Monday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material to start your week.

- Adam King discusses how the income gap in Canada has reached more extreme levels than ever before. And Henry Farrell writes about the reality that the uber-rich live in an entirely different world than most of humanity - including in their ability to have their worst and most ill-informed whims turned into government policy through compliant politicians. 

- On that front, Adam Gabbatt reports on the Trump regime's plan to let a glorified chatbot destroy the U.S.' regulatory state - even though it's already well known that AI isn't suited to making government decisions. John Cole's review of Sam Freedman's Failed State discusses how the UK's privatization has proven disastrous - even as the Labour government elected due to public dissatisfaction follows in the footsteps of its Conservative predecessor.

- Doug Saunders highlights how complaints about political polarization inevitably ignore the reality that it's only the right that's veered far outside of reality. Judd Legum notes that Axios is among the media outlets that has exacerbated the problem by treating conservative spin as objective truth. David Pressman discusses how the Trump regime is following Viktor Orban's playbook in entrenching power at the expense of any rational view of the puoblic interest. And Joan Smith points out the connection between domestic abuse and public violence - which unfortunately is more relevant for its explanatory power than any sense that the powers that be will act in response to the former for the purpose of averting the latter. 

- Maalvika writes about the dangers of "compression culture" which imposes uniformity, oversimplification and brittleness in the name of efficiency. And Andrew Nikiforuk laments the triumph of stupidity in the face of the apt warnings of Kurt Vonnegut and others. 

- John Michael McGrath highlights CivicAction's new report on how workers are being priced out of Toronto. Cy Neff reports on the rise of investor-owned homes as an element of the housing crisis in California and elsewhere. And Lauren Scott reports on the status of Manitoba's work to find homes for unhoused people - along with the reality that private market-rate units in particular haven't proven to be part of the solution. 

- Finally, Jeet Heer writes about Zohran Mamdani's success offering hope-based politics in the face of a system set up ito deny anything of the sort, while Greg Sargent points out that Mamdani has also succeeded with outreach that actually earns voters' attention rather than serving merely as placeholding pablum. And David Gulliver discusses some of the lessons the NDP and its leadership contestants can draw from Mamdani's campaign. 

Sunday Afternoon Links

This and that for your Sunday reading.

- Jim Stanford laments the likelihood that we're headed for a self-inflicted recession in the name of an arbitrary inflation target. 

- Acey Rowe talks to about the Craig Desson about the mechanisms used to perpetuate old wealth. And Rupert Neate writes about Gary Stevenson's story as someone who made large amounts of money in financial trading - but only through intolerable betting on needless suffering and growing inequality.

- Meanwhile, Mitchell Thompson calls out the Canada Infrastructure Bank's demand to turn essential public water supplies into sources of profits and management fees. 

- Ayurella Horn-Muller reports on some of the global responses to SCOTUS' decision to condemn humanity to a climate breakdown. And the Council of Canadians has released new Abacus polling data showing that Canadians recognize the need for strong climate action even when weighed against immediate economic interests.

- The Ottawa Citizen's editorial board weighs in on the need to combat intimate-partner violence.

- Finally, Umair Haque writes that we're all too likely to look back on the summer of 2022 as the start of an age of crisis.

Wednesday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.

- Adeel Hassan reports on the dominance of the BA.4 and BA.5 Omicron strains in the U.S. Phil Tank reminds us of the folly of the Moe government's admonition that people should assess their own risk even while actively suppressing the data which could make that possible, while Wency Leung reports on the push among experts for Canada to reinstate mandatory masking policies to limit the damage from a new wave. And Virginie Ann reports on research showing that the public health measures which Canadian governments seem determined never to use again helped to save tens of thousands of lives. 

- David Shield reports on research linking Saskatchewan's alarming HIV rates to inadequate social assistance. And Noushin Ziafati reports on the recommendation of a coroner's inquest jury that Ontario declare an epidemic of intimate partner violence and focus on eradicating it. 

