Wednesday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.

- The American Institute of Biological Sciences weighs in on the growing scientific recognition that we're approaching - and indeed barreling toward - irreversible climate disaster. Benjamin Shingler reports on the International Energy Agency's projections that renewable energy will make cheap and abundant power available in the very near future - but that an "all of the above" energy strategy won't go far in reducing fossil fuel use or carbon pollution. And Marco Chown Oved reports on a new study showing that a switch to an electric vehicle can lead to significant cost savings at the individual level. 

- The Jamaica Observer highlights the multiple environmental problems posed by electronic waste. And Nathan Proctor discusses the findings from a study of community repaid events - showing that numerous products are already capable of being repaired, and that the vast majority could be if not for design or parts issues.  

- Nicholas Shaxson writes that Keir Starmer's whining about "red tape" represents a deliberate choice to serve corporate elites at the expense of public health and safety. And Cory Doctorow writes that governments are perfectly capable of applying fair taxes to billionaires' wealth if they haven't abdicated their responsibility for the general welfare, while Thomas Piketty discusses the importance of not overcomplicating fair tax plans (as the wealthy are of course eager to demand in order to delay implementation and create loopholes). 

- Finally, Jeremy Appel calls out several corporate media outlets for fueling authoritarian drug policies through sensationalized reporting on mental health and homelessness issues. And Zak Vescera reports on the Alberta oil money swamping British Columbia's election with ads in order to install the violently loony BC Cons in power. 

Monday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material to start your week.

- Lauren Rosenthal, Brian Sullivan and Christopher Cannon examine how the prospect of extreme weather and associated disasters is a reality everywhere in the U.S. Helena Horton reports on a World Meteorological Organization report showing how rivers are drying up, resulting in a grave threat to fresh water supplies. And Andrew Nikiforuk writes about the devastation caused by Hurricane Helene in particular, while Kate Aronoff discusses the importance of putting climate safety at the forefront of all kinds of policy decisions due to its foundational impact across borders and policy areas. 

- Shawn McCarthy writes that we should be able to treat adaptation to a changing climate as a non-partisan priority - though that assumes away the conscious strategy of denial on the part of far too many of our political leaders. And Crawford Kilian discusses Thomas Piketty's recognition that any viable climate plan needs to rein in inequality and excess - which is precisely why the people flaunting obscene wealth and power refuse to accept any meaningful action. 

- And in case there was any doubt that antisocial action is rewarded among our corporate elites, Max Fawcett discusses how oil operators who have dumped massive amounts of environmental liability on the public (after previously extracting profits without setting aside the cost of cleanup) are being celebrated by the business class as representing everything they aspire to achieve. 

- Finally, Alex Himelfarb highlights the importance of collective action as the only viable response to both an economy grossly skewed in favour of the wealthy few, and the message that there is no alternative which serves as the substitute for any justification for that reality. 

Wednesday Afternoon Links

Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.

- Crawford Kilian discusses what Canada's long-term climate policy needs to look like as it becomes abundantly clear that relying primarily on consumer-based carbon pricing has failed both as a means of reducing carbon pollution, and as a political calculation. Celeste Young and Roger Jones discuss the reality that providing people with accurate information about the climate crisis has done little to spur any systemic change. And Graham Readfearn talks to Lesley Hughes about the importance of maintaining hope even while recognizing the immense work ahead of us to avert a full climate breakdown. 

- John Gibbons highlights the dangers of allowing the imperative of maintaining a survivable environment to be subordinated to the capital class' demand for perpetually growing wealth extraction. And Fiona Harvey discusses Thomas Piketty's ideas which can help reduce greenhouse gas emissions and inequality together. 

- Amber Bracken and Drew Anderson offer a reminder of the carnage being wrought in the Alberta tar sands - even as the perpetrators greenwash themselves and their destruction. And Matthew Taylor reports on new estimates showing that even based on its own spin, the fossil fuel sector is centuries away from zeroing out its emissions with carbon capture. 

- Beth Mole reports on big pharma's massive dark money donations being used to try to avoid any steps to make needed medications more affordable in the U.S. 

