Archive for the ‘Equality’ Category
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Why Income Inequality Suddenly Matters
Saturday, November 12th, 2011
Nov. 11, 2011
… we believed that “it is OK to have ever-greater differences between rich and poor … as long as (our) children have a good chance of grasping the brass ring.” … However, the last three decades have invalidated our standing hypothesis… Of course, some class mobility still exists. The trouble is that it’s primarily of the downward kind… data from the [OECD] show that social mobility in uber-capitalist America is actually lower than in most industrialized countries… And this is why, among all the fights over economic policy, the debate about taxes is the most crucial of all.
Tags: economy, standard of living, tax
Posted in Equality Policy Context | No Comments »
Occupy Toronto is not the real threat to civil society
Friday, November 11th, 2011
Nov 10 2011
Certainly this is the hour of our discontent. That discontent is income inequality. The spectacular disparity between the super-affluent and the rest of us is a leading, if not root, cause of widespread ill health, stunted education opportunity, and intolerably high rates of crime and racial discrimination in our communities… Economic injustice is not an act of God, but of man. The now-tattered social safety net we built we can repair. The wealth of nations is jeopardized by allowing the middle-class backbone of our communities to corrode, a process already too far along.
Tags: economy, featured, ideology, participation, rights, standard of living, tax
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Canada must address the crisis faced by aboriginal children
Tuesday, November 8th, 2011
November 07, 2011
… the council of advocates and UNICEF Canada support another report done by the Canadian Coalition for the Rights of Children. Key among its recommendations are: developing a rights-based lens for reviewing and amending provincial and federal legislation; establishing systematic monitoring of legislation and programs; abandoning proposed changes to the juvenile justice act. The justice act changes will have their greatest effect on aboriginal youth. Shockingly, as the advocates note, an aboriginal youth is more likely to be sentenced to youth custody than to graduate from high school.
Tags: corrections, crime prevention, Indigenous, poverty, rights, standard of living, youth
Posted in Equality Debates, Inclusion Debates | No Comments »
Harper’s Plan to Dismantle Canada’s Safety Nets
Tuesday, November 8th, 2011
Nov. 7, 2011
When Harper stated that we would not recognize the country after he was through, this is in part what he was talking about. Ideology is meaning in the service of power, and the Conservative government, libertarian to its core, intends to create the appearance of an increasingly volunteer society as it systematically guts the social and cultural role of government. Harper hopes to justify massive cuts to programs (and in general the role of the federal government period) by shifting responsibility to charities and foundations.
Tags: economy, featured, ideology, philanthropy, standard of living, tax
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The 1% are the very best destroyers of wealth the world has ever seen
Tuesday, November 8th, 2011
Nov. 7, 2011
The findings… are devastating to the beliefs that financial high-fliers entertain about themselves… They show that traders and fund managers throughout Wall Street receive their massive remuneration for doing no better than would a chimpanzee flipping a coin… Egocentricity, a strong sense of entitlement, a readiness to exploit others and a lack of empathy and conscience are also unlikely to damage their prospects in many corporations… This is not to suggest that all executives are psychopaths. It is to suggest that the economy has been rewarding the wrong skills.
Tags: economy, globalization, ideology, standard of living, tax
Posted in Equality Policy Context | 1 Comment »
What do banks actually DO?
Monday, November 7th, 2011
What do banks actually DO? Create credit out of thin air. Were Canadian banks bailed-out? Absolutely, to the tune of $200 billion. And they are still protected and subsidized more than any other sector of the economy. What must be done with these banks? Tax them, control them, and ultimately take them back… A video is available here: < http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QoOKY5kH9cc&feature=youtu.be >
Tags: economy, featured, globalization, ideology, participation, rights, standard of living, tax
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The Tyee Reader on Inequality
Monday, October 31st, 2011
28 Oct 2011
The Tyee has been covering the Occupy Movement since we started back in 2003… So we’re happy to provide you with links to scores of articles dealing with inequality in British Columbia, in Canada, and elsewhere. We’ve organized them in chronological order within each section. And we’ve included some bonus links to other useful sources on inequality.
Tags: economy, globalization, ideology, participation, poverty, rights, tax
Posted in Equality Policy Context | No Comments »
Why aren’t we talking about income inequality?
Saturday, October 29th, 2011
Oct. 29, 2011
In Canada, we have fussed a great deal about equality, but not of the income kind. Instead, we’ve spent much money and changed laws to deal with equality of regions and equality (or equity) of ethnicity and gender. In 2011-2012, the federal government will spread $14.7-billion around Canada under the equalization program, which is enshrined in the Constitution… It’s a jerry-rigged system based on a formula no mere mortal can understand, and it produces bizarre results… Income inequality, however, seems to be the kind of inequality that Canadians don’t talk about much.
Tags: economy, ideology, poverty, standard of living
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The big questions raised by anti-capitalist protests
Friday, October 28th, 2011
October 28, 2011
In the 19th and early 20th centuries, the ideology was socialism and the force was organized labour. Socialism failed as a way of running economies. It did, however, succeed in establishing welfare states… If the traditional left offers no answer, can the free market right return to business as usual? No. People who believe in the marriage of democratic politics with market economics need to address what has happened… Market capitalism creates inherent difficulties. The two most obvious are macroeconomic instability and extremes of inequality… Any inequality is corrosive if those with wealth are believed to have rigged the game rather than won in honest competition.
Tags: economy, featured, ideology, rights, standard of living, tax
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Why taxing the rich makes sense
Friday, October 28th, 2011
Oct 28, 2011
Across Canada, thousands of individuals are standing up for what they believe in, and camping out in support of economic equality… These people should be honoured, appreciated, and most importantly heard, not simply disregarded as being a nuisance or a hindrance to society. / Fairness requires that the rich pay more taxes… keep capitalism, but income inequality must be addressed — fairness requires it. Poverty can be eliminated; small-government egalitarianism provides the solution.
Tags: ideology, participation, standard of living, tax
Posted in Equality Debates | No Comments »
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