- Edward Ongweso Jr. writes that we should recognize any current bout of inflation as being caused by corporate greed rather than pandemic stimulus payments to individuals. And David Sirota discusses how John Roberts has been central to the constitutionalization of corruption in then U.S.  

- John Clarke discusses the RCMP's "pipeline police" who have been mandated to violently suppress land defenders. And Natasha Bulowski reports that the Libs' case for TransMountain depends on its use to export dirty fossil fuels for a century.  

- Finally, Ariana Kelland reports on one case showing the continued fallout from the Phoenix pay fiasco, as an employee lost her home and her job after going without pay for months. Shelley Murphy reports on a much-needed award of damages to an employee who was handed on a platter to U.S immigration services in retaliation for reporting a workplace injury. And Chris Brooks discusses the possibility of substantially building strength in organized labour - as long as unions' organizational models are updated for the new reality in the workplace. 

Wednesday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.

- Devi Sridhar writes that a responsible plan for the impending COVID wave would involve masking, improved ventilation, booster shots and a plan for the growing scourge of long COVID - even as most Canadian provinces range from uninterested to hostile toward anything of the sort. And Nicola Davis reports on new research showing that prior infection isn't providing any meaningful boost immunity to the new variants.  

- Andrew MacLeod discusses the systematic underreporting of workplace injuries in B.C. (and the callous employers pushing workers to miss out on income and medical care in order to dodge responsibility). And Shannon Devine points out the lack of any systematic support for 1.5 million Canadians living with a brain injury.

- Mark Zacharias and Merran Smith write that Canada is once again failing to plan for the aftermath of an unsustainable oil boom. Megan Milliken Biven, Virginia Palacios and Ted Boettner rightly argue that the fossil fuel sector should be paying for its own cleanup out of massive windfall profits, rather than sticking the public with the bill. And Anders Bjorn, H. Damon Matthews, Matthew Brander and Shannon Lloyd point out how the renewable energy credits developed as a substitute for actual decarbonization have predictably become a scheme to be manipulated rather than actually reflecting emission reductions. 

- Meanwhile, Kim van Daalen examines how extreme weather and climate events contribute to gender-based violence among other social harms. 

- Finally, Phoebe Stephens weighs in on how the soaring prices of groceries and other necessities are the result of corporate greed rather than the operation of fair markets. 

Friday Morning Links

Assorted content to end your week.

- Michael Smart compares Canada's fiscal response to the COVID crisis to the reaction to previous recessions - finding that benefits for people are being cut back to normal levels in the midst of an ongoing pandemic, while corporate profits continue to soar. And David Dayen writes that while employers bleat about labour shortages based on their refusal to offer more than starvation wages, what's actually proven scarce in the U.S. attention to the needs of people.

- Meanwhile, Corrie Schneider discusses the importance of having sufficient support to avoid forcing women to choose between abuse and poverty. 

- The Globe and Mail's editorial board asks whether Canada's provincial governments have learned any lessons from removing public health restrictions too soon - though it's difficult to be optimistic at this point. And Chris Kai and P R Sanjai examine India's stark example of the human cost of prematurely declaring victory over COVID-19.

- Luke Malpass reports on New Zealand's introduction of Fair Pay Agreements to ensure that wage floors can be bargained on an industry-wide basis.

- Finally, Cathy Holtslander highlights how the updated NAFTA has sold out some of what little scope Canada had to protect agriculture - and how the U.S. is pressing its advantage to try to deregulate the seed market to ensure both lesser consumer protections and the ability to squeeze farmers on price.

Sunday Afternoon Links

This and that for your Sunday reading.

- Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman offer another look (PDF) at the growth of income and wealth inequality in the U.S. Andrew Jackson and Toby Sanger examine (PDF) the case for an annual net wealth tax to reduce its severity in Canada. And Carl Meyer reports on the appetite among most Canadians to finally make meaningful progress against inequality, racism and climate change. 

- But Bruce Livesey offers a reminder that a capitalist society is antithetical to democratic governance - particularly as inequality becomes more extreme. 

