Wednesday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.

- John Guyton, Patrick Langetieg, Daniel Reck, Max Risch and Gabriel Zucman examine (PDF) the massive amounts of money which people at the very top of the income distribution hide from revenue authorities. And Nancy Cook reports on Joe Biden's plan to at least somewhat increase what the wealthiest few pay to fund a functional society. 

- Michal Rozworski highlights how the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the erosion of public planning capacity through decades of privatization and outsourcing.

- The Canadian Press reports on the NDP's push to eliminate for-profit long-term care - which was of course voted down by the corporate establishment alliance of the Libs, Cons and Bloc. And Christo Aivalis notes that there's plenty of room for additional ambition in bringing essential utilities including telecommunications under public control.

- Julia Peterson talks to Markham Hislop about the ongoing transition to clean energy - and the reality that it's happening no matter how desperately the petrostate tries to cling to the past century's economic model. 

- Karen McVeigh reports on new research showing that bottom trawling in the oceans is a major cause of carbon emissions. And Erin Brockovich writes about how we're endangering ourselves through the use of toxic chemicals.

- Finally, the Broadbent Institute has published a new set of principles for Canadian social democracy. And Elizabeth McIsaac discusses the need for the pursuit of equity to be at the centre of any work for social change.

Wednesday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.

- Caroline Chen discusses why opening restaurants and other indoor venues which involve prolonged contact is the worst possible choice if one wants to contain the spread of COVID-19.

- Michal Rozworski argues that we shouldn't see the relief efforts needed in the wake of a pandemic as an reason to focus on basic incomes at the expense of basic services and economic planning.

- Tiffany Crawford reports on what may be the most damning research yet into the disparity of opportunity by gender, showing that men with failing grades in high school receive as much of an opportunity in leadership roles as women with straight-A marks. Bethany Lindsey reports on Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond's findings as to the disparity in health care between Indigenous people and other British Columbia residents. And Zak Vescera reports on the doubling of Saskatchewan's overdose death rate in 2020 even as the Moe government pretended to be concerned about addictions and harm reduction only to the extent it served their goal of keeping corporate profits flowing.

- Sharanjit Leyl reports on Mark Carney's recognition that the climate crisis will ultimately prove even more damaging than the coronavirus pandemic if we don't built the capacity for collective action needed to fight it, while Matthew Green reports on the massive death toll already caused by dirty fuels. Michael Patrick Smith writes about the need to kick our fossil fuel habit (from the viewpoint of somebody who has depended on it for his own job). And Andrew McWhinney discusses the need to talk about our climate breakdown in a way that appropriately calls out the role of capital in pushing for continued harm to people and the natural environment.

- Finally, Sharon Riley exposes the UCP's attempt to divert essential water supplies to coal mining in the face of fierce public opposition. And Scott Schmidt writes that Jason Kenney's gaslighting is no longer having the same effect as Albertans realize they don't have to accept his disinformation, while Bruce Livesey documents Kenney's fall from inevitable premier to cause and recipient of mass anger within his own chosen province.

Sunday Afternoon Links

 This and that for your Sunday reading.

- Alex Hemingway and Michal Rozworski both study both how Canada's wealthiest few have enriched themselves through the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, and discuss how more fair taxes would ensure they don't exploit a public health emergency to even further entrench their power. Bruce Campbell also makes the case for a wealth tax to be included in the impending Throne Speech. And the Tax Justice Network finds public support to crack down on corporate tax avoidance of 87 to 95% across wealthy countries.

- Eric Levitz reports on new research showing that the upward redistribution of income in the U.S. since 1975 has robbed workers of $2.5 trillion in total income each year (meaning that the total income for the bottom 90 per cent of workers could be nearly doubled), while Nick Hanauer and David Rolf point out the destabilizing effect of that income imbalance on U.S. society as a whole. And Ezra Klein notes that the effect of an undue focus on individualism and corporate control has been to leave most people to choose from among nothing but bad options.

