Thursday Afternoon Links

This and that for your Thursday reading.

- David Hope and Julian Limberg study (PDF) the effects of tax cuts for the rich  - concluding that they lead to worsened inequality while generating no significant benefits for anybody but the few who are able to hoard wealth as a result. And Danyaal Raza and Edward Xie make the case for a wealth tax to both reduce inequality, and fund needed investments in a healthier society.

- Luke Savage writes about the increasing prevalence of hunger in the U.S. - which has only been exacerbated by a pandemic in which governments have offered little support. The Washington Post examines how the U.S.' largest companies have slashed employment during the course of the COVID-19 pandemic even while continuing to rake in immense profits. And David Doorey offers some suggestions for a substantial rethinking of a labour relations model which has done far too little to empower workers.

- Rosa Saba discusses the state of labour in food and beverage manufacturing - noting that employers' complaints about a lack of workers appear to be based entirely on an expectation that people will take subpar wages to help support their profit margins. And Andrew Lupton reports on the persistently high number of construction workers killed on the job in Ontario.

- Marc Lee and Seth Klein write about the need for a managed wind-down of fossil fuel extraction and just transition to clean energy in British Columbia. And Lee also joins Hadrian Metrins-Kirkwood to point out how the federal Libs' new climate plan rings hollow - and will have less effect than needed - when it's paired with a costly commitment to continuing fossil fuel production. 

- Finally, Robyn Urback argues that we'd be far better off if Scott Moe and his government cared to devote anywhere near the attention and effort to controlling COVID-19 than they've wasted fighting against any carbon tax or price.

Monday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material to start your week.

- Kat Devlin and J.J. Moncus point out how people were justifiably pessimistic about burgeoning inequality even before a pandemic which has further consolidated wealth and power in the hands of the obscenely rich. Vanmala Subramaniam reports on Statistics Canada's data showing that visible minorities have borne the brunt of the COVID-19 disruption. And Food Banks Canada's Hunger Count both documents the widespread use of food banks in Canada, and makes important recommendations on child care, housing and income supports to address the root causes of hunger. 

- Al Etmanski and Kathleen O'Grady write about the importance of unifying a movement of Canadians with disabilities in the face of neglect from all levels of government.

- Christine Montross discusses the need to respond to mental health concerns with compassion and harm reduction rather than violence and incarceration. And CBC Radio reports on one mother's fight to treat the opioid addiction crisis with the urgency it deserves.

- Jeff Gray writes about the possibility that a model of providing shelter hotels to homeless people may be one of the COVID-19 responses worth continuing - though as a longer-term plan it should surely make sense to provide housing which isn't so temporary.

- Finally, a group of economists including Joseph Stiglitz, Mariana Mazzucato, Robert Reich and Gabriel Zucman agrees on the need to end the carbon economy as we build back better in the wake of COVID-19.

Wednesday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.

- Ari Rabin-Havt argues that any available means of treating COVID-19 need to be viewed as public goods to be made available to all, rather than windfalls for big pharma based on its ability to control supplies and prices.

- The Guardian's editorial board sounds the alarm about the grossly disproportionate burdens COVID-19 is placing on women.

- Tess Wilkinson-Ryan writes about the psychology of decision-making in the face of reopening - and the difficulty individual will have making good choices when faced with confusion or contradictory messages from governments and businesses. And David Roberts identifies the risk that with COVID-19 - as with climate change - we may be shifting our baseline expectations to accept perpetually worse outcomes as a "new normal" rather than pushing for action to achieve better ones. 

- Andre Mayer highlights the possibility that our efforts at rebuilding could finally put us on a path to averting climate breakdown. And Lori Nikkel discusses how the coronavirus pandemic should spur us to ensure that Canadians no longer face hunger or food insecurity. 

- Finally, Doug Cuthand writes about the need for an overhaul of Saskatchewan's treatment of people who are currently ending up in remand. And Kelly Geraldine Malone reports that Manitoba has followed through on ending discriminatory "birth alerts", even while Scott Moe continues their use in Saskatchewan.

Monday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material to start your week.