- And finally, Arman Hamidian discusses the need to tackle our common challenges with a whole-of-society approach, rather than an assumption that individual incentives and choices are our only options. 

Thursday Morning Links

This and that for your Thursday reading.

- Tim Loh discusses how Europe's premature end to public health measures is resulting in another COVID wave. Lei Lei Wu notes that nearly two-thirds of U.S. children hospitalized with the Omicron variant had no other underlying condition, while Natalie Huet reports on the substantial proportion of children whose symptoms lead to long COVID. Juliet Pulliam et al. study the growing risk of re-infection by the new variants, while Gili Regev-Yonchay et al. find that a fourth dose of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine is both safe and effective in protecting against symptoms. And Gideon Meyerowitz-Katz discusses why any "focused protection" theory (i.e. letting the pandemic run rampant other than seeking to protect only the most vulnerable) has always been doomed to fail. 

- Anna Bawden reports on new research showing the connection between air pollution and auto-immune diseases.  

- Anne Applebaum discusses how the U.S.' coddling of kleptocratic governments in Russia and elsewhere has undermined any goal of promoting democracy around the globe. 

- Meanwhile, Thomas Piketty writes that we would have little trouble identifying and seizing the assets of Russia's oligarchs through an international financial registry if the wealthiest few weren't determined to avoid having their own riches known (and potentially taxed). Transparency International Canada examines (PDF) how secrecy is at the core of Canadian "snow-washing" of offshore wealth. And Rita Trichur discusses how transparency is the only way to avoid being a haven for financial crime. 

- Adam Johnson calls out the U.S. media's eagerness to cheerlead for war - thereby serving the interests of the military-industrial complex in the name of holding politicians to account. 

- Finally, Anne Helen Pedersen examines how to marshal collective strength in response to the U.S.' seemingly relentless stream of individual-level stress and social regression.

Sunday Afternoon Links

This and that for your Sunday reading.

- Trevor Herriot and Cathy Holtslander write about the Saskatchewan Party's climate position which can't be treated as anything but implicit denialism. John Woodside points out that the Libs' fuel regulations seem designed to lock us into decades of avoidable fossil fuel use, while Bill McKibben takes note that an inexcusable amount of carbon pollution is happening solely for the sake of producing and transporting other fossil fuels.

- Meanwhile, Nicole Poindexter discusses how it's possible to simultaneously end energy poverty and transition away from dirty energy with renewable minigrids and battery storage.

- The Star's editorial board highlights how wealth accumulation at the top comes at the expense of everybody else, while Robert Kuttner discusses Thomas Piketty's road toward advocacy for socialism and wealth redistribution. Connie Lin discusses how U.S. workers are using their increased recognition as to unfairness in the workplace as a reason to leave exploitative jobs. And Steven Hall points out what Don't Look Up can teach us about economics, including the desperate need for publicly-oriented planning to replace subservience to capitalists. 

- Jen St. Denis reports on Paul Kershaw's call for a windfall tax on high-priced real estate. 

- Zak Vescera reports on the glaring need for additional staff and resources to run shelters in Saskatoon (and elsewhere in Saskatchewan). And Bonnie Larson, Ginetta Salvalaggio and Claire Bodkin discuss how a safe-supply policy would work wonders in mitigating the drug poisoning crisis. 

- Finally, Amil Niazi writes that parents are now facing the same challenges as at the beginning of the pandemic, only with far less support and with two years of fatigue weighing them down. And Shannon Proudfoot discusses the problems with virtual learning - even as the damage caused by that pales in comparison to the risk of lifelong health conditions.

Friday Morning Links

Assorted content to end your week.

- Roni Caryn Rabin, Apoorva Mandervilli and Shawn Hubler discuss the U.S.' reconsideration of plans to lift COVID-19 recommendations and restrictions in the face of the Delta variant, while Mike Hager points out the expert response to the push by some Canadian premiers to eliminate masking requirements. Nikolaj Skydsgaard and Jacob Gronholt-Pederson report on the WHO's warning of another wave in Europe (driven in substantial part by spread through sports venues and bars), while Derek Hawkins reports on an 85-person outbreak at a single Illinois summer camp. And Emma Tranter reports on the Yukon's COVID crisis which has broken out despite it being Canada's most-vaccinated jurisdiction.