- Dan Sinker discusses the problems with reliance on Zoom school rather than in-person education. Kristin Rushowy writes about new research from Sick Kids Ontario showing how a failure to invest in masks and physical distancing is putting children (and the people around them) at avoidable risk. Shelby Lisk reports on some of the Ontario teachers who have made the choice not to send their children back to school due to insufficient precautions for their health and safety. Kenyon Wallace and Rushowy report on the shock some Ontario parents have experienced in learning their kids' class sizes are bigger than ever, while PressProgress points out the complete lack of improvement in class sizes in Saskatoon.

- Michelle Ghoussoub writes about the confluence of disasters that's leaving people to guess whether respiratory problems are the result of a pandemic, a climate change-fueled disaster or both. And based on the connections between COVID-19 and the climate breakdown, there's no reason to pretend that the existence of the former represents any excuse for continuing to slow-walk action to mitigate the latter - particularly when Abacus Data's polling shows two-thirds of Canadians as seeing the pandemic as calling for major changes in economic and social policy. Mia Rabson reports on the support from a cross-partisan working group for a $55 billion investment in climate policy. Doug Cuthand comments on the folly of torching our planet in an effort to bail out fossil fuel investors whose industry is dying of natural causes. And Don Lenihan and Andrew Balfour discuss what will be needed to make a just transition work - including the voice for people outside of the corporate elite which was conspicuously left out of the free trade movement of recent decades.

- Finally, Lauren Pelley discusses how the "bubble" strategy to mitigate COVID-19 risk is becoming less effective due to the return to school and the absence of other readily-available options to reduce viral spread. Elizabeth Payne warns that the problems with long-term care homes which cause so many fatalities in the first wave look far too likely to resurface. And CBC highlights how health care workers are running on fumes as a year that's already been packed with unforeseen stress and anxiety stands to get all the worse.

Wednesday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.

- Michal Rozworski writes that we need to respond to the coronavirus pandemic with investment in the society we want to build for tomorrow, not austerity to punish us today:

Our economy is ripe for transformative reconstruction. The key now will be both how much we spend and, crucially, how we spend it. First, we must ensure everyone can meet basic needs. Income supports, including CERB, cannot be cut off before the pandemic ends, and an overhauled unemployment insurance (EI) system is also urgently needed, one that covers all jobless Canadians and replaces more lost income. At the same time, sharply increasing public investment not dependent on the private market should be an immediate priority, starting with big expansions of healthcare, child care and public housing.

Women have been hit harder by this crisis in multiple ways—both losing more jobs and taking on more work in the home. We need a national childcare program with good jobs at its centre to both respond to the gendered nature of the crisis and start to revalue care work.

To prevent a lost generation among today’s youth who are also disproportionately affected, the government should launch a big public green jobs program with fair wages, training and union representation. Think how much introducing a generation of young workers to unions in their first job could do for reviving the labour movement—a movement that could then help ensure the recovery from this crisis isn’t as unequal as from the last one.

If we fail to do these things and more, it will be a choice, not because we could not afford it. The COVID-19 pandemic is largely an act of chance, but an economic depression on its heels would be largely of our own making.

- But Randy Robinson writes that the Ontario PCs, like their conservative cousins across Canada, are already looking for excuses to slash limited supports and impose grinding austerity.

- Perlita Stroh discusses how COVID-19 looks to be destroying decades of already-slow workplace progress for working mothers. And Matt Lundy points out how the impending end of the CERB may deflate the individual spending which has been kept up thanks to the presence of a reliable source of income.

- Jennifer Brown calls out Doug Ford for endangering the safety of children to try to save money on school reopening. And Alex Soloducha reports on the parents and students who aren't satisfied with shuffling deck chairs and calling it a Saskatchewan reopening plan.

- Finally, Max Fawcett writes about the recent removal of Sandip Lalli (former president of the Calgary Chamber of Commerce0 for the crime of insufficient praise for Jason Kenney as an example of the UCP's extreme crackdown on dissent in Alberta.

Wednesday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.