- Jordan Leichniz notes that we've seen our own version of the white supremacist movement which has taken so much power in the U.S. Umair Haque comments on the alarming desire among so many Americans to bring about a failed state, rather than a functioning one which includes minorities as proportional partners. And Gwynne Dyer notes that the rest of the world will have reason to be wary of the U.S. based on the likelihood of Trumpism evolving into new forms.

- Daniel Tencer highlights how soaring housing prices reflect a disconnect between theoretical asset values and the real economy. And Roberta Bell reports on the Saskatchewan shelters which have been forced to reduce capacity even as the COVID-19 pandemic creates a far greater need for their services.

- Finally, Graham Thomson writes about Jason Kenney's choice to prioritize politics over science in neglecting the spread of COVID-19. And Bruce Arthur points out the alarmed response of Ontario's medical community to the Ford government's decision to facilitate the further spread of the coronavirus.

Thursday #skvotes Links

Over 40,000 voters went to the polls in the first day of advance voting. But particularly for the many people who haven't yet cast a ballot, here's the latest from Saskatchewan's election campaign.

- Laura Sciarpelletti reports on Elections Saskatchewan's warning that it's facing a shortage of poll workers - making it all the more important that people who have the ability to do so get to the polls early.

- Nicholas Frew reports on the grades provided to Saskatchewan's parties by OUTSaskatoon and Saskatoon Pride - with the NDP ranking at the top, and the Greens just behind. And the Provincial Association of Transition Housing and Services grades the NDP with an A for its plan to deal with interpersonal violence - while lamenting that no other party has bothered to respond. 

- Meanwhile, Danielle Chartier discusses the desperate need to strengthen Saskatchewan's mental health care system.

- Murray Mandryk offers somewhat of a reminder of the 2017 Sask Party budget which began their current term in office. But it's worth noting that the well-justified public backlash was based not on Mandryk's deficit-scolding, but based on the callous slashing of services - and as others have pointed out, SaskForward provided an indication of the choices involved:

- Finally, Adrienne Ivey discusses a few of the issues seen as most important to rural Saskatchewan, while pointing out how their impact is felt throughout the province.

Saturday Morning Links

Assorted content for your weekend reading.

- Alisha Haridasani Gupta discusses why so many women have been excluded from the workforce during the course of the coronavirus pandemic. And Kathryn Marshall comments on the epidemic of violence against women - as well as the need to intervene before abuse reaches that point.

- Max Fawcett points out that the threat of Alberta separatism is laughable even as a bluff. And Graham Thomson discusses how Jason Kenney is taking Alberta backward while the rest of the world moves ahead without it. 

- Janice Dickson reports that Canadians are rightly open to welcoming immigrants and refugees. And Trevor Tombe and Daniel Schwanen point out that Alberta (or any province) would benefit from attracting workers to stay in the longer term - which is worth distinguishing from the temporary labour that's so common in much of the province's current model. 

- Jesse Firempong exposes the fossil fuel sector's latest stall tactic against climate action, consisting of trying to demoralize people by claiming that resistance to a climate breakdown is futile. 

-  Finally, Seth Klein writes about the importance of fighting climate change and inequality together, rather than allowing precarious work and life situations to serve as an argument for environmental destruction. And Bill Curry reports on Jagmeet Singh's push for an excess profits tax - among other taxes on the wealthy - to fund our recovery and reconstruction.

Tuesday Morning Links

This and that for your Tuesday reading.

- Robert Reich writes about the end of any pretense that Donald Trump was acting as a president rather than a self-serving social media influencer.

- Branko Milanovic discusses why it's useless to make modeled economic predictions in a time of complete uncertainty about the effect of reverberating shocks.

- Gary Mason points out that a national report on violence against women has been awaiting followup for three decades. And Chris Hall writes about the disproportionate burden being borne by women during the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, while Laurie Penny examines the data as to the share of vital domestic work being taken on.

- CBC News reports that Scott Moe is lagging behind even his western conservative counterparts in taking note of the desperate need for activities for children. And Cally Stephanow reports on the lack of addiction services and supports when they're needed even more than usual.