- Joe Roberts highlights how most of the support governments have provided throughout the pandemic has served to prop up corporate interests rather than people's well-being - raising the question of when we'll insist on building something better than an exploitative economy. 

- Matthew Klein argues that we should be looking to err (if it all) on the side of overshooting what's needed to build the economy and society we want, rather than once again falling short. And Diane Francis (!) writes that the U.S.' downfall as a society can be traced to the systemic cultivation of distrust in government which has allowed bad actors to run wild.

- PressProgress discusses new research showing the difference between younger people who want the facts about issues such as climate change and systemic racism, and older ones with a preference for false "neutrality". Crawford Kilian writes about Thomas Piketty's analysis of Canadian politics - confirming that the Cons' base in particular is aging and insular while strong patterns as between the NDP, Greens and Libs are far more difficult to find. And Paul Willcocks notes that Erin O'Toole is only exacerbating his party's weaknesses by playing to ignorance and bigotry.

- Finally, Mumilaaq Qaqqaq discusses her reasons for not celebrating a legacy of colonialism and genocide. And Cindy Blackstock writes that the long-overdue moment of awareness has come about only after years of activists screaming into a void, while Suzanne Shoush wonders whether Canada is finally waking up to the cries of Indigenous peoples for relief and justice.

Sunday Morning Links

This and that for your Sunday reading.

- Don Braid calls out Jason Kenney for allowing his government's MLAs and officials to gallivant around the world on vacation while demanding that the rest of Alberta stay home to stop the spread of COVID-19. James Keller reports on new research showing a direct connection between strict measures to stop viral spread, and lower spikes in COVID-19's second wave (which then allowed for greater economic stability and continuation). And George Fallis notes that the coronavirus is just another case where a comparison to the U.S. alone can cause Canadians to miss how we're failing compared to most of our international peers.

- Liz Theoharis writes about some of the lessons from the pandemic about the dangers of the concentration of wealth and privilege (and corresponding poverty and deprivation) which should be applied to policy choices in general. And Antoine Bozio, Bertrand Garbinti, Jonathan Goupille-Lebret, Malka Guillot and Thomas Piketty highlight how greater equality in pre-distribution is necessary to achieve sustainable fairness in income and wealth distribution.

- Geoff Dembicki warns U.S. climate activists against making the same mistake as their Canadian counterparts who wrongly assumed the election of a centrist government willing to speak sweet nothings would result in climate action. And the Globe and Mail's editorial board points out that we're still falling short of ensuring that climate harms are included in economic decision-making.

- Finally, Michael Coren writes about Marc Perez' research showing that solar power has become cheap enough that there's no more viable energy strategy than to build as much as possible - even if it can't all be used immediately. (Which of course makes it all the more asinine that so many Canadian governments are determined to instead hype nuclear vaporware in order to put off the transition away from fossil fuels.)

Friday Morning Links

Assorted content to end your week.

- Annie Lowrey discusses how essential workers have been consistently undervalued due to political choices. And Patty Coates, Jan Simpson and Pablo Godoy discuss the need to ensure legal protections for workers' rights in the wake of Foodora fleeing the country after its attempt to find a loophole in employment law failed.

- Meanwhile, Vanessa Brcic argues that we have a much-needed opportunity to better apply principles of equity and public health to the design of our social supports. Rutger Bregman implores us to take advantage of the opening to change the world for the better. And Laura Spinney interviews Thomas Piketty about the prospect that the response to COVID-19 will result in fairer societies.

- Gregory Beatty notes that social programs and safety regulations have been under neoliberal attack for decades. And Nam Kiwanuka highlights the dishonesty and inhumanity underlying the right-wing assumption that people receiving needed income support must be gaming the system.