- Michael Valpy and Frank Graves take a look at public opinion in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis, and conclude that Canadians are rightly eager to see our leaders do whatever is necessary to ensure our survival and health. And Laila Yuile notes that the failure to act quickly and strongly enough is far from a new one - as many of the difficulties we're facing in responding to COVID-19 were studied then ignored in the wake of the SARS outbreak.

- Leigh Phillips and Michal Rozworski discuss how the pandemic shows the importance of central planning toward the public good.

- Sheila Block and Simran Dhunna argue that we need to be doing far more to protect the frontline workers providing us with the essentials of life in a public health emergency. And Steven Greenhouse reports on the workers taking matters into their own hands by walking off the job to ensure their health and safety are respected by employers.

- Meanwhile, Toby Sanger points out some of the risks involved in the federal government's wage subsidy program.

- Karen Howlett reports on the provinces which are setting up temporary hospitals to deal with the rise of COVID-19. Drew Anderson reports on Alberta's stunning refusal to allow people in need of housing to have even a modicum of privacy, deliberately choosing convention centres over hotels in the midst of a contagious disease crisis. And Zak Vescera reports on the insufficiency of the Saskatchewan Party's belated response to the need for secure housing and incomes.

- Finally, Annie Lowrey makes the case for governments to provide income using a helicopter drop model, rather than delaying and restricting needed support when people can't afford to wait.

Wednesday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.

- Linsey McGoey discusses the historical case for abolishing billionaires rooted in Adam Smith's critique of plutocracy:

Smith was scathingly critical of the wealthy’s disproportionate power over government policymaking. He complained about the tendency of the rich to shirk tax obligations, unfairly passing tax burdens on to poor workers. He heaped scorn on government bailouts of the East India Company. He thought dirty money in politics was akin to bribery, and that it undermined the duty to govern impartiality. He wasn’t alone.

The reality is that the historical case for abolishing billionaire privileges has a long heritage, stretching to enlightenment thinkers and the revolutionaries they inspired, including countless enslaved and working-class people in forgotten graves.

Thomas Paine, the 18th-century British radical whose writing helped to spur the American Revolution, called for the establishment of a wealth fund, financed by taxes on property, that would give every woman and man a lump sum of money in both early adulthood and again in old age. Today, basic income policy proposals revive this idea.
…
The handouts to the rich that he complains about in Wealth of Nations have never entirely disappeared. Instead, a language of “free trade” has obscured the government’s role in favouring the wealthy. Just look at the past 30 years, a time of ever-growing subsidies to pharmaceutical executives who gouge consumers with unacceptably high drug prices; tax gifts to tech corporations that lobby to erode worker and consumer protections; the ever-replenishing “money-tree” of quantitative easing programmes that rain on the rich while the poor work ever-longer hours.

Smith did talk about the invisible hand. But he also wrote about the “invisible chains” that structure people’s lives. He and his revolutionary friends understood that wealth inequality could become a type of invisible cage. He taught his readers a simple lesson: keep the power of the rich in check.

- Meanwhile, Michal Rozworski examines how so many British voters cast ballots for a Conservative government which they knew couldn't care less about their well-being.

- Scott Leon and Brittany Andrew-Amofah offer some suggestions to improve the availability of housing due to its critical effect on people's health. BC Housing studies the effect of non-profit housing on property values and concludes that the former doesn't harm the latter. And Angela Sterritt reports on the Squamish Nation's plan to build 6,000 rental housing units in Vancouver.

- Meanwhile, Zak Vescera reports on the response of landlords to the Moe government's short-sighted welfare changes - with the predictable effect being an avoidable increase in evictions.

- Finally, H.M. Jocelyn highlights how the Trudeau Libs have sold out Canadian sovereignty and privacy to the Trump administration.

Friday Morning Links

Assorted content to end your week.

- Robert Frank reports on the latest galling threshold in wealth inequality, as millionaires consisting of less than 1% of the population now control effectively half of the wealth on Earth. And Steven Greenhouse asks why actual workers aren't being included in talks about the future of work and the economy.

