Archive for the ‘Debates’ Category
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Decoding Canada’s ‘skills crisis’: What’s the solution?
… one of the biggest challenges is developing programs and policies that ensure people get the right education and training. Much of the focus has been on the public education system. But private training is becoming critical as a rapidly changing economy means education doesn’t end with graduation… Canadian business spending on training has been in decline, slipping another 13 per cent between 2008 and 2010 to an average of $688 per employee
Tags: economy, globalization, ideology, standard of living, youth
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Living wage: The best way to fight child poverty in Hamilton
In March, the Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board (HWDSB) became the first elected body in Ontario (and largest school board in Canada) to declare itself a living wage employer. It was a big step, but one that made a lot of sense…. It’s about promoting dignity and opportunity in the workplace. It’s about building stronger, healthier, motivated and innovative communities; most importantly, living wages encourage economic prosperity for everyone.
Tags: budget, ideology, standard of living
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Stephen Harper and the knowledge economy: perfect strangers
… by the broadest measure of expenditure on research and development, Canada has fallen from 16th out of 41 comparable countries in the year Stephen Harper became prime minister, to 23rd in 2011… Canada is letting its science advantage fritter away, as if that could somehow help its private-sector R&D gap close… The government has known, since its first year in office, that the private sector is not doing enough applied research. Its response has been to put the brakes on pure research in universities.
Tags: budget, economy, globalization, ideology, privatization
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Saving capitalism from itself
… post-industrialism has seen the blue collar Working Class decline from roughly 40 to 20 per cent of the workforce between 1980 and today… two new classes have arisen: the high-skill, high-pay Creative Class and the low-skill, low-pay Service Class… Nothing less than a new social compact is required… to regulate growth, reduce inequality, generate good family-supporting jobs and rebuild a vibrant middle class… we must cultivate the full abilities of every single human being,
Tags: economy, featured, globalization, ideology, participation, standard of living
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Transforming capitalism won’t happen without leadership
… Citizens increasingly realize that an economy driven solely by greed, with companies interested only in shareholder value, is unworkable and threatens the planet. We’re in the early stages of a massive transformation… For capitalism to have a future it must change fundamentally. We need to understand that business can’t succeed in a world that’s failing… The digital age offers a new democracy based on public deliberation and active citizenship.
Tags: economy, globalization, ideology, participation, standard of living
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The Story of Our Time [economy]
… this is a time for above-normal government spending, to sustain the economy until the private sector is willing to spend again… under current conditions, the government is not, repeat not, in competition with the private sector. Government spending doesn’t divert resources away from private uses; it puts unemployed resources to work. Government borrowing doesn’t crowd out private investment; it mobilizes funds that would otherwise go unused.
Tags: budget, economy, featured, globalization, ideology, standard of living
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What to do about Canada’s labour market? Get out of the way
… importing temporary workers to staff Calgary pubs keeps wages in Calgary lower than they should be while paying EI to seasonal workers year after year keeps them in jobs that can never give them a decent income. The federal government should get out of both sides of this equation… and let the labour market work as it should. Wages should rise in Calgary. Atlantic Canadians should move to take advantage of them.
Tags: economy, ideology, immigration, rights, standard of living
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The awful consequences of austerity
Austerity doesn’t even work. Ottawa told us last year that its cutbacks would reduce the deficit to $10.2 billion. Yet the latest deficit estimate, for 2013-14, is nearly twice that amount, or $18.7 billion. Why? Because austerity sucks demand out of the economy, stalling the pace of economic recovery. It also hikes government outlays on social assistance, including EI payments. This is what economists mean by “the paradox of thrift.”
Tags: budget, economy, globalization, ideology, standard of living
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Are low interest rates really the answer?
Apr 12 2013
What this suggests, in a nutshell, is that the Keynesian “pump priming” of deficit-financed government spending in North America, Europe and Japan to shift economies into higher gear worked. And conversely, central bank monetary policy of re-jigging interest rates has been of only modest help, or downright dangerous.
Tags: budget, economy, globalization, ideology, standard of living
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Let’s worry about skills, not outsourcing
Apr. 12 2013
… a dynamic economy isn’t created on paper or by central planning – it’s created by allowing the natural forces of capitalism to work. Canadians would do more for our future prosperity by worrying about how productive and skilled we are, rather than hanging on to jobs we aren’t the best qualified to do.
Tags: economy, globalization, ideology, participation, standard of living
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