Archive for the ‘Equality’ Category
« Older Entries | Newer Entries »
Stung by allegations of inflated pay, native chiefs to open their books
Saturday, December 11th, 2010
Dec. 11, 2010
Under fire over revelations that some of them are paid better than provincial premiers, Canada’s native chiefs are poised to make an unprecedented commitment to open their books. The more than 600 chiefs of the Assembly of First Nations are expected to adopt a resolution next week promising to “lead by example” through the clear and timely release of audits, public accounts, salaries, honorariums and expenses of their chiefs and council.
Tags: budget, Indigenous
Posted in Equality Debates | No Comments »
Unease grows over inequality
Wednesday, December 8th, 2010
Dec 08 2010
Until the recession hit, nothing could shake the faith of North Americans in the omnipotence of the marketplace… Now people are looking for answers their governments and business leaders can’t provide. They’re at least open to the idea that something might be wrong with the system… The symptoms of a structural malaise are certainly there… But… Income redistribution remains a taboo phrase. Shoring up threadbare social programs is considered prohibitively expensive. Returning to a more progressive tax system isn’t on the political agenda.
Tags: ideology, participation, rights, standard of living, tax
Posted in Equality Debates | No Comments »
Help the poor, not banks: NDP leader
Wednesday, December 8th, 2010
Dec. 6, 2010
… on Jan. 1, Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Conservative government will be giving… bankers $6 billion in tax cuts, while the poorest people in the community can continue to rely on food banks, the New Democratic Party’s federal leader said… Jack Layton suggested that money could give seniors enough to get them out from below the poverty line or extend employment insurance benefits to people who need it. “You could do all those things plus so much more if you cancelled that corporate tax cut to the banks and the oil companies,”
Tags: ideology, standard of living, tax
Posted in Equality Debates | No Comments »
The Trouble with Billionaires
Sunday, December 5th, 2010
Dec. 4, 2010
… the three decades following the Second World War were marked by strong economic growth, a highly regulated financial sector, a significant middle class with steadily rising incomes, heavy taxation of the rich (whose marginal tax rate reached 91 per cent under Eisenhower) and, consequently, record-low levels of inequality. By contrast, the neo-con era, kicked off by Ronald Reagan in 1980, gave us generous tax cuts for the rich, deregulation, stagnating middle-class incomes, sharp increases in inequality, a bloated and wildly speculative financial sector and, ultimately, financial collapse.
Tags: economy, globalization, standard of living, tax
Posted in Equality Debates | 1 Comment »
Tax cheats reveal themselves in record numbers
Sunday, December 5th, 2010
Dec. 4, 2010
Canadians have been confessing in record numbers to having dodged income taxes, iPolitics has learned. The most significant increase is among those who have stashed money and assets in offshore tax havens. Figures obtained from the Canada Revenue Agency show that 12,128 people came forward in 2009-10 to declare unpaid taxes — the largest number of people since the voluntary disclosure program began in 1973. In 2009-10, the agency identified $1.8-billion in unreported income, resulting in $550-million in federal taxes.
Tags: budget, crime prevention, globalization, tax
Posted in Equality Debates | No Comments »
Winning the Class War
Sunday, December 5th, 2010
November 26, 2010
The ranks of the poor may be swelling and families forced out of their foreclosed homes may be enduring a nightmarish holiday season, but American companies have just experienced their most profitable quarter ever… U.S. firms earned profits at an annual rate of $1.659 trillion in the third quarter — the highest total since the government began keeping track more than six decades ago… Anyone who thinks there is something beneficial in this vast disconnect between the fortunes of the American elite and those of the struggling masses is just silly. It’s not even good for the elite.
Tags: economy, ideology, standard of living, tax
Posted in Equality Policy Context | No Comments »
Rich countries let poorest children fall behind
Friday, December 3rd, 2010
Dec 02 2010
The report, entitled, “The Children Left Behind,” looked at inequality in child well-being by measuring the gap between the average child and the most disadvantaged children in three aspects of their lives — material well-being, educational achievement and physical health. Canada ranks average overall, but scores a dismal 17th place in the area of children’s material well-being, which includes family income and housing, the report found. Since all data were collected before the 2008 recession, child inequality has likely grown across the OECD, it warns.
Tags: ideology, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Equality Debates | No Comments »
The rich really are getting richer
Wednesday, December 1st, 2010
Dec. 01, 2010
… after the Second World War, Canadian society distributed income in an increasingly level fashion… That trend was reversed over the past 30 years… (when) the richest 0.1 per cent almost tripled their income share and the richest 0.01 per cent increased their share fivefold. Median incomes, meanwhile, have been stagnant… Ms. Yalnizyan said in the long run the trend toward income concentration seems… politically and economically unsustainable. “You can’t keep growing an underclass that plays by all the rules, gets a better education, works more and doesn’t get ahead”
Tags: economy, ideology, standard of living, tax
Posted in Equality Debates | No Comments »
Rich getting richer while middle class stagnates: StatsCan
Wednesday, December 1st, 2010
Dec. 1, 2010
The inequality gap of the ‘20s and early ‘30s eventually collapsed and then switched direction with the Second World War, narrowing and steadily declining until about 1982. Since then, the super-rich have gradually claimed larger and larger pieces of the total income pie… The higher up the income scale, the more dramatic the gains. For the richest one per cent, the share of all Canadian incomes almost doubled between the late 1970s and 2007. For the richest 0.1 per cent of tax files, their total share almost tripled…
Tags: economy, ideology, standard of living, tax
Posted in Equality Debates | No Comments »
Five Things to Know about the big chief paycheques on native reserves
Wednesday, November 24th, 2010
November 24, 2010
Conservative MP Kelly Block’s pending private member’s bill that aims to require aboriginal chiefs to publicly disclose their salaries may not change the way many First Nations are governed. As appalled as many people may be when chiefs help themselves to colossal paycheques, the reality is there is frequently a widespread consensus in a lot of native communities that chiefs are entitled to make their own rules… Even if a majority of members are outraged at their chief’s salary, they won’t necessarily protest.
Tags: budget, Indigenous, rights, standard of living
Posted in Equality Debates | 1 Comment »
Recent Comments