- Neil Macdonald warns Justin Trudeau that he can't keep substituting evasion for meaningful answers and conversations about his poor decisions. And Andrew Jackson is rightfully aghast at the Libs' choice to prioritize tax cuts over anything which might actually help Canadians:

The major reason to not support this tax cut is that it is costly since a small cut is spread across so many people. Annual federal government revenues will fall by about $6 Billion per year, a significant chunk of change which will increase each year as and when the economy grows. Moreover, the federal government’s fiscal base is likely to be ratcheted down in perpetuity since it is unlikely that any party will propose a future across the board increase in personal income taxes.

Most progressives would prefer the Liberals to abandon their tax cut, and use it to fund other priorities such as investment in affordable housing, clean and renewable energy, public transit, public health care, child care, or post secondary education. $6 Billion added to seriously inadequate Liberal promises to fund a national pharmacare program would be sufficient to make the promise a reality.

The opposition parties in Parliament, the Conservatives aside, would likely agree. But the Prime Minister seems to have already made up his mind.

Call me a cynic, but this looks like yet another case of the Liberals campaigning from the left, and governing from the right. After just two days!

- Linda McQuaig notes that Jason Kenney is trying to crush the climate concerns of two thirds of Canada (not to mention the well-being of our living environment) in the name of a fabricated threat to unity. And Aaron Wherry notes that it's the Cons who have an obvious reason to revisit their functional denialism in light of this week's election.

- Andrew Coyne offers a reminder how first-past-the-post turns elections into high-stakes bets for unaccountable power, rather than meaningful opportunities to discuss policy choices. And David Kilgour writes that this week's results in particular demonstrate how Canadians would be better represented under a proportional system.

- Finally, Michal Rozworski comments on both the missed opportunities to move our political discussion further toward social and climate justice before election day, and the prospect of building the needed movement now that our political leaders face a minority Parliament.

Saturday Morning Links

Assorted content for your weekend reading.

- Linda McQuaig writes about the myth that we have no choice but to pursue privatization - and notes that electric vehicle production represents an ideal opportunity to build public economic capacity:

Is it feasible to save the once-vibrant Oshawa complex and transform it into a publicly owned plant producing environmentally essential products, as part of a Green New Deal?

Gindin notes that during the Second World War, GM facilities were converted to produce military vehicles. He insists that the Oshawa plant be expropriated today without compensation since Canadian taxpayers have already generously subsidized GM. While he acknowledges that the project is a long shot, he adds, “it seems criminal not to at least try.”

Indeed, what is needed is some bold, out-of-the-box thinking that takes us beyond the current dogma of privatization. Given that Canada’s historic auto-making centre is about to be shut down, we should consider creating a publicly owned facility that could potentially start a transformative industry here. If that idea is ultimately rejected, the rejection should be based on something more than the notion that such a project is too ambitious for public enterprise and is best left to the private sector.

In truth, the very ambitiousness of the project seems to call out for public enterprise. For most of our history, we’ve been mere "hewers of wood and drawers of water" and operators of branch plants. When we’ve risen above that, it’s usually been because we’ve created public enterprises that served a broader public purpose than what private interests were offering. We became the country we are today in part because, at key moments our past, some visionary Canadians had bold, ambitious ideas for public enterprises and weren’t deterred by the admonitions of the business elite.

There may be reasons not to turn the Oshawa plant into a green production facility, but let’s not succumb to the ill-informed notion that Canadians aren’t up to the task or that we don’t know how to do public enterprise in this country.

- Jon Milton discusses the importance of treating housing and transit as social goods rather than profit or revenue centres as part of any viable climate plan. And Bill Blaikie writes that we should be far more concerned about a long-term environmental deficit - the extreme damage we're inflicting on our planet - than about incremental differences in budget expectations.

- Erika Shaker compares how Canada's federal parties are addressing the increasing unaffordability of post-secondary education. And Anne Gaviola examines the numerous positive spinoff effects of forgiving student debt.

- John Geddes points out the minimal differences between the tax tinkering of the Libs and Cons (at a galling cost to the federal government's fiscal capacity).