- Finally, Kaitlyn Matulewicz and David Fairey chart a path to establish a system of paid sick leave through provincial employment standards. But Andrew Hills notes that Doug Ford is joining Moe and others in using the pandemic to hack away at employment standards.

Wednesday Evening Links

Assorted content for your mid-week reading.

- Christine Boyle, Penny Gurstein, Matthew Norris and Jim Stanford make the case for a public option in housing. And PressProgress documents how for-profit seniors' homes are dominated by board members with no knowledge or experience in caring for people's health.

- Toby Sanger discusses how the pandemic has exposed how Canada's tax system excludes people with low incomes.

- I.F. Mason contrasts Doug Ford's rhetoric about supporting workers against his government's action in unfailingly forcing people to stay on the job in the face of unsafe work.

- Chad D. Cotti, Bryan Engelhardt, Joshua Foster, Erik T. Nesson and Paul S. Niekamp study how forced in-person voting caused an increase in the spread of COVID-19 in Wisconsin. 

- Andrew Nikiforuk points out that Jason Kenney is trying to turn the trashing of environmental protections into the new normal.

- Finally, Gary Mason writes about the need to address the additional pandemic of domestic violence.

Friday Morning Links

Assorted content to end your week.

- Todd Gordon and Geoffrey McCormack write about Canada's crisis of capitalism - which is only being laid bare by a coronavirus pandemic exposing the fragility of a system built on precarity and debt.

- Kim Kelly discusses how service workers will face the worst of the coronavirus in the U.S. And PressProgress calls out the corporate lobby group Restaurants Canada for insisting that sick fast food workers don't need any opportunity to stay home from work when experiencing symptoms.

- Jordan Press reports that the Libs are rightly being told that Canadians are concerned with child care, education and housing as top affordability issues - though there's little reason for optimism that the result will be anything more than the usual set of baubles and half-measures. And a group of writers calls for the UK's next budget to invest in social infrastructure.

- Steve Lambert reports on Brian Pallister's ideological insistence on privatizing social assistance in Manitoba, while Ian Froese points out his appalling refusal to examine a school meal program because he believes children should suffer for their parents' lack of means.

- Finally, Kendall Latimer discusses how a lack of shelters is forcing Saskatchewan survivors of domestic violence to stay in abusive situations.

Saturday Morning Links

Assorted content for your weekend reading.

- Bethany Lindsay reports on the start of B.C.'s inquiry into money laundering through casinos. And PressProgress offers a reminder as to how the Saskatchewan Party has chosen to operate under the "Wild West" of election financing rules to ensure it can rely on big corporate donations from out of the province.

- As for what those donations have secured, Arthur White-Crummey reports first on the remarkable declaration that a multi-million-dollar investment fund for First Nations and Metis run by a Saskatchewan Party insider was never intended either to make money or to create jobs, and then on the multi-billion-dollar backlog of maintenance in schools resulting from the Sask Party's focus on tax slashing and corporate giveaways.

-  Meanwhile, Susan Delacourt writes that a pandemic should be the type of event which reminds us of the need for a functional government. And Tara Carman reports on the national crisis of under-resourced shelters which leave people attempting to flee violence with nowhere to turn.

- Finally, Mitchell Anderson ponders how our political and economic standing would look better if we'd spent the last few decades focused on pursuing treaties rather than gambling on fossil fuel subsidies.

Monday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material to start your week.

- Erlend Sandoy and Saskia Kerkvliet offer a graphic explainer of the causes and costs of high-end tax avoidance. And Eric Rankin reports on the scope of money laundering through casinos in British Columbia (which was ten times larger than official estimates), while ProPublica exposes the IRS' propensity for auditing the working poor rather than upper-income individuals.

- Meanwhile, George Tyler writes about a growing push toward co-determination which can help to make sure that corporate structures aren't dedicated solely toward enriching shareholders and executives at the expense of everybody else. 