- Susan Delacourt offers a reminder that Stephen Harper's last call for austerity and corporatism in the wake of a global crisis produced little benefit for anybody but the wealthy and well-connected. And Bruce Arthur notes that while Harper tries to deliver right-wing messages to an American audience, Canada faces the need to protect itself from the U.S.' reckless choice to let the coronavirus run wild in the name of Trump and profits.

- Finally, Matt Taibbi writes that the COVID-19 corporate bailout has once again offered the wealthiest Americans the opportunity to avoid any losses from their financial gambling. And Sharon Riley reports on Alberta's use of the pandemic to let oil companies off the hook for the environmental damage done by abandoned wells, while Lawrie McFarlane notes that Alberta is facing the consequences of its own disdain for the rest of Canada.

Friday Morning Links

Assorted content to end your week.

- Mark Rowlinson points out how the obvious frailty of our current supply chains highlights the need to develop Canadian manufacturing. And Amanda Follett Hosgood notes the importance of localized food production in particular.

- Bill McKibben calls out the oil industry's attempts to use COVID-19 as an excuse to push through pipeline construction, while Mia Rabson exposes its intensive lobbying to undermine any action on climate change or environmental protection.

- Meanwhile, Rhiana Gunn-Wright offers a reminder that the climate change crisis is no less severe in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. And Brian Kahn reports that the group which worked on Jay Inslee's climate plan has developed a roadmap to ensure that the coronavirus recovery results in a just transition toward cleaner energy.

- Bruce Anderson discusses how the effort to achieve physical distancing has ultimately brought people closer together in a common mission. And the Globe and Mail's editorial board recognizes that the social cohesion needed to overcome the coronavirus shouldn't be used as an excuse for governments to claim extraordinary and unaccountable powers.

- Marc Lee argues that the higher levels of government need to provide immediate supports to local governments and regional authorities which were struggling under the weight of downloaded responsibilities and slashed funding even before the pandemic. 

- Finally, Simon Kuper writes about Thomas Piketty's call for wealth taxes to rectify gross inequality - a cause which is only becoming more important as the world's wealthiest few rake in billions of dollars more while the rest of the world is locked down.

Sunday Afternoon Links

This and that for your Sunday reading.

- Eric Doherty, and Eric Galbraith and Ross Otto, respectively write that the response to the coronavirus shows how it's possible to imagine and implement needed changes along the lines of a Green New Deal. And Heather Mallick theorizes that it can also be a first step toward living more intelligently.

- The Star's editorial board points out how the pandemic has shown gaping holes in our existing social safety net, while Martin Regg Cohn writes that many people are just now learning how precarious much work has become. And Justin Ling rightly criticizes how marginalized people including prisoners and asylum seekers are being endangered by the Libs' choices.

- Jim Stanford writes that what's needed for the future goes far beyond mere stimulus:

There is enormous need for urgent rebuilding required in our economy and our communities. Repairing and strengthening health care infrastructure comes first, but other priorities, too, are urgent: like sustainable transit, green energy, non-market housing, aged care and early child education.

The case for mobilising resources under the leadership of governments and public institutions, and employing millions of Australians to do that work, is compelling. We can repair the damage of this crisis (and better prepare for the next one), deliver valuable services, and create millions of jobs. All we need is the willingness to imagine a different model of organizing and leading economic activity.
...
The failure of financialized, neoliberal capitalism will be laid bare more clearly than ever in coming months. The private sector will definitely be unable to get the economy back on its feet after this crisis. So we need to look elsewhere for economic leadership.

Just as World War II ‘solved’ the Great Depression by mobilizing enormous resources in an urgent attempt to meet a huge threat (global fascism), we now need another, peaceful war – a war on poverty, on epidemics, and on pollution.

And by organizing ourselves as society to fight that war, we will actually make ourselves better off right now: creating jobs and incomes, providing needed care and services, generating taxes. And we will benefit in the long-run by winning those ‘wars,’ and building a safer, sustainable world.