- Finally, Michal Rozworski writes that it should be a no-brainer to bring in more revenue from Canada's wealthiest few, both to fund needed programs and to try to reduce the inequality in power which comes from the concentration of wealth. And Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman write that the U.S. too should be determining how to tax its way toward increased social justice.

New column day

Here (via PressReader), on how the Parliamentary Budget Officer has confirmed that Canadian voters can choose substantial social and environmental progress that's well within our means - even if the two main parties are determined to offer far less.

For further reading...
- Jeffrey Brooke wrote here about the origins of the PBO.
- The PBO's most recent Fiscal Sustainability Report (showing tens of billions of dollars in annual federal fiscal capacity) is here. And PressProgress reports on the analysis showing that we could raise $70 billion over a decade with the NDP's modest wealth tax.
- Andy Blatchford has pointed out the lack of much deficit panic from any side in the campaign. And Kevin Milligan wrote about why there's good reason not to be worried.
- Mia Rabson reports on the Cons' latest set of tax trinkets in lieu of meaningful plans to address any problem. And Michal Rozworski discusses how they're calculated to eliminate the fiscal room for more important action.
- And finally, David Thurton summarized what the NDP has on offer based on the federal government's resources. 

Sunday Morning Links

This and that for your Sunday reading.

- Michal Rozworski examines the factors which have contributed to Canada's ongoing housing crisis, including public austerity, consumer debt and undue speculation. Dan Fumano points out how homelessness is growing in Vancouver despite a few preliminary steps being taken to provide long-absent housing, while Jennifer Ackerman notes that the same goes for Regina where increased vacancy rates haven't helped matters for people who can't afford the units left empty by the market. And Fatima Syed notes that multigenerational homes may play a role in ensuring that more people have access to the housing they need.

- Morris Pearl wonders why anybody still attempts to claim that trickle-down economics produce anything but an increased concentration of wealth at the top in the face of decades of evidence to the contrary. And Andrew MacLeod reports that George Abbott, a prominent B.C. Liberal cabinet minister, is finally recognizing the folly of declaring that tax giveaways for the rich somehow pay for themselves (if only long after holding the power to do something with that knowledge).

- Meanwhile, Margaride Jorge theorizes that it should be possible to ensure that U.S. politicians begin to act on the public's desire for more taxes on the rich and a more egalitarian economic system. 

- Pam Palmater offers a needed reminder that Indigenous rights aren't contingent on public opinion. Daphne Bramham writes that one of the key takeaways from the report of the inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women should be increased recognition of the ongoing reality of human trafficking in Canada. And Kyle Edwards points out that another area demanding followup is the link between resource extraction and the exploitation of Indigenous women.

- Finally, Chris writes about the importance of acting against homophobia in all of its forms, not only the most extreme examples such as the violent attack against her on a UK bus.

Wednesday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.

- Sara Mojtehedzadeh reports that the Ford government's move to strip sick days away from workers was made without any attempt to consider the consequences for public health. And Emma Paling reports on how public protests at least delayed the final passage of the bill designed to attack employment standards and reduce the planned minimum wage, while Michal Rozworski debunks the Montreal Economic Institute's propaganda piece intended to criticize any minimum wage increases. 

- Rachel Aiello reports on the Auditor General's findings that the Canada Revenue Agency grants more leniency to large corporations and wealthy people with offshore dealings than to the general public. And D.C. Fraser notes that the Saskatchewan Party is refusing to provide any information about the money being gifted to Nutrien in "head office" giveaways even as its executive functions move out of the province.

- Jim Harding offers a reminder that time isn't on our side in trying to combat climate breakdown - and that every day of delay only makes the fight more difficult. And Mike Crawley points out that the apparently climate change policy model for the Ontario PCs (and other right-wing governments) is an Australian scheme which has led to greenhouse gas emission increases.
 
- Robert Fife, Steven Chase and Xioa Xu report on the Cons' use of related non-profit corporations to avoid federal spending limits.

