Archive for the ‘Debates’ Category
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In Fiery Speeches, Francis Excoriates Global Capitalism
Pope Francis does not just criticize the excesses of global capitalism. He compares them to the “dung of the devil.” He does not simply argue that systemic “greed for money” is a bad thing. He calls it a “subtle dictatorship” that “condemns and enslaves men and women.” … Francis has defined the economic challenge of this era as the failure of global capitalism to create fairness, equity and dignified livelihoods for the poor…
Tags: economy, featured, globalization, ideology, participation, poverty, standard of living
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Why sustainable business begins in the classroom
… there is a paradigm shift underway, that we are at a “tipping point,” that engaging in transformational change is essential to the survival of humanity and the planet… It’s the unnuanced interpretation of Mr. Friedman’s ideas that is being challenged by the Global Compact and its signatories… [who are] committing to the pursuit of a “long-term perspective,” a “triple bottom line” or “shared value” – recognizing that profits, people and planet are inherently interconnected.
Tags: economy, globalization, ideology, participation, standard of living
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Stephen Harper can’t ignore recession out of existence
A serious attempt to boost the economy would require measures to boost public investment in infrastructure and in innovation. This is highly affordable at a time of record low interest rates, especially given that many projects will more than pay for themselves over time. Even the International Monetary Fund has said we have room to invest more.
Tags: budget, economy, globalization, ideology
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Ottawa’s fiscal policy needs to promote growth, not just avoid deficits
If all you care about is the target for the budget surplus, this approach to fiscal policy is admirable. But if you care about economic growth, and especially the livelihoods of the thousands of Canadians still unable to find jobs in this slow-growth economy, then this approach to fiscal policy leaves much to be desired… New spending of $6-billion, for example, would slightly enhance growth but would have almost no effect on the government’s debt-to-GDP ratio…
Tags: budget, economy, featured, globalization, ideology, participation, standard of living
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Time to consider a guaranteed minimum income
If we’re truly entering a “world without work,” in which technology replaces more and more jobs, then extending income support to everybody isn’t such a radical idea… No matter how high minimum wages are, they will not help people unable to get a job… The state of technology is such that we’re nearing a place in which the needs of the economy, and the needs of the people in it, can be met without requiring the labour of everyone… A post-jobs world seems unlikely to be a post-work world. Most people want to be productive
Tags: economy, featured, globalization, ideology, participation, poverty, standard of living
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A World Without Work
The paradox of work is that many people hate their jobs, but they are considerably more miserable doing nothing… Perhaps the 20th century will strike future historians as an aberration, with its religious devotion to overwork in a time of prosperity, its attenuations of family in service to job opportunity, its conflation of income with self-worth… There is no universal basic income that can prevent the civic ruin of a country built on a handful of workers permanently subsidizing the idleness of tens of millions of people. But a future of less work still holds a glint of hope
Tags: economy, featured, globalization, ideology, mental Health, participation, standard of living
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Why Canadian industry needs to fix how it engages with the public
… innovation is more than coming up with a new idea, product or technology. It is equally about innovation in processes. Yet, when it comes to resource development and market access, the inability of Canadian businesses and industry to forge new public-engagement processes to meet heightened environmental standards, disclosure, and, yes, social licence, is as much an innovation failure as anything ranked by the Conference Board.
Tags: economy, featured, globalization, ideology, participation, standard of living, youth
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Government spending can’t solve Canada’s demographic problems
If Canada’s retirees cannot make a reasonable return on their assets… More of them will be dependent on old-age security (OAS) and the guaranteed income supplement (GIS)… inflated asset prices (equities, housing and the like) have especially benefited the wealthy, thus contributing to rising inequality that, according to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development and others, further impedes economic growth.
Tags: economy, pensions, poverty, standard of living
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Guarantee a minimum income, not a minimum wage
The guaranteed minimum income has been the desideratum of generations of economists and welfare theorists, from the left and the right. The idea is to combine a number of existing income support and benefit programs into one, for which every citizen would quality as of right: no forms to fill out, no eligibility criteria, just a basic entitlement…. Distributional equity is the state’s work. The tools for achieving it are taxes and transfers. Allocating resources efficiently is the market’s job, the tools for which are prices. Wages are prices: let them do what they can do, and help the poorest through the state instead.
Tags: economy, featured, ideology, poverty, standard of living, tax
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Retailers set prices, not supply management
Supply management exists to solve a very specific problem: price volatility. Most countries – including our partners in the United States and European Union – solve the problem with generous farm subsidies… Canada takes a different approach. By allowing farmers to work together to match supply with demand, they earn a fair return for their labour and investment, and Canadians are guaranteed access to a supply of fresh, local, and high-quality food.
Tags: economy, globalization, ideology, standard of living
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