Archive for the ‘Debates’ Category
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As factories flee Ontario, politicians offer bribes
Immediately after the first free trade pact was inked, multinationals began to rationalize their North American operations. Many decided to keep their Ontario branch plants open. But… concentrate on specific product lines that could be sold continent-wide… now, under competitive pressures aggravated by the slump, North America is undergoing stage two of globalization. In order to radically reduce costs, multinationals are centralizing all North American production in a handful of large plants… in the U.S.
Tags: budget, economy, globalization, ideology, standard of living, tax
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Thomas Piketty: “You do need some inequality to generate growth”
Every command economy in the world in history not only was a disaster in terms of economic growth, but was also a disaster for personal freedom… I want to keep private property and the market system. But I want to make private property and the market system the slave of democracy, rather than democracy the slave of private property and extreme inequality.
Tags: economy, featured, globalization, ideology, poverty, privatization, rights, standard of living
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Now That’s Rich
… claims that taxing the rich is destructive and immoral — destructive because it discourages job creators from doing their thing, immoral because people have a right to keep what they earn… rest crucially on myths about who the rich really are and how they make their money. Next time you hear someone declaiming about how cruel it is to persecute the rich, think about the hedge fund guys, and ask yourself if it would really be a terrible thing if they paid more in taxes.
Tags: economy, featured, globalization, ideology, privatization, rights, standard of living, tax
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Canada has a large pool of eager and available workers: The disabled
… young people with disabilities are more likely than their counterparts to be in non-standard jobs; to be underemployed; to be without employment; and to be in poverty. Public programs for Canadians with disabilities are a disjointed patchwork of practices with uneven accessibility… A new, specific goal of the Canada Social Transfer would be to improve the post-secondary education participation of young men and women with disabilities.
Tags: disabilities, economy, featured, ideology, participation
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We’re hooked on foreign workers
Today, there are hundreds of thousands of temporary foreign workers in Canada. Most of them are in the restaurant and hotel industry, food processing and cleaning. The people they hurt the most aren’t your neighbours or your kids. They’re the more marginal people in the labour market – new immigrants, aboriginals, high-school dropouts… hardly anyone minded, before the CBC uncovered several cases of abuse. Now, the program is political Kryptonite, and the Conservatives know it. To voters, it illustrates the bad side of capitalism – a violation of the basic rules of fairness.
Tags: economy, globalization, ideology, poverty, rights, standard of living
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It’s a false economy to cut Statscan’s budget
There is no mystery why Statscan has had to scale back its work and even entirely eliminate at least three dozen reports on a wide variety of subjects that it previously produced on a regular basis. The organization has lost almost $30-million from its budget in the past two years and has cut 767 employees, or 18 per cent of its staff… funding cuts have led to an absurd situation in which expensive work is left half-completed… it is time for the Harper government to start listening and restore adequate funding
Tags: budget, economy, ideology, standard of living, tax
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Low wages, not poor work ethic, behind surge of foreign labour
For its members [the Canadian Federation of Independent Business], having a ready supply of low-wage workers may be paramount. For the rest of society, other priorities matter. Canadians want a fair shot at jobs in their own country. They want fair labour practices. They want one set of rules for everybody.
Tags: economy, globalization, ideology, immigration, rights, standard of living, youth
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Taxes pay for robots, but robots don’t pay taxes
… labour is a shrinking input in today’s cars. The real value added is higher up the food chain – in design and engineering – and in the expensive robots that do most of the assembly grunt work… This is one reason why labour’s share of national income is falling everywhere… But since the 1990s, capital’s share has been constantly rising. That’s good for the owners of capital… but not so great for workers.
Tags: economy, globalization, ideology, standard of living
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Harper government drives up youth unemployment
A government bent on lowering the living standard of Canada’s next generation couldn’t do a much better job than Stephen Harper and his colleagues have done… First there was the massive expansion of the once-modest foreign temporary workers program… Second, there was the government’s single-minded crackdown on young offenders.
Tags: budget, economy, globalization, ideology, standard of living, youth
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We need a cohesive plan for Canada’s Resources
We need sensible environmental policies, as well as recognizing the fundamental need for balance between growth and sustainability. Most of all, we need a principled partnership with First Nations and between Ottawa and the provinces that moves beyond past grievances toward future opportunities.
Tags: economy, globalization, ideology, Indigenous, participation, standard of living
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