- Melissa Jeltsen reports on the U.S. domestic violence centres which are cutting services and supports as a result of Donald Trump's government shutdown. While there's good news to be taken from the YWCA's announcement of a new Regina shelter, the number of women and children being turned away in the meantime indicates that Saskatchewan falls short of providing basic services even in the absence of a political crisis. And Jino Distasio weighs in on the need to fight structural poverty and deprivation, rather than focusing only on symptoms such as dangerous donation bins.

- Doug Cuthand rightly argues that it's impossible to build a sustainable future on fossil fuel dependence.

- Finally, Chris Glover asks who will stop Doug Ford's autocracy in Ontario, while pointing out how a proportional electoral system would significantly reduce the risk of one-man minority rule.

Friday Afternoon Links

Assorted content to end your week.

- Anna Bawden reports on new research from the Health Foundation showing the multiple ways in which young people face the burden of growing economic inequality. And Owen Jones points out that working-class children have borne the brunt of the UK's financial crisis and subsequent austerity:

(R)eal per-pupil spending in English schools has fallen by 8% since 2010. One all too little discussed scandal has been a reduction in funding for sixth formers of more than a fifth.

This is vandalism. It inflicts damage not just on the young people directly affected but on the nation’s future. Think of the unnecessary poverty created later in life by the failure to offer support to struggling pupils. It’s a false economy, too: the state will have to spend more, later, to support those let down at school. But it is more profound than that: think of the lost talents that would otherwise have enriched our society and culture.

The children of the most privileged will be fine, of course, not least the top 7% sent to private schools. Those in comfortable, rather than overcrowded houses; who have good diets; who don’t suffer the stress of poverty when young; who have the “cultural capital” of university-educated parents – they will generally continue to realise their potential. So the bankers who threw Britain into crisis, and then kept their shiny limousines, multiple homes and luxury holidays, will have forced other people’s children to pay for what they did, not their own.
...
Consider the full gamut of this government’s impact on young people. The scrapping of the educational maintenance allowance, a small amount of money to support aspirational young working-class people, and the trebling of university fees. The decimation of youth services: in London alone, 81 youth clubs and council youth projects have been cut since 2011, and a real-terms cut on children and youth services of nearly a billion pounds in just six years. A generation driven into an unregulated, rip-off private rental sector, lacking basic security, dependent on their landlords’ whims. The explosion of insecure jobs, at a time when living standards for young people have fallen most steeply. It is a list as incriminating as it is long.

It has become almost a cliche that Brexit sucks the oxygen out of the political conversation, depriving growing social crises of the attention they need. The irony is that many of the injustices that helped fuel the Brexit vote in the first place have been even more ignored since, despite the pathetically empty promise by Theresa May at the start of her term in office to cure the “burning injustices” in modern society.

- Similarly, Brad Hershbein writes that the 2008 economic meltdown presented a double whammy for much of the U.S.' middle class, including both initial losses and a lack of much recovery compared to other groups of workers.

- David MacDonald and Toby Sanger examine the savings to be achieved through a universal pharmacare program. And the Wall Street Journal reports on the predictable failure of the Trump tax giveaway (among other corporate giveaways) to do anything to make drugs more affordable in the U.S.

- Guy Verhofstadt argues that after far too many broken promises that corporate choices will protect consumer privacy, it's time for stronger public regulation of social media platforms.

- Finally, Hassan Yussuff discusses the importance of paid employment leave to enable people to break cycles of domestic violence.

Tuesday Evening Links

This and that for your Tuesday reading.

- Katrina Miller writes that Canada's economic future lies in developing equitable and sustainable growth, not following the U.S. in its race to the bottom:

There is a growing body of evidence that rising inequality is threatening every aspect of our collective well-being - social, economic, environmental and health-related. In Canada, like in many other countries, wages have stagnated in most earning brackets while precarious unstable jobs have ballooned. This toxic combination has become the biggest contributor to economic inequality in Canada. The U.S. corporate tax cuts that were supposed to bring working people prosperity have largely resulted in windfalls for shareholders. Very little has trickled down to the average worker⁴.  Clearly, the U.S. hasn’t set much of an example to follow if we wish to shrink the gap between the rich and everyone else.

