Archive for the ‘Debates’ Category
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Preaching austerity at the wrong time
Wednesday, September 28th, 2011
Sep 27 2011
They won’t raise taxes on the wealthy. They won’t stop subsidizing the wealthy oil companies. They won’t consider taxes on financial transactions even though a tax of just pennies a trade could reap billions of dollars that could be used to stabilize economies, and they keep lowering business taxes to ridiculously low levels, thus starving their governments of desperately needed revenues. Even the governor of the Bank of Canada has said lowering business taxes has done nothing to create jobs or improve competitiveness.
Tags: corrections, economy, ideology
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Is Capitalism Preparing to Bury Itself?
Wednesday, September 28th, 2011
Sep. 26, 2011
Fordism. It was the foundation of a high-wage economy, it lasted a very long time and it produced incredible real wealth for decades.
Until something called neoliberalism decided to kill the goose that laid the golden eggs. And the perpetrators of this ideology — and the catastrophic damage it has done to the global economy, nations, communities and workers — are so wedded to it that they seem determined to pursue its goals and accept its preposterous assumptions until the ship truly does go down.
Tags: economy, featured, ideology, poverty, privatization, standard of living
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Why Harper’s ringing economic alarm bells
Saturday, September 24th, 2011
Sep 23 2011
… why the unusually inflammatory language? The kindest interpretation is that Harper is just being frank. The more realistic one is that he is trying to prepare the country for an unpopular change in course — specifically for a retreat from his election promises… indications are that his new approach to any economic slowdown will be the precise opposite — that the Conservatives will use fear of debt to make spending cuts that, during the spring election campaign, they promised to avoid.
Tags: economy, ideology, poverty
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Wanted: culture of innovation
Friday, September 16th, 2011
Sep. 16, 2011
our productivity growth has dropped substantially, from average growth of close to 3 per cent annually from 1961 to 1980, to under 1 per cent since 2000. And that gap between Canada and the U.S. has widened in the past decade, despite the relative improvement of macroeconomic fundamentals in our country…. Such innovation can be improved by five key drivers. First, competition matters to corporate behaviour… Second, Canada… delivers much of its private-sector innovation support through the tax system. We should be providing more direct support through new channels…
Tags: economy, globalization, privatization, standard of living
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Cut immigration during recessions: study
Thursday, September 1st, 2011
Sep 1, 2011
Canada should reduce immigration during deep economic recession, say the authors of a detailed analysis of the earnings of immigrants over their first 10 years in the country that also touts the benefits of selecting newcomers based on earning potential. Canada should emphasize skill-assessed immigrants because their earning power “consistently and substantially” out-performed other classes of newcomers, the study says.
Tags: economy, ideology, immigration
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Social enterprise supports marginalized youth
Monday, August 29th, 2011
Aug 27 2011
… where do young people — and especially those at risk — go now as the economy slows, unemployment increases, tuition rises, government funds constrict, and non-profits are stretched? And without a future for some of our youth, we can expect increased addiction, soaring health costs, family breakdown, perpetual poverty and more crime and prison time… Social enterprises, businesses operated with a blend of financial and social goals, are a preventive measure that interrupts or redirects the track to unemployment and social exclusion.
Tags: budget, economy, ideology, participation, standard of living, youth
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The era of permanent unemployment
Friday, August 26th, 2011
Aug 23 2011
Permanent unemployment (as North American manufacturing erodes, never to repair itself) is known in economic terms as “hysteresis.” It kills health, marriages, stability and parents’ ability to send a child to university. It destroys cities and neighbourhoods, and sends young people into the workplace with mortgage-level debt. Those children, raised with self-esteem, will lose it in the most painful way possible… Relations between the sexes sour, between everyone. Status anxiety rules. So we lash out — against workers with pensions, for instance — and vote against our own long-term interests. Irrational thinking prevails.
Tags: economy, featured, globalization, ideology, poverty, standard of living, youth
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Recession Redux: Time for an Economic Overhaul
Monday, August 15th, 2011
Aug 14 2011
As a social construction, our economy can and must be radically altered. It is clear that the neo-liberal paradigm, with its tax breaks and financial bailouts for the most affluent, is failing not only our societies, but our ecosystems as well… our current economic system does not simply need fine-tuning, it needs a serious and sustained overhaul… It’s time to be compassionate, socially just, and ecologically responsible in the “global village
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Harvard study links income inequality to plummeting unionization
Wednesday, August 10th, 2011
August 10, 2011
From 1973 to 2007, wage inequality in the U.S. private sector increased by more than 40 per cent among men, and by about 50 per cent among women. At the same time, union membership plunged… “Our study underscores the role of unions as an equalizing force in the labor market… In the early 1970s, unions were important for delivering middle-class incomes to working-class families, and they enlivened politics by speaking out against inequality… These days, there just aren’t big institutional actors who are making the case for greater economic equality in America.”
Tags: ideology, standard of living
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Retirement security needed for all
Saturday, July 16th, 2011
July 15, 2011
Those who oppose decent retirement incomes go to great lengths to misrepresent public-sector worker pension plans. Public-sector workers make significant contributions to pay for future pension benefits. An average pension for a 30-year employee would be a modest $17,900 a year. But that’s not the point. The point is that all Canadians should have a right to a secure income in our retirement years.
Tags: ideology, pensions, rights, standard of living
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