- Finally, Anna Stansbury and Lawrence Summers examine the connection between a decline in worker bargaining power and the erosion of the U.S.' economic performance. And Thomas Piketty highlights how Bernie Sanders' campaign is making a desperately-needed attempt to give the U.S.' democracy a boost.

Sunday Morning Links

This and that for your Sunday reading.

- Jim Stanford offers his take on how our governments should respond to the coronavirus epidemic - including an emphasis on health, income security and debt relief, along with a plan for reconstruction. And Armine Yalnizyan and Jennifer Robson provide some more specific details toward exactly those ends.

- Meanwhile, Kelly Crowe and Charlie Warzel each discuss the importance of social distancing as the most important contribution individuals can make. And Mattia Ferraresi warns us not to make the same mistakes as Italy in continuing business as usual until it was too late.

- Taylor Scollon points out how a pandemic is exposing the glaring weaknesses in our welfare state, while Dan Kois notes that it's also demonstrating the arbitrariness of the U.S.' security theater. And Kate Aronoff, Alyssa Battistoni, Daniel Aldana Cohen and Thea Riofrancos discuss the type of transformation we should be demanding as we emerge from it.

- Finally, Andrew Leigh reviews Thomas Piketty's Capital and Ideology, with particular emphasis on how inequality in education and childhood support propagates inequality between generations.

Saturday Afternoon Links

Assorted content for your weekend reading.

- Don Pittis writes about Thomas Piketty's take that Bernie Sanders may be exactly what the U.S. needs.

- Laurie Penny wonders whether we're yet capable of overcoming the culture of complicity around the powerful men daring the justice system to hold them to account for immoral abuses of others. Laura Bassett questions why Mike Bloomberg expects a pass on dozens of examples of harassment and discrimination. And PressProgress calls out Andrew Wilkinson for minimizing the harm suffered by survivors of domestic and sexual violence.

- Elisha Dacey reports that after seeing the benefits of a strong film industry, Manitoba is making its film tax credit permanent. And Zak Vescera reports on Scott Moe's willingness to forgo federal health care funding in order to leave Saskatchewan on the hook for the privatization of medical services which has led to a doubling of waitlists.

- Charlie Smith points out that liquid natural gas projects too make little sense from a sheer business perspective even if one assigns zero value to both Indigenous rights and environmental protection.

- Finally, Scott Schmidt discusses the importance of speaking out against harmful government choices rather than silently acquiescing in social destruction - and while his focus is on the UCP, the message is one worth applying generally.

Monday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material for your Monday reading.

- Scott Schmidt highlights how the wealthy have seized any gains in economic growth over a period of decades. Michael Hobbes discusses the "glass floor" keeping the children of rich families from facing any risk of failure. And Crawford Kilian discusses Thomas Piketty's observations about self-proclaimed left-of-centre parties who have chosen to serve the interests of the corporate elite.

- Trevor Herriot discusses the unsustainable subsidies which have resulted in far too many prairie residents prioritizing a fossil fuel economy and a car culture over sustainable alternative. And Judith Shulevitz writes about the social isolation caused by unsynchronized and unpredictable work and activity schedules. 

- Megan Leslie makes the case for Canadians to vote based on the environment. Ed Finn writes that voters looking for change should be supporting the NDP as it looks set to win the balance of power in a minority Parliament. And Charlie Smith offers a preview of the Libs' predictable attacks on Jagmeet Singh.

- Finally, Priyamvada Gopal discusses the need to call out and challenge racism by its name alongside other forms of structural inequality.

Sunday Morning Links

This and that for your Sunday reading.

- Kerri Breen reports on the public's understandable frustration with Canada's political system. Don Martin offers a prime example as to why that's justified, as Justin Trudeau has cynically concluded that it would be counterproductive to stand up for people facing religious discrimination in Quebec as a result of Bill 21. And Karl Nerenberg examines Trudeau's track record of broken promises - including some of the most important commitments which earned him a look from progressive voters in 2015.

- Meanwhile, Charlie Smith notes that Jagmeet Singh may be ideally positioned to offer a desperately-needed alternative to corporate service as usual.