- Finally, Mattha Busby discusses how safe injection sites are saving lives across Europe, even as the UK and other regressive jurisdictions insist on maximizing the harm done to drug users.

Sunday Morning Links

This and that for your Sunday reading.

- Gary Younge discusses how regardless of the outcome of the U.S.' midterm elections, democracy is on the defensive against a Republican attack on voting rights. Janet Reitman goes into detail about the consequences of the U.S.' law enforcement system failing to do anything about the dangerous buildup of violent white nationalism. And Tabatha Southey rightly points out the lack of any reason to hand a platform to a demagogue, while also offering some suggestions as to how any debate including Steve Bannon should have gone.

- Meanwhile, Paul Krugman comments that it's impossible to square support for the Republicans with either a clean conscience or any grounding in reality.

- The CCPA's latest Monitor examines the relationship between finance and the citizenry - including Michal Rozworski's piece on the connection between Canada's urban housing crisis and its increasing personal debt. And Al Jazeera interviews Leilani Farha about the global effects of treating housing as a means to accumulate wealth rather than a human right.

- Murray Mandryk writes that whatever plausibility the Saskatchewan Party has tried to claim for its Global Transportation Hub plans is going up on smoke as it appears more and more likely that the only private-sector participants had to be gifted land and services to go along.

- Finally, Michael Mann comments on the connection between climate breakdown and the increasingly extreme weather seen this summer. And David Olive writes that Doug Ford and other climate change denialists and obstructionists are positioning themselves firmly on the wrong side of history.

Saturday Morning Links

Assorted content for your weekend reading.

- Martin Lukacs offers a reminder that Doug Ford is nothing but a mercenary for his fellow children of privilege, while Andrea Horwath's NDP actually offers a platform which will benefit the 99%. And Michal Rozworski observes that Ontario's election is properly focusing on contrasting priorities rather than an obsession over deficit numbers. 

- David Climenhaga challenges Rachel Notley's attempt to scupper any discussion about pharmacare - even when it stands to save money for Alberta and the other provinces - in the name of putting pipelines first. And the Narwhal publishes an open letter challenging the approval of the Trans Mountain expansion in the absence of meaningful scientific support.

- Paul McKay notes that new rules governing sulphur content for shipping fuel may take a substantial bite out of the market for dilbit from the oil sands. And Damian Carrington reports on new research showing that the global cost of climate change will far exceed the price of reining in greenhouse gas emissions.

- Bridget Yard reports on the Saskatchewan Human Rights Commission's survey of Saskatoon renters, including its finding of explicit discrimination against Indigenous people, single mothers and people receiving social assistance.

- Finally, Wendy Stueck reports on FSIN's newly-announced suicide prevention strategy - while noting the need for the provincial and federal governments to care enough about Indigenous people's lives to contribute.

Wednesday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.

- Amir Sufi and Atif Mian discuss how household debt tends to drive both the booms and busts of the business cycle. Which means there's plenty of reason for concern about a Canadian economy reliant on household debt to paper over income insecurity and inequality - and Michal Rozworski highlights how those trends are playing out even when looking only at wages.

- Meanwhile, Andy Blatchford reports on the Bank of Canada's research showing how universal affordable child care could provide an economic boost (as well as far greater career opportunities for women in particular).

- J.W. Mason traces U.S. corporate cash flows over the past six decades - including both the recent drop in the wage share (masked earlier only due to increased health care costs), and a stark jump in share repurchases even when it means going into the red. And Adam Winkler notes that the concept of corporate rights is built on a foundation as deceitful and misguided as the anti-social policies now pushed based on the valuation of corporations over people.

- PressProgress points out the public's strong desire to close tax loopholes and generally make sure that corporations pay their fair share. And Jose Antonio Campo discusses the need for international cooperation to prevent businesses from ducking any contribution to the people who make their profits possible.

- Finally, Trevor Hancock comments on the importance of incorporating nature into our urban living spaces.

New column day

Here, on the positive natural effects of minimum wage increases - and why we shouldn't lose them to the threat of artificial problems being created by employers looking for excuses to exploit their workers.

