Archive for the ‘Debates’ Category
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Fresh thinking about social policy
For 20 years we went along as our political leaders promised to “do more with less”; “deliver services more efficiently”; and create “transformative change.” Too late, we realized these fine-sounding phrases were euphemisms for downloading, dismantling and disinvestment… By decoupling job training from EI, Ottawa could remove one of the biggest barriers to young people seeking employment, workers who need to upgrade their skills and the long-term unemployed. This is the kind of thinking we need to change course.
Tags: economy, ideology, participation, standard of living
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Precarious work is now the new norm, United Way report says
… about 52 per cent of workers are in temporary, contract, or part-time positions… “This is the new form of employment.” It is also a major cause of social stress for people, regardless of income. Precarious workers are twice as likely as those in stable jobs to report having mental health problems. They are six times more likely to delay starting a relationship because of job uncertainty. They are three times more likely to delay having kids. And almost half of precarious workers say their employment situation disrupts their family life.
Tags: economy, participation, poverty, standard of living
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Trans-Pacific Partnership too important to Canada to be held hostage to partisan politics
The TPP will eliminate tariffs on Canadian exports and lower the costs of moving goods and people across borders. It will remove restrictions on Canadian investment and the activities of our services exporters. It will help protect intellectual property rights and guard against discriminatory regulations that exclude Canadian products and services… The TPP should even make it easier to do business with our NAFTA partners.
Tags: economy, globalization, ideology, standard of living
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The new key to economic growth is unlocking latent talent
… almost half of today’s professions could be automatable by 2025. Speculation about what will replace them ranges from unexpected opportunities to large-scale unemployment as machines displace most human labour. The first signs of this disruption are already visible. Global unemployment has topped 212 million… Meanwhile, last year, 36 per cent of employers worldwide reported facing difficulties in finding talent, the highest percentage in seven years.
Tags: economy, featured, globalization, standard of living, youth
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Services exports: Canada’s quiet growth engine
… Three out of the five fastest-growing Canadian exports over the past decade were financial services, computer services and management services… Ontario’s manufactured exports declined over the past decade, but the province actually posted positive overall export growth… Ontario’s economy is dominated by the service sector, and some of those services are now being actively sold globally… Canadian companies are succeeding internationally by integrating client services into their product offerings.
Tags: economy, globalization, standard of living
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Income Inequality Is Costing the U.S. on Social Issues
… when it comes to the health, well-being and shared prosperity of its people, the United States has fallen far behind…. blaming globalization and technological progress for the stagnation of the middle class and the precipitous decline in our collective health is too easy. Jobs were lost and wages got stuck in many developed countries. What set the United States apart… was the nature of its response. Government support for Americans in the bottom half turned out to be too meager…
Tags: economy, globalization, ideology, participation, poverty, tax
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Hasta la vista, employment
… when disease or falling birth rates make workers hard to find, we look to more machines – that’s how the Industrial Revolution happened. It’s also what’s happening now… Aging and shrinking demographics mean there’s no reserve army of labour, so research is being poured into technology… The question is whether the shrinking work forces and the rising robots will reach a virtuous balance… Otherwise… countries would have to start handing money to consumers just to keep the machines running.
Tags: economy, globalization, ideology, participation, poverty, standard of living
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Harper is not funding science, he’s subsidizing business
It’s not just that the amounts invested are paltry, but the new money that is there tends to be directed at specific projects… what we have is a government that can’t stop talking about the importance of innovation, surreptitiously rolling back on its commitment to scientific innovation… Mr. Harper’s government is micromanaging research dollars so that it can use universities/colleges as surrogates for industrial research.
Tags: budget, economy, ideology, privatization, standard of living, tax
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Small companies the main casualties of higher corporate taxes
… most small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) pay corporate taxes, and these are often the most vulnerable in a shaky economy… the larger the company, the more sophisticated is its army of tax lawyers and accountants. That gives them the edge in reducing their tax exposure… It’s the individuals who run the corporations that can veer into ethical and moral grey areas – and it’s their personal income levels that create issues of income inequality.
Tags: economy, globalization, ideology, tax
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How not to fight income inequality
… according to a recent report for the MacDonald Laurier Institute by Philip Cross, former chief economic analyst at Statistics Canada, Canada already has a highly progressive system of income redistribution. Taxes, however, are only part of the picture: the real issue is transfers… The report concludes: “… Instead of focusing on modifying taxes and transfers to redistribute income, it would be better to adopt policies that boost market incomes for all classes.”
Tags: budget, economy, featured, ideology, participation, standard of living, tax
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