We should also be asking whether we are building a world for future generations, but that isn’t where our economy is headed right now. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change recently announced that we have twelve years to contain global warming to a 1.5C rise, or face world-wide and devastating consequences. Whether we do so now by choice or in a decade by default we have to change the way we live, and find a far less carbon intensive path forward. Countries that are early adopters of a low carbon economy will have an easier time, and may even find great success exporting technology and expertise to the rest...
...
Closing Canada’s worst tax loopholes and cracking down on tax avoidance would create the revenue needed to implement universal pharmacare and bolster other social and educational programs that make Canada a great place to live and work, for everyone. A healthy, educated and equitable society has long been one of Canada’s strong suits when it comes to economic competitiveness, it’s worth investing in.

- Campaign 2000 offers (PDF) a National Child Day reminder that far too many Canadian children are facing poverty and malnutrition, while Laurie Monsebraaten focuses on the importance of child care as a means to end child poverty.

- Chris Selley discusses the cruelty of Doug Ford's cuts to Ontario's advocate for children and youth. Katie Hyslop reports on a British Columbia child welfare system stacked against low-income parents. And Kristy Kirkup reports on Romeo Saganash's push to investigate the involuntary sterilization of Indigenous women.

- Barb Pacholik writes about the need for far more legal protections for people trying to escape domestic violence.

- Lucas Powers reports on the Caregivers Action Centre's call to treat foreign caregivers as people rather than disposable labour. And Warren McCall discusses how unduly low minimum wages end up imposing costs on everybody.

- Finally, the Canadian Press reports on Climate Transparency's study showing Canada having the worst per-capita greenhouse emissions levels in the G20.

Friday Morning Links

Assorted content to end your week.

- The Economist discusses how income and wealth inequality lead to disproportionate influence on the part of the rich:

The relation between concentrated wealth and the political power of the rich is scarcely limited to political spending, or to America. The rich have many means to shape public opinion: financing nominally apolitical think-tanks, for instance, or buying media outlets. Although their power may sometimes be used to influence the result of a particular vote, it is often deployed more subtly, to shape public narratives about which problems deserve attention. Mr Epp and Mr Borghetto analysed bills brought before the parliaments of nine European countries between 1941 and 2014. Rising inequality, they found, is associated with political agendas more focused on matters related to “social order”, such as crime and immigration. Issues such as economic justice are crowded out. They attribute this to the “negative agenda power” of the rich. As their wealth increases, they have a greater ability to press politicians to emphasise some topics rather than others.

The evidence that concentrated wealth contributes to concentrated power is troubling. It suggests that reducing inequality becomes less likely even as it becomes more urgent. It implies that a vicious cycle of rising inequality may be developing, with a loss of democratic accountability as a nasty side-effect.

- Meanwhile, Jeff Stein reports on the global decline in business tax rates which has resulted from the corporate sector largely dictating the terms of political debate. Duncan Cameron writes that any tax system will influence the composition of our public discourse - and that for too long Canada's system (among others) has privileged the wealthy while silencing voices for progressive change. And PressProgress exposes one of the B.C. Libs' secret big-money fund-raising events. 

- Katherine Boothe debunks some myths about a national pharmacare program - and in particular the claim that there's any public benefit in handing the pharmaceutical industry exorbitant prices for an already-limited set of drugs under the status quo. And Steve Morgan discusses how Doug Ford's move to limit Ontario's public plan to make prescription drugs available to youth is a step in the wrong direction.

- Kevin Carmichael points out how parents would benefit far more from a universally accessible child care system than from child benefits alone. 

- Finally, Eleanor Ainge Roy reports on the introduction of paid domestic violence leave in New Zealand in order to ensure people facing personal threats aren't trapped by work obligations, while CBC News discusses its imminent implementation in New Brunswick as well.

Sunday Morning Links

This and that for your Sunday reading.

- Scott Santens writes about the flaw in markets which fail to distinguish between goods and services which lack value, and those which people lack the money to acquire through the market.

