Posts Tagged ‘poverty’
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Politicians are ignoring poverty in chase after middle-class votes
Of particular concern is the ever-widening gap between the rich and poor… One of the reasons for the growing gap is the trend toward precarious and part-time employment… Youth unemployment rose to 21.65 per cent in 2014. The working poor now make up 10.7 per cent of the workforce… More disturbing still: a full 29 per cent of Toronto’s children live in poverty… there are 80,000 families in the GTA on the waiting list for affordable housing…
Tags: budget, child care, participation, poverty, standard of living, youth
Posted in Inclusion Debates | No Comments »
How a modest tax change can help low-income families and lower inequality
A modest change to the tax system that converts existing non-refundable tax credits to credits that are refundable constitutes an effective step toward improved income security for Canada’s poorest families in the fashion of a guaranteed annual income. The new benefits would be almost entirely realized by families below or near Statistics Canada’s Low-Income Cut-off and so the poorest families would benefit the most… improv[ing] the fairness of tax filing while addressing Canadian income inequality.
Tags: featured, ideology, participation, poverty, standard of living, tax
Posted in Equality Debates | No Comments »
Ontario’s working poor deserve better
Some 500,000 working Ontarians got a pay hike this week. The minimum wage edged up by a princely 25 cents an hour, to $11.25. That’s an extra $8.75 a week for those lucky enough to hold down a 35-hour job… A minimum-wage worker in Ontario doing 35 hours a week will now earn just over $20,000 before taxes, well under the $23,000-a-year poverty line… In 1997 only one Ontarian in 40 earned the minimum. Today it’s one in eight. More and more are in precarious employment, with unsettled working hours… Social justice is one good reason to legislate a living wage. Common sense is another.
Tags: economy, featured, globalization, ideology, participation, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Policy Context | 4 Comments »
The Inequality Debate: We must build prosperity for all
We in the developed world are all healthier, richer, freer and even, with a few notable exceptions, taller than our early 19th-century ancestors. There were two keys to our success then — and they will be the keys to our success now. The first is a fundamentally positive attitude to technological progress, even as we are realistic about its side-effects… The second is to understand the essential role of government in harnessing technological change so that it serves us all.
Tags: economy, globalization, ideology, participation, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Equality Debates | No Comments »
Capitalism should be for the many, not the few, book argues
What role government must play is central to Reich’s just-published Saving Capitalism: For the Many, Not the Few. The title beguiles because, as we all know, we’re in a mess. “The issue of widening inequality, the decline of equal opportunity, the stagnation of median wages, [these] have become central issues”… The book runs much deeper than executive winnings. Bankruptcy rules that favour the big over the small, diminished union power, the agglomeration of market power into near monopolies…
Tags: economy, featured, globalization, ideology, participation, poverty, standard of living, tax
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The Inequality Debate: We can do something about it
The first step is to restore the welfare state. Since 1980 there has been an unwinding of redistributive policies in OECD countries, with adverse distributional consequences… It’s one of the reasons income inequality in Canada is greater than in France, Germany or Japan. To change this involves raising taxes… based on a return to progressive income taxation… But reducing inequality is not just a matter of taxes and spending… [It’s also] the market distribution of income: what people receive in wages, interest and other forms of capital income.
Tags: budget, economy, featured, ideology, poverty, standard of living, tax
Posted in Equality Policy Context | No Comments »
Minimum Wage Rates in Canada: 1965-2015
Minimum wages are among Canada’s oldest and most important social programs…. recent increase in minimum wages across Canada is likely due in part to the creation of poverty reduction strategies, which have focused attention on minimum wages… Currently only five jurisdictions index their minimum wage rates – Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Saskatchewan, Alberta and Yukon. The report also compares minimum wages in Canada to other countries.
Tags: economy, ideology, jurisdiction, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Debates | 1 Comment »
Supply free Wi-Fi as a city service
… there’s a new effort underway to make free wireless Internet service an integral part of Toronto’s municipal infrastructure… The goal is to eliminate an income-based “digital divide” that hinders many of the poor from accessing information via high-speed Internet. It would also boost Toronto’s reputation as “tech-savvy jurisdiction” and be a boon to tourists exploring the city, as well as to Torontonians at large… it’s become a fundamental piece of municipal infrastructure.
Tags: budget, economy, ideology, jurisdiction, participation, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Inclusion Delivery System | No Comments »
Affordable housing: A crippling crisis with an obvious solution
Such a prolonged shortage translates into a workforce insufficiently skilled to make Canada thrive in a fiercely competitive global economy. It accounts for a population whose health falls short… And it imposes an expense on Canadian taxpayers in ever rising healthcare costs. It accounts in large degree for higher-than-average crime rates among selected population groups. It imposes a social tax, measured in both dollars and diminished peace of mind, the enormity of which is only hinted at by the expense of our criminal-justice system.
Tags: budget, crime prevention, Health, homelessness, housing, Indigenous, jurisdiction, mental Health, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Inclusion Debates | No Comments »
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