- Robert Reich discusses how Donald Trump's insistence on pushing reopening without a plan to alleviate an ongoing pandemic has led to disaster both for the U.S.' economy and its public health. And the Economist highlights the need to make basic health precautions into social norms - even as Trump and his party, like Doug Ford and other right-wing politicians bent on pushing infectious masculinity, go out of their way to flout them.

- Yunghi Kim writes about a growing epidemic of hunger in a country more than capable of providing the necessities of life to everybody.

- Bharat Ramamurti and Lindsay Owens make the case for a fair wages guarantee to ensure workers aren't pushed into structural disadvantages as a result of COVID-19. And they particularly contrast that approach against a one-time bonus aimed at strongarming people into permanent low-wage jobs - which, needless to say, is also the Cons' plan.

- Meanwhile, Janyce McGregor digs into what should be the most fundamental criticism of the Libs' attempt to push students into sub-minimum-wage labour by classifying work as "volunteering".

- Susan Wright compares Jason Kenney's sad excuse for a rebuilding plan to the prospect of an energy transition which he refuses to consider. And Max Fawcett points out how Alberta's people are being sacrificed on the altar of supply-side zealotry.

- Finally, Sam Camping reports on the work activists are doing to raise awareness of the suicide crisis which the Saskatchewan Party has blithely chosen to ignore. And Morgan Modjeski reports that in addition to stockpiling prohibited weapons for no remotely plausible reason, Scott Moe's Highway Patrol has also been putting tactical training for its officers in the hands of an anti-LGBTQ trainer.

Thursday Afternoon Links

This and that for your Thursday reading.

- The Globe and Mail's editorial board argues that Canada has put far too few resources toward actually stopping the spread of the coronavirus, focusing instead on immediate financial concerns rather than the underlying health issue. Justin Kong and Tsui Yee Wu make the case for ensuring that everybody has access to high-quality masks. Andre Picard highlights the importance of dramatically expanding our testing capacity before we let our guard down and resume business resembling the previous normal. And the Star's editorial board discusses how child care is an absolute must for our economy to recover.

- Andrea Horwath writes that Ontarians have had enough of long-term care oriented toward profit rather than residents' well-being. And Jen St. Denis writes about the human cost of treating housing primarily as a source of wealth and profits, rather than a human right to be provided to people who lack it.

- Isaac Chotiner interviews Arif Husain about the potential for COVID-19 to cause catastrophic hunger around the globe.

- Charlie Smith and David Climenhaga each offer reminders that Canada's oil sands are primarily owned by outside capital, meaning that even the benefits of any future price increases would mostly flow out of the country. And Geoff Dembicki reports on Deborah Lawrence's analysis suggesting that oil sands extraction is past its shelf life as a viable business model.

- Finally, Shannon Gormley discusses the warped interpretation of "liberty" being pushed by the fringe movement determined to endanger everybody in order to avoid even the least intrusive of public health measures.

Wednesday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.

- Patricia Cohen discusses how the COVID-19 lockdown has exposed the precarious financial position of most Americans - but in the process highlighted that merely returning to the previous debt-laden stagnation is far from sufficient.

- Andrew Nikiforuk writes that there's no getting around the collapse of much of the oil sector - meaning that our choice now is whether to take the opportunity to transition to more sustainable industries, or instead accede to the perpetual demands by Jason Kenney and his oil baron cronies to dump every available nickel into a bottomless pit. David Roberts and Chris Saltmarsh recognize that any bailout aimed at fossil fuels is going to be utterly wasted. Kyle Bakx writes about the day oil became less than worthless, while Neil Irwin discusses what it means in terms of deflationary shocks.

- Meanwhile, Jillian Ambrose points out the potential for a massive return on investment in renewable energy. And Daniel Aldana Cohen and Daniel Kammen note that a Green New Deal can help us repair the effects of the coronavirus and climate change at the same time.

- Ellen Knickmeyer reports on the people facing pollution and disease as a result of Donald Trump's attacks on even basic environmental regulation. And Michael Sainato notes that coal miners and other people whose lungs have been weakened by hazardous work environments will suffer all the more from COVID-19.

