Archive for the ‘Debates’ Category
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Investment should be the federal budget priority
The problem is not profits, which are still near a record high as a proportion of the economy, nor a lack of funds. Corporations are sitting on a $600-billion-plus cash hoard of surplus profits, boosted by recent deep corporate tax cuts. Business investment is likely to fall even further due to the resource slump and halted megaprojects… Ottawa has been advised by the [IMF] and many prominent economists… that it can and should boost public investment, especially in mass transit and basic municipal infrastructure.
Tags: budget, economy, globalization, ideology, participation
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Q&A with precarious work expert Guy Standing [GAI]
[GAI?]… It’s affordable in the sense that you’d be converting a lot of existing benefits and subsidies … in order to be able to afford it. You would increase the incentive for people to take low-wage jobs, not reduce it, because you’ve removed the poverty trap. People who have basic security and feel more in control of their lives (also) tend be healthier. If you’re healthier, you tend to have a lower demand for health services… The evidence is that people (with) basic security work more, not less. And when they work, they tend to be more productive, not less.
Tags: economy, featured, Health, ideology, mental Health, participation, poverty, standard of living
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Corporate Greed? Enough Already Record profits have produced lousy jobs
The headline read “Corporate profit margins at 27-year high and likely to stay there.” Pretty heady stuff if you took it out of context. But the context is everything: pathetic growth projections, record high personal debt, stagnating wages, hundreds of billions in idle corporate cash, a multi-billion dollar infrastructure deficit, a growing real estate bubble and a Bank of Canada chief who has no idea how to fix things. And, of course, a prime minister who thinks fixing things is heretical.
Tags: economy, featured, globalization, ideology, participation, poverty, privatization, rights, standard of living, tax
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Fixing Toronto’s broken public housing system would help us all
Repairing Toronto’s dilapidated public housing stock isn’t just good social policy — it’s good business, too. A comprehensive study by the Canadian Centre for Economic Analysis shows that doing the right thing would create thousands of jobs, spur private investment, and generate billions of extra dollars in federal and provincial taxes… If upper governments won’t respond to basic human need, perhaps they’ll act in their own self-interest.
Tags: budget, economy, Health, homelessness, housing, mental Health, participation, poverty, standard of living, tax
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Quebec model balances greater equality with economic progress
Quebec is more equal than other provinces, in large part because of its distinctive social and labour market policies… Quebec’s distinctive family policies have had positive effects on the economy, increasing the labour force participation rate of women and thus lowering poverty. And educational attainment boosted by provincial policies is rapidly converging with the rest of Canada… Equity and efficiency need not be opposed, but can go hand in hand.
Tags: budget, child care, economy, featured, ideology, standard of living, tax, women
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After outrage, government extends program that employed 50 people with developmental disabilities
The federal government extended a work program for 50 developmentally disabled Ottawa workers Thursday in the face of public outrage that they had been cut loose after dedicating decades of their working lives to sorting and disposing of federal documents… LAC paid $124,600 to OCAPDD, which in turn divided the money as “honorarium” payments among the workers — amounting to approximately $2,000 each per year, or $1.15 an hour.
Tags: budget, disabilities, ideology, mental Health, participation, standard of living
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Canada need not be at the mercy of the marketplace
An increasing number are revisiting the idea of a basic income guarantee for all Canadians. They never thought they’d endorse universal income redistribution by the state. But they don’t see any other option. In fact there are alternatives. They haven’t been talked about since 2006 when Stephen Harper became prime minister, vowing to cut taxes, downsize government, impose market discipline on the public sector and allow the private sector to bring in thousands of pliant temporary foreign workers, but they still exist.
Tags: budget, economy, ideology, standard of living
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Canadian economy suffers from the myth of comparative advantage
… it turns out that low-wage countries not only have a competitive advantage based upon relatively low wages, they have also created a competitive edge in sophisticated industries… We specialized in resources, especially oil, and rejected China-style active industrial and trade policies that would have helped manufacturing restructure toward high value-added, innovative, intensive production that is less vulnerable to low-wage competition.
Tags: economy, featured, globalization, ideology, participation, standard of living
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Is the Bank of Canada quietly moving to the left?
Perhaps the prevailing economic wisdom has shifted as a result of the 2008 recession… and has produced a realization that central banks can and should aim to stimulate economies when they are hit by shocks like a big drop in oil prices… that monetary policy should not be focused solely on controlling inflation, but must have an eye toward achieving full employment and stimulating growth.
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Knowledge Isn’t Power
… there’s no evidence that a skills gap is holding back employment… the notion that highly skilled workers are generally in demand is just false… the inflation-adjusted earnings of highly educated Americans have gone nowhere since the late 1990s. So what is really going on? all the big gains are going to a tiny group of individuals holding strategic positions in corporate suites or astride the crossroads of finance. Rising inequality isn’t about who has the knowledge; it’s about who has the power.
Tags: economy, featured, ideology, participation, privatization, standard of living, tax
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