalization, ideology, participation
Posted in Debates | No Comments »
New Canadian study explains why working class should be angry
… in Canada, the productivity of labour — the amount workers produce per unit of effort — went up by over one per cent per year over the 38 years between 1976 and 2014. The average worker’s earnings, however, barely budged over that same period. The rise in wages was less than one-tenth of one per cent per year. Put differently, the rise in productivity was more than 10 times that of earnings.
Tags: economy, featured, globalization, ideology, participation, standard of living
Posted in Debates | No Comments »
In Ottawa, TPP’s death could open the door to transparent trade dealing
Much of the TPP focused on economic regulation, such as intellectual property enforcement, health regulation and environmental standards. Trade agreements are a poor place to negotiate these issues… Mr. Trudeau’s government inherited a trade policy marked by secrecy, encroachment onto domestic regulation and little ambition to see Canadian policies reflected in the final texts. The TPP’s demise offers the chance for real change by pursuing trade agreements that offer economic gains and remain true to the commitment for an open and transparent government.
Tags: economy, globalization, ideology, jurisdiction, participation, rights
Posted in Debates | No Comments »
Elites, elections, and the politics of alienation
… the long-range benefits of freer trade for the majority of people will outweigh any harms which trade liberalization may cause, especially in the short run. But one of the mistakes those of us advocating free trade have made was to fail to adequately recognize and address the fears and situations of those suffering those harms and to provide transition measures to alleviate them.
Tags: economy, globalization, ideology, participation, standard of living
Posted in Debates | No Comments »
Recent Comments