Archive for the ‘Debates’ Category
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Raitt’s Three Principles for labour relations only run one way
Friday, November 4th, 2011
Nov. 02, 2011
In Hamilton, where workers held little power, the government stood idly by. It seems it’s only when workers have some leverage that it acts powerfully to “protect the economy.” …there’s no doubt work stoppages cause inconvenience and disruption. But because something is unpopular or inconvenient hardly gives government the moral authority to take away rights, making up the law as it goes – even if it does hold a majority of seats in Parliament.
Tags: economy, ideology, rights, standard of living
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Business elite gets a reality check
Thursday, November 3rd, 2011
Nov 01 2011
The era of visionary politics is long gone. With an aging population, expenditures on government services will grow faster than government revenues. In a globalized economy, Canada will keep losing jobs to lower-cost countries. And in a protracted period of slow growth, the gap between rich and poor will widen… But all that could easily lead to a politics of divisiveness. There is a risk we will bequeath to our children and grandchildren a world of ‘us against them.’ Such politics leads inevitably to everyone being worse off.”
Tags: economy, globalization, ideology, standard of living
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Canada urged to end ‘pension apartheid’
Friday, October 28th, 2011
Oct 28, 2011
… a new book published by Wiley Canada – Pension Ponzi… depicts a system of “pension apartheid” that favours 20% of workers with unionnegotiated public-sector DB plans at the expense of the rest who guarantee those pensions through their future taxes. Most penalized are new Canadians, the self-employed, the chronically unemployed and those who have suffered market losses in RRSPs or prematurely withdrawn funds from them.
Tags: ideology, pensions, rights, standard of living, tax
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Supply management does a body good
Monday, October 24th, 2011
Oct 24, 2011
The Free Your Milk campaign launched recently by the Canadian Restaurant and Foodservice Association (CRFA) would have Canadian consumers believe that the price they pay for milk and dairy products in grocery stores will drop if only milk marketing boards and supply management are dismantled. Based on the experience of every other jurisdiction in the world, it’s not likely… In fact, Canadian prices have been lower than U.S. prices for 11 of the past 16 years.
Tags: economy, ideology, rights, standard of living
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Confessions of a 2 percenter
Friday, October 21st, 2011
Oct 19 2011
I am not down on government, and am concerned about its withering presence. In my lifetime, taxes on the wealthiest of Canadians have been cut by nearly half, and of course, I have benefited too… I would be pleased to pay more taxes, but repeating that too often could get you classified as weird, and possibly worse… excepting what diehards may think, the scale-the-ramparts mentality, while romantic, has not led to compelling results… That said, I feel that the Occupy Wall Street movement and its facsimiles could be worthwhile, as they are creating awareness of a serious social problem.
Tags: economy, standard of living, tax
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Who are Canada’s one per cent?
Friday, October 21st, 2011
October 20, 2011
Individual Canadians who make approximately $200,000 annually in total income are considered in the top one per cent of earners, while $100,000 in annual income will put you in the top five per cent, according to the most recent data from Statistics Canada… the top quintile (20 per cent) of Canadian earners (aged 16 and older) received 51 per cent of total income, while the top two quintiles (40 per cent) of earners made 75 per cent of the total income in Canada… the top one per cent of income earners paid 18 per cent of total taxes in 2004…
Tags: economy, standard of living, tax
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Reality Check: Why Unions Still Matter
Thursday, October 20th, 2011
October 19, 2011
A recently published study shows that “the decline of organized labor explains a fifth to a third of the growth in [American] inequality”. The latest U.S. census data, coupled with an historical analysis showing declining union membership coinciding with middle-income earners’ decreasing share of aggregate income, demonstrate just how relevant unions remain.
Tags: economy, globalization, ideology, rights, standard of living
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Rise of the machines: America’s jobs challenge
Wednesday, October 19th, 2011
October 19, 2011
Since 1999, business investment in equipment and software has surged 33 per cent while the total number of people employed by private firms has changed little. The gap between man and machine widened even further after the 2008-09 recession, helping explain why the United States is struggling to bring down an unemployment rate stuck above 9 per cent. The revolution in information technologies is taking a deeper and deeper hold in the U.S. economy.
Tags: economy, globalization, standard of living, youth
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The problem with capitalism
Saturday, October 8th, 2011
Oct 8, 2011
… the problems facing the United States and the world are too complex and varied to sum up in a single slogan… capitalism has been manipulated by the powerful and is increasingly unfair for the working and middle class. It is losing its ability to reward hard work and ingenuity such as that displayed by Steve Jobs. As a result, capitalism is becoming dangerously unstable.
Tags: economy, globalization, ideology
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Literacy key to excelling on the job
Thursday, September 29th, 2011
September 28, 2011
As smartphones, tablets and web-based technology take hold in the workplace, a young person with inadequate literacy skills won’t be able to use these devices on the job, let alone perform the basic written and input tasks that employers expect… “You can essentially map poverty rates against literacy rates in the country and see very clearly that they intersect… You would also see that those Canadians with lower literacy rates have higher rates of chronic disease, cancers, heart disease and diabetes.”
Tags: Health, participation, standard of living, youth
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