Friday Morning Links

Assorted content to end your week.

- Crawford Kilian discusses Rutger Bregman's work in noting that we can build a better society in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. Asun Lera St Clair interviews Jason Hickel about the prospect of redefining our economy based on human-centric measures of development.

- Luke Savage points out how the U.S.' coronavirus response actually reduced poverty by providing much-needed income benefits to people otherwise excluded from any social safety net. But Dan Darrah argues that we need to ensure the public provision of basic services such as housing, rather than relying on income supports alone.

- Jose Antonio Ocampo and Tommaso Faccio write about the importance of making sure wealthy individuals and multinational corporations pay their fair share to sustain liveable societies. And Martin Sandbu examines the case for a wealth tax in the UK.

- Nicholas Kristof argues that refusing to wear a mask in the midst of a pandemic is as destructive and antisocial as insisting on driving drunk. And Wency Leung reports on a push among Canadian doctors and scientists to require mandatory mask wearing in public.

- Finally, Justin Ling argues that care providers rather than police should be our first responders in dealing with mental health reports. And CBC News reports on an outbreak of overdoses resulting from a Saskatchewan government determined to deal with drug policy as a matter of moralistic scolding rather than harm reduction and respect for human life.