Archive for the ‘Equality’ Category
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Should we raise taxes on the rich?
Saturday, September 10th, 2011
Sep 09 2011
Not since the Gilded Age plutocracy of a century ago has there been such a near-consensus… on the need to raise taxes on the rich… But the real story here is the scarcity of objections to Buffett’s call for a level playing field, in which all income groups are able to participate fully in society… Saving the world economy from that explosion of reckless greed has so far cost the U.S. alone about $2 trillion in taxpayer funded Wall Street bailouts… We can have that discussion peaceably in school auditoriums… Or we can have it in the streets. But there will be a reckoning, because the status quo is untenable.
Tags: economy, ideology, standard of living, tax
Posted in Equality Debates | No Comments »
The world after 9/11: Naomi Klein prevails again
Friday, September 9th, 2011
Sep. 09, 2011
The objective of the economic class war has always been simplicity itself: inequality, the greater the better. And it’s working like a charm. In the United States, and to a growing extent in Canada, it is now politically impossible ever to discuss the need to raise taxes, even on the filthy rich, in order to sustain any kind of positive government… While the middle class shrinks, the working class slips backwards and social mobility erodes, the rich buy themselves politicians, lobbyists, legal beagles, slick accountants, “trained economists,” television networks, “think” tanks and whatever other apparatus is needed to make them even richer.
Tags: economy, globalization, ideology, standard of living, tax
Posted in Equality Policy Context | No Comments »
Few cracks in the glass ceiling
Monday, September 5th, 2011
Sep 04 2011
A new Conference Board of Canada study shows that women’s advancement to the top echelons of business came to a dead halt in the mid-1980s. It has been stalled ever since… The mainstream think-tank did not call for a radical shakeup of corporate culture… It merely stressed that “fostering gender diversity is a natural extension of good business practice.” … the report does serve one valuable purpose. It shatters the long-standing myth that time corrects gender equities. It’s true that a few female stars have cracked the glass ceiling. But the path to the top is still blocked for most women.
Tags: economy, ideology, participation, rights, women
Posted in Equality History | 2 Comments »
Global revolt of the have-nots
Monday, September 5th, 2011
Sep 04 201
“All the action of the American economy was at the top; the richest 1 per cent of households earned as much each year as the bottom 60 per cent put together; they possessed as much wealth as the bottom 90 per cent; and with each passing year, a greater share of the nation’s treasure was flowing through their hands and into their pockets.” … The evasions of conservative governments, tellingly articulated by Britain’s prime minister, include ascribing the unrest to greed, gangs and the failure of parents to control their children…
Tags: economy, ideology, participation, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Equality Debates | No Comments »
Failing Forward
Sunday, September 4th, 2011
August 26, 2011
We simply can’t keep turning to pills and prisons to solve issues of poverty and poor parenting. This is unhealthy, unsustainable and unwise… We also have to preserve women’s birth options should they become pregnant, including the option not to give birth. And, finally, for all the children who are born, we must make a valiant effort to give each and every one of them a fighting chance, which includes food and medicine when their parents can’t provide it. We must do this not as a boon or crutch to the parent, but as a selfish investment in the future of this great society.
Tags: ideology, participation, poverty, standard of living, youth
Posted in Equality Policy Context | No Comments »
Taxing the super-rich
Saturday, September 3rd, 2011
Sep. 03, 2011
… while there’s no limit to using the rich as a political punching bag, there’s a limit to taxing them. So, perhaps the debate on both sides of the Atlantic should focus on political influence. There, the rich really are different from you and me… isn’t what passes as philanthropy often just a way for the rich to advance their pet political causes? Who says the “causes” of the wealthy are always the best ones for society? The rich may be smart. But the rest of us should not be that dumb.
Tags: economy, globalization, ideology, tax
Posted in Equality Debates | No Comments »
Eulogy becomes rallying cry for the left
Tuesday, August 30th, 2011
Aug 29 2011
The economic reality is that we get richer every year as a country; our GDP has grown massively since 1937. Yet, as Lewis noted, we now have “an economy that excludes so many from our collective wealth.” It’s not that we don’t have enough collective wealth — our cup overfloweth — it’s that we’ve accepted a rigid and illogical ideology, preached by conservatives, that teaches us we can no longer afford what we plainly managed to afford when we had less money.
Tags: featured, ideology, participation
Posted in Equality Debates | No Comments »
Where’s Canada’s Warren Buffett?
Friday, August 26th, 2011
Aug 25 2011
Those with astronomical incomes, in part made possible by the social structure funded by past generations, have a responsibility to share the cost of public goods and services for current and future generations… adding two new tax brackets of 32 per cent on income over $250,000 and 35 per cent on income over $750,000 would generate about $12 billion in new revenue over the next three years. Those modest tax adjustments could fund a new national pharmacare program, or launch a national child-care program, plus allow university tuition fees to be rolled back to 1991 levels.
Tags: ideology, standard of living, tax
Posted in Equality Policy Context | No Comments »
David Johnston’s welcome words to lawyers
Thursday, August 18th, 2011
Aug. 17, 2011
Some of his most challenging remarks were about what lawyers need to do to maintain the public’s trust. In the collapse of Wall Street, “how many lawyers ‘papered’ the deals that involved fraudulent statements of assets, liabilities, income and valuations? … A former law dean, Mr. Johnston challenged the law schools not to obsess over the intellectual qualifications of entering students, but to look more broadly at their “ethical sensibility and depth,” personal relationships, wisdom, judgment and leadership. He would also ensure “a broad and extensive focus on ethics in law school.”
Tags: ideology, rights, standard of living
Posted in Equality Delivery System | 1 Comment »
Wake-up call from top judge
Tuesday, August 16th, 2011
Aug 15 2011
Four years ago, Beverley McLachlin, Canada’s chief justice, delivered a blunt warning. “The most advanced justice system in the world is a failure if it does not provide justice to the people it is meant to serve,” she told the Empire Club of Canada. “Unfortunately, many Canadian men and women find themselves unable, mainly for financial reasons, to access the Canadian justice system.”… Governments also must do better. The right to a fair trial is guaranteed in the Constitution. Yet legal aid is offered only to the poorest of the poor. Many services are not covered. Most provinces are cutting funding.
Tags: ideology, privatization, rights, standard of living
Posted in Equality Delivery System | No Comments »
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