- Common Dreams takes note of a new study showing both the ubiquity of plastic ingredients in the bodies of German children, and a familiar pattern of inequality in which less wealthy children are more likely to face dangerously elevated levels of pollution.

- Chris Varcoe points out that the City of Medicine Hat has joined the ranks of traitors to Jason Kenney's fossil fuel cause by planning to shut down gas wells which can't produce a viable return.

- Finally, William Horobin discusses Thomas Piketty's latest book, including its proposals for political and economic remedies to the scourge of undue inequality.

Saturday Afternoon Links

Assorted content for your weekend reading.

- Meghna Charkabarti interviews Branko Milanovic about the destructive amount of inequality embedded in capitalism as it's currently structured. Connor Kilpatrick and Bhaskar Sunkara argue that the corporate class has only tolerated an acceptable distribution of income and wealth when it's been accompanied by the credible threat of expropriation and nationalization. And Robert Frank reports on Thomas Piketty's push for a substantial wealth tax based on the principle that every billionaire represents a policy failure.

- Meanwhile, Denise Balkissoon highlights how our political system all too often excludes people who don't already enjoy a significant level of economic status and privilege.

- Sandy Garossino discusses how Jason Kenney has joined the club of strongman figures seeking to criminalize any attempt to protect our planet from environmental destruction. And the Globe and Mail's editorial board recognizes the threat Kenney poses to democracy.

- Jeremy Gong highlights the importance of closing the loopholes which have resulted in gig workers being treated as "independent contractors" rather than employees. But Sharon Block and Benjamin Sachs write that such recognition is only the first step toward providing the opportunity for collective bargaining.

- Finally, Christopher Guly wonders whether Justin Trudeau will pay a price for his betrayal of voters who believed his oft-repeated promise of electoral reform. And Andrew Coyne rightly laments another election campaign in which most voters are seen as superfluous to deciding who will hold power.

Wednesday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.

- Joe Pinsker offers a reminder that the wealthiest individuals are primarily concerned with positional rather than absolute gains - meaning that nothing useful is accomplished by diverting wealth toward them other than to drive up the price of status symbols. And Thomas Piketty thoroughly debunks Emmanuel Macron's excuses for abolishing France's wealth tax and otherwise governing solely for the benefit of the wealthiest few.

- Abby Olena discusses the Great Dying to be expected when oceans warm up to levels intolerable for the species which live there. The Canadian Press reports on the obstacle Canada's oil and gas industry presents in any attempt to meaningfully reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Carl Meyer reports that the existing TransMountain pipeline bought by the federal government may be a money sink even before a nickel is spent on any expansion.

- PressProgress exposes how Jason Kenney arranged for a sham candidate to enter the UCP's leadership race for the sole purpose of attacking Brian Jean.

- Mike Crawley reports on the dark corporate money behind Ontario Proud's bigoted anti-refugee advertising in that province's most recent election campaign. And Martin Regg Cohn examines the first proceedings of Doug Ford's kangaroo court, while Robyn Urback takes note of the high cost of Ford's false efficiencies.

- Finally, Rachel Langford discusses the risks of Ford's lowering of standards for child care in the name of profit. And Alex Hemingway comments on the importance of taking health and safety into account in establishing policy for ride-sharing services.

Tuesday Morning Links

This and that for your Tuesday reading.

- Thomas Piketty sets out a proposal to start addressing inequality across the EU. Derek Thompson discusses how the U.S.' economy has been designed to squeeze younger workers at every turn, while Sean Coughlan points out that UK youth are skeptical that social mobility is a realistic prospect. And Miles Corak proposes unconditional learning bonds for less-wealthy families as one means of leveling the playing field.

- Matt Price comments on the importance of pursuing a large-scale transition to a cleaner and fairer economy in Canada - though he does miss the reality that the labour movement is already leading the push in that direction.

- Sharon Riley reports that most of the oil well sites certified as being "reclaimed" even under Alberta's already-insufficient regulatory system fall far short of meeting the definition. And the CP reports on a new study showing that the vast majority of oil sector emissions will get a free pass in the Libs' carbon pricing scheme.