- Jonathan Safran Foer and Aaron Gross discuss how factory farms are breeding grounds for pandemics. And Fiona Harvey reports on the growing warnings that COVID-19 may cause severe famines in the developing world.

- Finally, Gregory Beatty writes that the pro-virus protests in the U.S. - however overplayed by the media - reflect years of alt-right, anti-science messaging. But Adam Gabbatt points out that the pro-disease extremism is being funded by the usual cadre of Republican donors who value retaining power and concentrating wealth over human life.

Sunday Afternoon Links

This and that for your Sunday reading.

- Andrew MacLeod writes about the importance of patience in the face of astroturfed demands to put more workers' lives at risk in the absence of effective vaccines or treatments against COVID-19. And Rachel Miller highlights the importance of taking social distancing seriously, rather than looking for loopholes and workarounds which put people at risk. 

- Andrea Yu interviews Aaron Orkin about the need for change in Toronto's shelter system to provide homeless people with viable options in the face of the pandemic. And Judy Fudge discusses how the long-term care system is still woefully inadequate to protect residents and workers alike.

- Rachel Sugar writes about the U.S.' belated efforts to ensure that school closures don't leave children to go hungry. And Mike Blake and Christopher Walljasper report on the deliberate destruction of produce by farmers lacking their usual restaurant customers, while Jessica Corbett juxtaposes growing food insecurity with the deliberate destruction of food due to the breakdown of private supply chains.

- PressProgress points out the health dangers of the scab work camp at the Regina Co-op refinery. And Charles Smith makes the case for anti-scab legislation in light of the protracted lockout.

- Finally, Bob Lord and Chuck Collins point out how the richest few Americans pay far less taxes as a proportion of their wealth than they did four decades ago. And Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman make the case for a progressive wealth tax to start bridging the gap between the plutocrats and the rest of us.

On crisis management

JimBobby is right to point out that the global food crisis deserves more attention than it's getting. So let's note a couple of facets of the story which seem to have passed largely without comment so far.

First of all, from the Globe and Mail story pointed out by JimBobby, it's worth pointing out just what it took for the U.N. to take note of the need for action:

The United Nations plans to establish a task force to tackle the global food crisis to avert "social unrest on an unprecedented scale," Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Tuesday.

Mr. Ban, who will lead the task force, said its first priority will be to meet the $755-million (U.S.) shortfall in funding for the World Food Program.

"Without full funding of these emergency requirements, we risk again the spectre of widespread hunger, malnutrition and social unrest on an unprecedented scale," he told reporters in the Swiss capital, Bern, where the UN agency chiefs have been meeting.

Obviously the anticipated increase in starvation may make the stakes higher than usual. But as JimBobby notes, the pre-crisis situation already involved 24,000 deaths every day due to starvation. And given that that number apparently wasn't seen as deserving of special attention, it seems that the possibility of "social unrest" is serving as a greater motivator than any agreement that hunger should be tackled in general.

Even once it's acknowledged that there's some need for action, of course, it still falls to individual countries to determine - if at all - they plan to improve matters. And the indications from Canada don't look promising at this point, as only the NDP appears willing to discuss whether proposed regulations on ethanol might make matters worse:

Concerned about the widening food shortage, the NDP has introduced an amendment seeking to have Bill C-33 sent back to committee where issues such as food scarcity, and whether or not ethanol is helping the environment, can be considered before the law is passed.

"We need to take a breath here and think about this," said Nathan Cullen, NDP environment critic. "Politicians need a little humility, and sometimes they need to say that it's time to think before we act, especially in light of recent events."

Which would seem to be an eminently sensible suggestion as to one means not to make the problems worse - particularly if coupled with discussion about contributions to the World Food Program and other ways to help.

But even Lib David McGuinty responded by trying to shout down any discussion of whether the impact of biofuels on food supplies should be considered. And given the Cons' connections to the industry group which pushed for an ethanol plan based on foods rather than other inputs, there's little prospect that Canada's possible role in contributing to the diversion of food will receive the attention it deserves.