For further reading...
- The Bank of Canada's staff analytical note on the effect of planned minimum wage increases is here (PDF). And again, Michal Rozworski discusses the difference between the note's actual conclusions, and the media spin about job impacts.
- PressProgress debunks a few of the right-wing attacks on improved wages.
- Gillian Steward and Ian Hussey have both noted that Alberta is prospering while taking steps to make sure lower-income workers receive a fair wage.
- Finally, Aaron Saltzman reports on the Tim Hortons franchises and other Ontario employers who have tried to use a minimum wage boost as an excuse to attack workers. And Edward Keenan discusses how Tim Hortons in particular is undermining its own brand due to franchisees' treatment of employees. [Update: And Joel Harden calls for an end to employer retaliation against lower-income workers.]

Saturday Afternoon Links

Assorted content for your weekend reading.

- Lana Payne discusses the divergence between an upper class with soaring incomes, and the bulk of the population facing stagnation and precarity:

(W)hile the nation’s wealth or GDP looks good, less of it is getting shared around and more and more of it is hoarded at the top end.

Governments are collecting less from the rich and corporations, limiting their ability to share wealth and invest and build things that benefit everyone.

At the same time, household debt levels are at their highest, sitting at 168% last year.

Many Canadians are feeling less secure in their employment, experiencing deteriorating job quality, with almost two-thirds earning less than the average wage. Indeed the share of Canadians earning less than the average wage has continued to climb over the past two decades.

This is directly linked to a rising share of low-wage jobs, according to the CIBC Capital Markets’ job quality report issued in late 2016. So while the job market on the surface looks good, wages are lagging.

Late last fall, Ekos pollster Frank Graves did a deep dive on this widespread feeling of economic insecurity.

Fewer Canadians, he found, identify with being in the “middle class” and more and more Canadians are feeling pessimistic about their futures.

A multitude of tax cuts has not helped assuage the economic angst.
...
The 2018 World Inequality Report says progressive taxation is crucial to stop rising inequality.

The fact is there is plenty of money in the economy. It’s how that money is not getting shared.

- Michal Rozworski rightly critiques the media's response to minimum wage increases, both in reproducing anti-worker propaganda and in spinning economic analyses to ignore the positive effects of increased wages. David Moscrop offers a reminder of the importance of looking at the effect of policy on people's lives - and particularly workers benefiting from high wages. The Hamilton Spectator weighs in on the obvious benefits of a more fair minimum wage. And CBC has followed up on the treatment of workers at Tim Hortons as a prime example of how unscrupulous employers are trying to twist positive public policy changes into an excuse to further exploit workers.

- Graham Riches writes that John Horgan (and others in power) should be working on ending reliance on food banks, not merely promoting them. And Luke Savage discusses how Toronto's cold snap and resulting discussion of homelessness have laid bare its blithe acceptance of avoidable poverty and insecurity.

- Finally, Brent Patterson argues that the federal Libs need to stop stalling on legislation to reverse the Cons' voter suppression tactics. And Ian Boekhoff reports on the possibility that Prince Edward Island might break new ground in Canadian electoral reform.

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.
...
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.

Saturday Morning Links

Assorted content for your weekend reading.

- Linda McQuaig writes that it's long past time to review our tax system to make sure it isn't unfairly leaking money to the people who need it least:

These high rollers are able to avoid substantial amounts of tax by setting up private corporations and then funneling their incomes through these corporations.

The widespread use of this tax avoidance scheme only came to light because of a detailed 2014 study by public finance scholars Michael Wolfson, Michael Veall and Neil Brooks, who used previously unavailable data from tax returns to show that billions of dollars received by some of the richest Canadians had not been included in the calculation of their incomes.

Once this invisible income — amounting to an astonishing $48 billion in 2010 — is added to their reported personal incomes, Canada’s rich are considerably richer than we’ve been led to believe.

For instance, according to commonly used data (for 2011), the average income for those in Canada’s top 1 per cent was $359,000. But once the income they held in private corporations was added, the actual average annual income of these folks was a much heftier $500,200.

