Wednesday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.

- Noah Smith examines how even leaving aside such trifling considerations as human welfare, it's a better economic proposition to provide money to people with less money than those with more. And Matt McGrath highlights how any hope of averting a climate breakdown requires that the wealthiest people on the planet eliminate some of the extravagant emissions from their lifestyles.

- But Umair Haque points out how far too many decisions are made by and for remorseless and malicious idiots (in the original sense of the term).

- On that front, Tavia Grant and Kelly Grant note that whatever Ontario is calling a "lockdown" is designed to do nothing to stop the spread of COVID-19 in workplaces which have frequently been the sources of outbreaks. And Jenny Kwan and Daniel Blaikie call for the Libs to avoid damaging clawbacks on CERB payments.

- Ian Sample reports on the conclusion of the President of the UK's Royal College of Psychiatrists that the coronavirus pandemic will have more severe mental health effects than any event since World War II. And Amanpreet Brar, Lawrence Loh and Basak Yanar highlight the unfairness of temporary low-wage workers being forced to accept the worst stresses and risks while making do with meager incomes.

- Finally, Frank Morris discusses how COVID-19 has exacerbated the exodus of medical professionals from small towns in the U.S. (even in the absence of governments actively driving them away).

Tuesday Morning Links

This and that for your Tuesday reading.

- Tom Parkin writes about the growing divide between the lucky few who are siphoning wealth out of Canada, and the mass of people facing a precarious economic future.

- PressProgress highlights much the same distinction by examining the types of workers who make less in a year than Christy Clark's donor-funded car allowance. Andrew MacLeod reports on the connection between the B.C. Libs' donations and real estate developers. And Derrick O'Keefe points out that Clark (and her corporate-funded peers) are counting on the public not paying attention to who's pulling the strings.

- Roderick Benns talks to Daniel Blaikie about the prospect of a basic income. And Murray Mandryk takes a look a Saskatchewan's budget which shows relatively large amounts of money toward education, social services and policing producing lamentable results.

- Mike De Souza exposes Enbridge's direct role in dictating what the National Energy Board reported about its pipeline safety failings. 

- Finally, Alex Boutilier reports on the Communications Security Establishment's attempts to avoid providing an honest account of its breaches of privacy. And Jim Bronskill and Dean Beeby offer some useful suggestions to modernize Canada's access to information laws.