- Lisa Cox reports on new research suggesting that the harm we've already done to our planet's climate may be twice as severe as previously assumed. And Bora Plumptre examines how Canada's emission reductions in other sectors have been - and will continue to be - almost entirely outweighed by additional carbon pollution from the oil and gas sector.

- Meanwhile, Nora Loreto contrasts the willingness of Canadian governments to pour billions into moving diluted bitumen for export against their stinginess in ensuring people are able to travel within Canada.

- On that front, Pam Palmater weighs in on the importance of transportation as a means for Indigenous people to protect themselves and their families. And Alexandra Collins highlights how a lack of available housing perpetuates cycles of violence against poor women.

- Finally, Reinhart Reithmeier and Peter Love point out why we need our political leaders to understand the value of science. And the Western Producer calls out Jason Kenney for ignoring the evidence favouring safety protections for agricultural workers.

Tuesday Morning Links

This and that for your Tuesday reading.

- Wawmeesh Hamilton discusses the lack of basic upkeep of desperately-needed First Nations homes, as the federal government looks to transfer responsibility without providing funding. Jamie Grierson notes that the UK's lack of resources for supportive housing results in survivors of domestic abuse sleeping rough - or even going back to their abusers. 

- Meanwhile, the Star's editorial board argues that the rest of Canada can learn from Quebec's example in reducing child poverty by investing in child care and income supports:

What was surprising in the study by Campaign 2000, though, is that nine of the 10 ridings in Canada with the lowest child poverty rates were in Quebec. In those ridings the rate ranged from 4.1 to 6.6 per cent. That’s not an anomaly. Last year a Statistics Canada study found that though Quebec has the second-lowest household income in the the country, it also has the second-lowest rate of child poverty.

Why should that be?

According to Statistics Canada it’s because the province has chosen to invest generously in two proven poverty busters: universal day care and the most generous provincial child benefits in the country.

Ottawa has a chance to emulate the Quebec model by making universal day care and increased child benefits part of its Poverty Reduction Strategy, due out in the next few weeks. It should.

The programs would cost a lot of money up-front. But in addition to achieving the laudable goal of reducing child and family poverty, they would generate substantial savings and economic benefits for everyone.

- The CP reports on a new study from the Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction showing the cost of substance abuse at a level of over $1,000 per Canadian.

- Finally, Jim Stanford responds to yet another attempt to dress up free money for the wealthiest corporations as having anything to do with what's good for workers. And Tommy Christopher takes note of the report of the U.N.'s special rapporteur on extreme poverty as to the harm done by the Trump tax giveaway to the rich.

Monday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material to start your week.

- Suresh Naidu, Eric Posner and Glen Weyl highlight how the economy as a whole suffers when employers exercise too much control over wages and working conditions:

In a competitive labor market, employers must vie for workers; they try to lure workers from other firms by offering them more generous compensation. As employers bid for workers, wages and benefits rise. An employer gains by hiring a worker whenever the worker’s wage is less than the revenue the worker will generate for the employer; for this reason, the process of competition among employers for workers ought to result in workers receiving a substantial portion of the output they contribute to.

And as the economy grows over time — which has historically been the case in the United States — this dynamic should naturally lead to a steady increase in compensation for workers.

It turns out, however, that labor markets are often uncompetitive: Employers have the power to hold down wages by a host of methods and for numerous reasons. And new academic studies suggest the markets have been growing ever more uncompetitive over time.

...

It is sometimes mistakenly thought that wage suppression, even as it hurts workers, at least benefits consumers, who pay lower prices for goods and services (since the cost of production is lower for companies). In fact, that’s not the case: Employer market power, sometimes called “monopsony,” harms economic growth and raises prices. (Monopsony is the concept of monopoly, or dominance of a market for a given good, applied to the “buy side” — namely, the inputs that firms purchase, including labor and materials.)

Monopsony harms growth and raises prices because it works much like monopoly: by reducing production. To increase its profits, the monopolist raises prices and thus lowers production (because fewer consumers are willing to pay these inflated prices). 

Similarly, to raise its profits, a monopsonist lowers wages below the value of the workers to the employer. Because not all workers are willing to work at these depressed wages, monopsony leads some workers to quit. 