The higher up the income ladder, the more popular private corporations have become. Roughly 80 per cent of the richest .01 per cent of Canadians funnel income through private corporations and the amounts involved are substantial, the study found.

The average income for those in the top .01 per cent was $4.69 million a year — an enormous income. But once the income held in their private corporations was added, the average income in this privileged group actually jumped to a stunning $8 million a year.
...
The tax loophole for private corporations is, of course, just one of the loopholes benefiting the rich and we need a comprehensive examination of all of them, if we’re to begin addressing the growing inequality in our society.

But the skirmish over this loophole is an important battle. And it won’t be easily won, given the reluctance of the powerful to give up their tax breaks. Lined up with them is Conservative leader Andrew Scheer and the high-powered world of Bay Street tax practitioners, who are churning out technical arguments aimed at obscuring what’s at stake and leaving ordinary citizens inclined to leave such complex matters to the professionals.

That’s unfortunate, because what’s at stake here is vital in a democracy — a tax system that’s fair, with the ability to raise sufficient revenue to fund key public programs that benefit us all.

- Gregory Beatty talks to Erin Weir about the real effect of the loopholes under review. And Lana Payne links closing tax loopholes to improved minimum wages as basic steps toward shared economic prosperity.

- Speaking of which, Michal Rozworski duly critiques the TD Bank's attempt to fearmonger about a $15 minimum wage. And Martin Regg Cohn discusses why we should be skeptical of corporate interests trying to prevent workers from sharing in economic growth.

- Noah Smith examines how a focus on short-term returns leads to worse results in the long run both for individual businesses and the economy as a whole. And Matt Egan notes that wealth inequality is worse in the U.S. than it's ever been.

- Finally, Shawn Micallef comments on the dangers of cities not designed for basic resident safety - with a lack of bike infrastructure which creates imminent risks for cyclists serving as a particularly vivid example.

New column day

Here, on the noteworthy contrast in positions on income supports in the NDP's leadership campaign (and particularly the recent debate in Saskatoon).

For further reading...
- Jeremy Nuttall discussed the state of the campaign prior to Tuesday's debate. And Peter Zimonjic offered a summary of the debate. 
- I'd previously blogged here about the difference between Guy Caron's basic income proposal and Jagmeet Singh's limited income guarantees.
- The NDP's policy book is here (PDF). And I'll point in particular to the following passages as to universality in transfers as well as public services:

3.7
Seniors and retirees
New Democrats believe in:

a
Maintaining the universality of Old Age Security (OAS) and increasing funding for the Guaranteed Income Supplement (GIS)

…
SECTION 5
GOVERNING IN AN INCLUSIVE AND FAIR CANADA
…
New Democrats are committed to the kind of mutual respect among levels of government that is the hallmark of cooperative federalism; that makes collaboration on social and economic policies work, and that ensures the universality of social programs.

- And finally, Michal Rozworski offers a more detailed look at the different areas of debate (and confusion) around the structure of social programs.

Tuesday Morning Links

This and that for your Tuesday reading.

- Kate Aronoff writes that in addition to being a political loser, corporate-friendly centrism is extremely dangerous in allowing for far less than the effort we should be putting into fighting climate change. And Tess Riley reports on new research that only a hundred companies are responsible for 71% of global greenhouse gas emissions - making it clear how a few firms with a lot of money at stake will be an obstacle to needed policy choices absent a concerted effort to put the public interest first.

- Trish Hennessy takes a look at the benefits of a $15 minimum wage for Ontario workers, while Michal Rozworski offers a media roundup of economists speaking in favour of a more liveable wage.

- Gordon Laxer points out that NAFTA has locked Canada into an unheard-of loss of sovereignty over our natural resources, while noting that the U.S.' desire to renegotiate offers a prime opportunity for change.

- Finally, The Globe and Mail rightly questions how Canada can live in denial of a severe suicide crisis among Indigenous children. And Doug Cuthand laments the latest outbursts of racism, including the killing of Barb Kentner.