Archive for the ‘Debates’ Category
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Greed loses its glamour, even on Wall Street
Thursday, April 26th, 2012
Apr 24 2012
… a few isolated voices — left-wing economists, academics, social activists, labour organizers, church leaders and corporate renegades — warned that Canada was becoming a highly inequitable nation… The volume went up a couple of notches last fall when thousands of young people took to the streets chanting: “We are the 99 per cent.” … Last week brought two developments that couldn’t be shrugged off or attributed to left-wing agitation. The first was a shareholders’ revolt at one of Wall Street’s biggest banks… “This is a shot across the bow of every corporate boardroom in America,”
Tags: economy, globalization, ideology, participation, rights, standard of living
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What is Dutch Disease, and How To Cure It
Saturday, April 21st, 2012
April 16, 2012
We need more industries that add value to our resources (rather than exporting them in raw form); that generate more high‑income, high‑quality jobs; that embody technology and innovation; and that contribute to greater suc‑cess in world markets. These policies, and the fiscal tools that could fund them, formed part of the 2012 Alternative Federal Budget (published in March by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives).
Tags: budget, economy, globalization, ideology, standard of living, tax
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Liberals warn teachers, doctors over pay
Friday, April 13th, 2012
Apr 12 2012
Mired in debt and at risk of an election by late May, Ontario’s minority Liberal government took dead aim at teachers and doctors Thursday in a bid for public support to keep their wage hike demands to zero. Education Minister Laurel Broten warned elementary teachers of 10,000 layoffs unless they accept a pay freeze while Health Minister Deb Matthews told physicians “I am here to stand up for taxpayers.”
Tags: budget, economy, tax
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Tax cuts would hold aging workers
Friday, April 13th, 2012
April 12, 2012
At a time of continued concern about the federal deficit, it may seem strange to suggest that the way to deal with rising retirement costs and looming labour shortages in Canada is for the federal government to collect less tax from workers. But unless we undertake a major overhaul of Canada’s progressive income tax system to bring tax policy more in line with public policy, a growing number of older Canadians are going to leave the workforce, taking their skills with them and reducing their ability to save for a more secure retirement in their later years.
Tags: economy, globalization, pensions, poverty, standard of living
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All’s not lost, Ontario. The future is green, not black
Monday, April 9th, 2012
Apr. 07, 2012
The province has one of the planet’s densest concentrations of institutions of higher education. If effectively employed, it could help Ontario pivot to confront the global economy’s long-term trends. The most important of these trends is a multi-decade shift from fossil fuels to carbon-free energy… The shift to carbon-free energy will be akin to what economists call a “general purpose technology” transition… It will spur the invention and delivery of a torrent of new technologies, goods and services in every sector of the global economy… Ontario can be in the vanguard of one of the biggest technological revolutions humanity will ever experience. The future is green, not black.
Tags: economy, standard of living
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Where are our jobs going to come from?
Thursday, April 5th, 2012
Apr 05 2012
How are we going to grow the economic pie? Where will the jobs come from?… The Harper budget did provide an answer. We go back to the future, as hewers of wood and drawers of water: Dig out as many resources as we can, extract as much oil as possible from the tarsands and lay down as many pipelines as fast as investment permits. Damn the environment and damn the pesky environmentalists… We must find new ways to grow the economy to create the jobs and the revenues we need to fend off the creeping Me-Me-ism that threatens to destroy the Canadian ethos of sharing and lead ultimately to the tribal politics of the Tea Party.
Tags: economy, standard of living
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How about ‘Buy Canadian’ for resource projects?
Sunday, March 25th, 2012
Mar. 14, 2012
We need a national strategy to maximize Canadian content in Canadian resource developments. Canada, for example, could impose a “Buy Canadian” requirement on future mining projects, similar in spirit to the Buy American rules… If we limit our national economic ambitions to digging stuff out of the ground, all we’ll ultimately have left is a big hole in the ground. But if we’re thoughtful and pro-active about leveraging our resource wealth into all-round economic and industrial development, we’ll have much more to show after the resources are gone.
Tags: economy, globalization, standard of living
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The caging of capitalism
Saturday, March 24th, 2012
Mar. 05, 2012
It has taken a century to turn capitalism from an awesome force of nature, rude, raw and rambunctious, to the subservient thing it is today… Getting the right balance between economic and political freedoms isn’t as easy as ideological rhetoric makes it appear.
Tags: economy, globalization, ideology, rights, standard of living
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High levels of inequality jeopardize Canada’s ability to succeed
Saturday, February 25th, 2012
Feb 24 2012
There is substantial evidence that “human capital” — the knowledge and skills that make people innovative — is socially determined… A person’s health is also an important factor, both in terms of educational outcomes and productivity. Thus inequality and poverty, which are both associated with poor health outcomes, are worrying from an innovation standpoint as well… Canada ranks 15th out of 20, and drops to 16th spot in terms of child poverty… Instead of investing people, Canadian governments have given huge tax breaks to businesses in the hopes of spurring innovation.
Tags: budget, featured, Health, ideology, poverty, standard of living
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Older workers age 60-plus represent 8 per cent of the workforce, but account for 30 per cent of new job gains
Thursday, February 23rd, 2012
Feb. 23, 2012
… since mid-2009, when the economic recovery began, until January 2012, people 60 or older have accounted for about one-third of all net new job gains. That’s striking considering they only represent 8 per cent of the total labour force… And the reasons for this are many, from being healthy and living longer to the end of mandatory retirement in Ontario, says a new report from TD Economics called Older Workers Stampede into the Labour Market… older Canadians are looking for flexible work arrangements that can include part-time, temporary work and self-employment.
Tags: economy, pensions, standard of living
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