Firms bear the loss in workers (and resulting lowered sales) in exchange for the higher profits made off the workers who do not quit. The resulting group of workers looking for jobs are what Marx called the “reserve army of the unemployed.”

Employer labor market power thus reduces employment, raises prices, and depresses the economy. 

Those sound a lot like the harms that conservative economists have long attributed to excessive taxation. And that’s no coincidence. Wage suppression is just like a tax: a tax on the labor of workers.

- Chris Dillow examines the persistent pay gap between men and women, along with a few of the factors which perpetuate it. And Kate Farhall argues that family violence leave needs to be paid for many people to be able to escape abuse.

- Jeff Sprass writes that the growing movement of teachers' strikes may be the start of stronger "alt-labor" organizing in response to a political environment designed to suppress collective action. And Syed Hussan offers some activists' suggestions as to how organized labour should participate in Ontario's provincial election.

- Finally, Tim Harper points out that millennial voters will be playing a far larger role than ever before in that election (and others to come). And Neil MacDonald comments on the effectiveness of school shooting survivors in organizing to respond to right-wing suppression. 

Saturday Morning Links

Assorted content for your weekend reading.

- Michal Rozworski writes that the bidding war surrounding Amazon's second headquarters is just a symptom of a grossly dysfunctional relationship between governments and businesses:

We shouldn’t be surprised that Amazon can get away with using a few billion dollars of private investment as bait for public billions in return. Investment in the US, both private and public, is in a sorry state. Taken as a proportion of overall economic activity, businesses and governments are investing a fraction of what they did in the postwar years or even a few decades ago.

The business sector does not lack for means — profits margins, while down from record highs, are no longer in the doldrums. But rather than invest in new production facilities and new technology, corporations, under pressure from shareholders, are spending big on dividends and share buybacks or letting cash lay idle. Amazon is in fact one of the few major outliers to this trend, refusing to pay dividends and aggressively using profits to fund continuous expansion.

While private investment has given way to shareholders gorging themselves on profits, public investment has simply given way to rot. Last year, civilian net public investment in the United States amounted to a paltry 0.5 percent of GDP.

Exaggerated worries about debt and deficits and a pervasive ideology that the private sector can do everything better leave the public sector doing the minimum, barely keeping up as things fall apart.
...
(C)apital needs the public sector as much as the other way around. For all its glorification of enterprise and entrepreneurship, there is much that the private sector will not do: whenever the risks are too big or the benefits too diffuse to capture, the public sector has stepped in. From antibiotics to hydroelectric dams, from public buses to sewage plants, much of the infrastructure that makes life under contemporary capitalism possible is public or publicly funded.
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Capital may be the force that ultimately socializes production and distribution, but it needs the state all along the way. Today’s public extortion racket is only the tip of the iceberg.

- And Linda McQuaig argues that the corporate raiders who strip money out of corporations such as Sears should be on the hook for the pensions earned by employees. 

- Toby Sanger examines the federal fiscal update and notes that there's plenty of room to expand public services. The CCPA offers a mid-term report card comparing the Libs' big progressive promises to their minimal action. And Seth Klein and Iglika Ivanova offer some suggestions as to how British Columbia's NDP government can take immediate action to reduce poverty while conducting its wider review of the problem.

- Sara Mojtehedzadeh reports that the Wynne Libs are falling far short of their promises of addressing precarious work - including by watering down equal pay provisions to exclude the workers who need them most, and failing to address the use of temp agencies to avoid employment standards. Stefani Langenegger highlights PATHS' report on the lack of employment protection in Saskatchewan for workers trying to escape domestic abuse. And Nicholas Keung reports on a push to ensure that migrant farm workers have an opportunity to pursue permanent residency.

- Finally, Matthew Taylor takes note of the Environmental Justice Foundation's study on the imminent surge of climate change refugees. And Mia Rabson reports on the massive gap between the goals set in the Paris climate accord, and the plans actually being made to address greenhouse gas emissions in Canada and elsewhere.