Archive for the ‘Policy Context’ Category
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Why health reform is good news for the U.S. economy
Monday, July 2nd, 2012
Jun 29, 2012
Universal health care is not just smart and fair social policy; it is also smart economic policy. It works this way: If a worker in Canada or Europe or Japan loses his or her job, it’s a psychological and income blow. But if an American worker loses his or her job, the family faces financial ruin if sickness strikes any member because they are without health care coverage. Worse yet, if a major illness is diagnosed during a period of unemployment, a worker becomes unemployable, bringing about a life sentence of poverty.
Tags: economy, Health, ideology, poverty, standard of living
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Economist Paul Krugman writes a repair manual for this depression
Monday, June 25th, 2012
Jun 24 2012
Keynes, who believed in government spending to kick-start stalled economies, is out of fashion right now. Milton Friedman is still in, the wisdom of the markets and all that. Look at us now. Clever little markets! … Here’s the essence: National economies aren’t like a household budget… when 10,000 teachers, scientists and food inspectors are laid off, that’s 10,000 salaries that don’t shop, buy a house, pay federal, provincial and local taxes and generally make the world go round.
Tags: budget, economy, featured, ideology, standard of living
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The Austerity Agenda
Sunday, June 10th, 2012
May 31, 2012
… slashing spending while the economy is deeply depressed is a self-defeating strategy, because it just deepens the depression… So why have so many politicians insisted on pursuing austerity in slump? And why won’t they change course even as experience confirms the lessons of theory and history? … they almost always retreat to assertions along the lines of: “But it’s essential that we shrink the size of the state.”… it’s about using deficit panic as an excuse to dismantle social programs… For economic recovery was never the point; the drive for austerity was about using the crisis, not solving it.
Tags: economy, ideology, standard of living
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EI: An inequitable system that distorts the labour market
Friday, June 1st, 2012
May. 30, 2012
One potential – and likely intended – impact of the proposed changes is to signal to younger, more geographically mobile workers who are contemplating careers in seasonal work that their future opportunities are diminished, and that it would be advisable to take steps leading to full-year employment… There are at least two alternative reforms that economists tend to favour. One possibility is the creation of a separate regime that would be designed especially for seasonal workers… A second possibility would be to implement an experience rating that would apply to both the firm… and the worker.
Tags: economy, globalization, ideology, rights, standard of living, youth
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Labour Minister Lisa Raitt is tilting the playing field against unions
Monday, May 28th, 2012
May 27 2012
The labour minister seems think that if a negotiated agreement can’t be reached by a private company like CP Rail, then its management and unions should agree to binding arbitration. This is not free collective bargaining. This is settlement-imposition by government-selected arbitrators. If this is the dispute-resolution approach that the Harper government wants to use in the future then it should come clean. Stop circumventing our existing labour legislation. Bring this arbitration-based system to Parliament, and debate its implications in full view of all Canadians
Tags: economy, ideology, rights, standard of living
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Stephen Harper’s stealth EI changes are a worry.
Saturday, May 19th, 2012
May 18 2012
The Harper cabinet intends to spring a new set of “stealth” rules on us by way of regulation, months from now, after it has amended the Employment Insurance Act to strip away existing rights to refuse lousy jobs… But hurrying skilled people into menial jobs out of some misplaced sense that any job will do is a waste of resources. They should have the time to canvass for jobs that make productive use of their know-how. The current rules reflect that reality.
Tags: economy, globalization, ideology, rights, standard of living
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Budget bill gives Conservatives broad power over EI rules
Thursday, May 3rd, 2012
May 3, 2012
The measure is contained inside the budget implementation bill and would give cabinet the power to change employment insurance rules later through regulation without the approval of Parliament… The budget bill contains a small section that allows cabinet through regulation to define “suitable employment.” Ottawa isn’t saying what it has in mind… this and other EI changes in the budget bill – which also include replacing existing appeals bodies with a single “Social Security Tribunal” – are of such significance that they should be studied independently.
Tags: budget, economy, ideology, rights, standard of living
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Ottawa’s low-wage immigration policy threatens turmoil
Sunday, April 29th, 2012
Apr 27 2012
this government… says that if Canadians don’t want to see jobs going to foreigners, they should quit whining and accept lower wages. Which is why Ottawa’s answer to complaints made about temporary foreign workers is to toughen Employment Insurance rules. Kenney has warned that unemployed workers who refuse to take low-wage jobs will have their EI benefits cut off. If Canadians agree to work for less, he explains, Ottawa won’t have to bring in as many low-wage outsiders. All of this is a solution of sorts, I suppose, albeit a 19th century one. But it is a solution that threatens to bring with it the kind of agitation now seen in countries like France, Holland and Greece — where the racist right is on the rise and where far too many workers view immigrants as mortal enemies out to steal their jobs.
Tags: economy, ideology, immigration, participation, rights, standard of living
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Two-tiered wage system announced by Tories
Sunday, April 29th, 2012
Apr 28 2012
Immigration Minister Jason Kenney has always vehemently denied bringing cheap foreign labour into Canada. Employers had to pay foreign temporary workers “the prevailing wage,” he pointed out. That indeed is what the rules said – until Wednesday, when Human Resources Minister Diane Finley quietly changed them. Employers will now be allowed to pay foreign temp workers 15 per cent less than the average wage… When Canada introduced its temporary foreign worker program in 2002, the governing Liberals vowed never to adopt the European model route in which “guest workers” are paid less than nationals and treated as second-class residents
Tags: immigration, rights, standard of living
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Why economically troubled nations should emulate Germany
Friday, April 20th, 2012
Apr 19 2012
German industry is no less productive and innovative than its top peers, including Korea, Japan and the U.S. Yet organized labour in Germany has long had a significant role in corporate governance, as members of corporate supervisory boards. And Germany has long required employers to provide mandatory five-week vacations to workers… Germany… has not attempted, simplistically and foolishly, to slash its way back to robust health. Indeed, that Germany remains in robust economic health is a vindication of the social-welfare state.
Tags: economy, ideology, participation, standard of living
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