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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 »
Debt, cuts are not necessary
Friday, August 26th, 2011
Aug 25 2011
… the real problem is the trend by the right-wing (like the ever hopeful Tim Hudak) to slash taxes, creating a huge imbalance between what we as a society want to do and what we can fiscally do… If the tax system were to be rectified, with everyone paying their fair share, there would be no problem with services or the need to slash jobs. There wouldn’t even have been the enormous debt that is facing us now.
Tags: budget, ideology, tax
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »
The era of permanent unemployment
Friday, August 26th, 2011
Aug 23 2011
Permanent unemployment (as North American manufacturing erodes, never to repair itself) is known in economic terms as “hysteresis.” It kills health, marriages, stability and parents’ ability to send a child to university. It destroys cities and neighbourhoods, and sends young people into the workplace with mortgage-level debt. Those children, raised with self-esteem, will lose it in the most painful way possible… Relations between the sexes sour, between everyone. Status anxiety rules. So we lash out — against workers with pensions, for instance — and vote against our own long-term interests. Irrational thinking prevails.
Tags: economy, featured, globalization, ideology, poverty, standard of living, youth
Posted in Debates | No Comments »
The education of Tim Hudak on full-day K
Thursday, August 25th, 2011
Aug 24 2011
Hudak had reflexively opposed full-day K when Premier Dalton McGuinty acted on the recommendation of his early-learning adviser, Charles Pascal… He refused to commit to any future rollout. It wasn’t just a matter of money — $1.4 billion a year by 2014 — but ideology and politics. Instead, Hudak held out a classic Tory alternative: putting cash in parents’ hands… A PC survey asked voters about scrapping full-day K to “provide parents with direct financial support to allow them to choose the child-care option that works best for them.” The answer came back that Ontarians actually liked full-day K.
Tags: budget, child care, ideology, standard of living, women
Posted in Child & Family Debates | No Comments »
Jack Layton’s open letter to all Canadians
Thursday, August 25th, 2011
To young Canadians: …There are great challenges before you, from the overwhelming nature of climate change to the unfairness of an economy that excludes so many from our collective wealth, and the changes necessary to build a more inclusive and generous Canada. I believe in you. Your energy, your vision, your passion for justice are exactly what this country needs today. You need to be at the heart of our economy, our political life, and our plans for the present and the future.
Tags: participation, standard of living
Posted in Inclusion Debates | No Comments »
Prepare for post-election pain, no matter who wins Ontario vote
Sunday, August 21st, 2011
Aug 20 2011
… a complete rethink of government services is being carried out by a little-known fiscal commission… Its mandate, embedded in the last budget, is to seek out government waste and identify services for privatization… The chair of the Commission on Reform of Ontario’s Public Services, Don Drummond… points out that health takes up nearly half of all program spending in Ontario. He believes up to 25 per cent of it is wasteful… Yet even the most enlightened cuts require a political consensus and Drummond, the man behind the plan, believes the public is not yet prepared.
Tags: budget, economy, ideology, standard of living, tax
Posted in Governance Policy Context | No Comments »
Social programs beget social peace
Friday, August 19th, 2011
… governments have created huge deficits for the wrong reasons, such as spending on the military, cutting taxes, and bailing out bankrupt corporations. They now want to balance their budget through cutting social programs. No wonder the people are expressing their frustrations through street protests or joining extremist groups… Japan, Germany, and Norway are good examples of countries that are deeply involved in the world economy but they have kept high standard for their social programs. That is why their streets are quiet and we don’t here protests.
Tags: economy, ideology, participation, poverty, rights, standard of living
Posted in Inclusion Policy Context | No Comments »
Dragging democracy into the 21st century
Friday, August 19th, 2011
Aug 18 2011
If (Canada’s chief electoral officer) gets his way, Canada’s federal voting system will be a modernized entity reflecting reality by Oct. 19, 2015, when Canadians next go to the polls… he believes the reality of social media means it is futile to try to outlaw the use of Twitter, YouTube and Facebook… on election night. Canadians are used to real-time information, never more so on election night, regardless of where they live. Mayrand wants to start dabbling in Internet voting, testing it in a byelection after 2013 and freeing up the Internet to allow citizens to advocate for candidates.
Tags: participation, rights, youth
Posted in Governance Delivery System | No Comments »
What wealth can be found in the public sector?
Wednesday, August 17th, 2011
Aug 16 2011
… why the private sector “doesn’t have a lock on wealth creation”… the approach stems from a misconception that the public sector is an expense and only the private sector can create wealth… “Clean, potable water is a form of wealth… Quality public schools are a form of wealth. It doesn’t become wealth creating only when you privatize it… Moving services from the public to the private “isn’t wealth creating, it’s wealth shifting”… Right now, governments are focusing on cuts instead of how to increase revenue through bringing “fairness into the tax code”.
Tags: economy, ideology, rights, standard of living
Posted in Policy Context | No Comments »
A good start toward rational health-care billing
Wednesday, August 17th, 2011
Aug 15 2011
Why would the OMA quietly give back more than $8,000 per doctor? A few numbers may help to put this in context: Total clinical payments to Ontario physicians (from Canadian Institute for Health Information, CIHI): • 2004-05: $5.17 billion. • 2008-09: $7.48 billion. • Growth in four years: 44.7 per cent… Some of this is due to new doctors coming in — probably under 1 per cent… This money comes in three areas that simply were no longer publicly defensible…
Tags: budget, featured, Health
Posted in Health Delivery System | No Comments »
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