Archive for the ‘Economy/Employment’ Category
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Income Inequality Is Costing the U.S. on Social Issues
… when it comes to the health, well-being and shared prosperity of its people, the United States has fallen far behind…. blaming globalization and technological progress for the stagnation of the middle class and the precipitous decline in our collective health is too easy. Jobs were lost and wages got stuck in many developed countries. What set the United States apart… was the nature of its response. Government support for Americans in the bottom half turned out to be too meager…
Tags: economy, globalization, ideology, participation, poverty, tax
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Hasta la vista, employment
… when disease or falling birth rates make workers hard to find, we look to more machines – that’s how the Industrial Revolution happened. It’s also what’s happening now… Aging and shrinking demographics mean there’s no reserve army of labour, so research is being poured into technology… The question is whether the shrinking work forces and the rising robots will reach a virtuous balance… Otherwise… countries would have to start handing money to consumers just to keep the machines running.
Tags: economy, globalization, ideology, participation, poverty, standard of living
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Jobless insurance needs a new manager
… the Conservative government, raids the $23.1-billion fund at will; collects more in premiums than it pays out in benefits; denies coverage to the most vulnerable workers; dispatches officials to recipients’ homes to catch them loafing; and withholds income support from laid-off Canadians who get one computer keystroke wrong… Take responsibility for rule-setting out of the hands of the employment minister and Ottawa would no longer have the authority to deny 60 per cent of the jobless EI benefits.
Tags: budget, economy, featured, globalization, ideology, participation, standard of living, tax
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Harper is not funding science, he’s subsidizing business
It’s not just that the amounts invested are paltry, but the new money that is there tends to be directed at specific projects… what we have is a government that can’t stop talking about the importance of innovation, surreptitiously rolling back on its commitment to scientific innovation… Mr. Harper’s government is micromanaging research dollars so that it can use universities/colleges as surrogates for industrial research.
Tags: budget, economy, ideology, privatization, standard of living, tax
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Small companies the main casualties of higher corporate taxes
… most small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) pay corporate taxes, and these are often the most vulnerable in a shaky economy… the larger the company, the more sophisticated is its army of tax lawyers and accountants. That gives them the edge in reducing their tax exposure… It’s the individuals who run the corporations that can veer into ethical and moral grey areas – and it’s their personal income levels that create issues of income inequality.
Tags: economy, globalization, ideology, tax
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How not to fight income inequality
… according to a recent report for the MacDonald Laurier Institute by Philip Cross, former chief economic analyst at Statistics Canada, Canada already has a highly progressive system of income redistribution. Taxes, however, are only part of the picture: the real issue is transfers… The report concludes: “… Instead of focusing on modifying taxes and transfers to redistribute income, it would be better to adopt policies that boost market incomes for all classes.”
Tags: budget, economy, featured, ideology, participation, standard of living, tax
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5 Things You Don’t Know About Minimum Wage Workers in Canada
… nearly half of Canada’s minimum wage workforce are employed by companies with 500+ employees – pointing to the role of large corporate chains in driving the trend towards a more precarious, low-paid workforce… wage increases should never be “arbitrary” – tying the minimum wage to the rate of inflation (consumer price index) is one way to prevent wages from stagnating while offering businesses a stable and predictable way to anticipate and plan for future increases.
Tags: economy, featured, ideology, participation, poverty, standard of living
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Investment should be the federal budget priority
The problem is not profits, which are still near a record high as a proportion of the economy, nor a lack of funds. Corporations are sitting on a $600-billion-plus cash hoard of surplus profits, boosted by recent deep corporate tax cuts. Business investment is likely to fall even further due to the resource slump and halted megaprojects… Ottawa has been advised by the [IMF] and many prominent economists… that it can and should boost public investment, especially in mass transit and basic municipal infrastructure.
Tags: budget, economy, globalization, ideology, participation
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Q&A with precarious work expert Guy Standing [GAI]
[GAI?]… It’s affordable in the sense that you’d be converting a lot of existing benefits and subsidies … in order to be able to afford it. You would increase the incentive for people to take low-wage jobs, not reduce it, because you’ve removed the poverty trap. People who have basic security and feel more in control of their lives (also) tend be healthier. If you’re healthier, you tend to have a lower demand for health services… The evidence is that people (with) basic security work more, not less. And when they work, they tend to be more productive, not less.
Tags: economy, featured, Health, ideology, mental Health, participation, poverty, standard of living
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Long-overdue tax revolt is finally under way in Britain
The revolt is aimed at wealthy individuals and corporations who game the system so expertly that they pay hardly any taxes, or less tax than fairness would dictate. Europe is riddled with tax havens whose role is to deprive high-tax countries from the resources they need to support their social systems… Unless they are reined in, the notion that the European Union is a level playing field will remain a farce.
Tags: budget, economy, globalization, ideology, standard of living, tax
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