- Meanwhile, Nick Falvo offers some considerations for Alberta's budget - including the importance of finally taking in a reasonable amount of tax revenue.

- Finally, Noah Smith writes about the impending battle over corporate monopolies, with particular attention to the effect of corporate dominance on workers in addition to consumers.

Monday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material to start your week.

- Beth Gutelius writes that any discussion about the future of work can draw important lessons from the past, with most of the issues facing workers today echoing or arising out of ones which have surfaced before:

The set of structural forces that has converged over the last forty years has shaped the economy and produced an uneven distribution of benefits, especially along lines of race, gender, immigration status, disability, and other markers of social difference. These are the ghosts of work, forces which include:

• Structural racism and gender discrimination that disadvantages people of color, especially African Americans, and women;
• Immigration policy that has resulted in a secondary labor market for undocumented immigrants and immigrants with certain visas;
• Industry reorganization that has led to an increasingly fissured economy and increasing reliance on outsourcing and worker subcontracting;
• Decline in union density, due to explicit and well-funded attacks on workers’ rights to organize and bargain collectively, which has reduced the wage-setting capacity and political influence of unions;
• Shifts in corporate governance that have lead to increased shareholder power and CEO pay, and curtailed shared prosperity;
• Globalization and trade policy which produced a new set of low-road competitive dynamics, including offshoring;
• Attacks on the public sector which have resulted in policies skewed toward financial and private sector deregulation, privatization, and the overall shrinking of the role of government;
• Tax policy reform that has favored the wealthy and corporations, and has lead to a redistribution of gains toward the top of the income spectrum; and
• Financialization, which has bloated the role of the financial sector in the economy.

What a list! Taken as a whole, these major trends have shifted power and resources away from workers, and allowed or even incentivized employers to pursue a range of low-road approaches to profitability. These root causes may be shifting somewhat, but they are not going away.

...

1. The future of economic justice is a just transition to what will involve more technologically-mediated labor markets and jobs. A just transition should mitigate the costs and share the benefits of new technologies.
2. Change is certain, but its path is not, and giving in to inevitability will stifle our imagination. There are many alternatives, and it is our collective duty to create and promote them.
3. Efforts to confront the changing nature of work should strengthen the role of the public sector in setting and enforcing workplace standards and delivering a social safety net.
4. Those workers most affected by an issue should be involved in shaping any proposal or campaign to address it, and the process should help build workers’ voice and capacity to act.

- Meanwhile, the New York Times editorial board examines the long-haul trucking industry as a damning example of the combination of longer hours, greater demands and stagnant wages faced by so many workers in the U.S. over recent decades.

- The New York Times editorial board also points out how the Trump tax giveaway served only to further enrich the wealthy. And Thomas Piketty discusses the dangers of burgeoning inequality.

- The Economist offers a useful set of principles and proposals to make tax systems more fair and effective. 

- Finally, Don Lenihan writes about Canada's telecommunications oligopoly - and the need to treat access to the world as an essential service to ensure access is available in areas which won't receive equitable services based on profit motives. And Sarah Fischer discusses the dangers of increased concentration of local television broadcasting and other media.

Thursday Morning Links

This and that for your Thursday reading.

- Stuart Heritage argues that a shared sense of morality is our best hope of ensuring that narcissism isn't rewarded. And Paul Gleason reviews two new books - including Thomas Piketty's latest - on the importance of progressive taxes to reduce inequality (in addition to funding social goods).

- Josh Eidelson discusses how the Koch corporatist machine intends to capitalize on yesterday's SCOTUS decision undercutting public-sector labour organization. But Peter Greene notes that plenty of unions have already learned to navigate the types of restrictions imposed by the Republican contingent on the court.

- Kelly Grant reports on British Columbia's proposal to require the disclosure of pharmaceutical industry payments to doctors.

- Murray Mandryk discusses the mounting problems with the Saskatchewan Party's multi-billion-dollar privatized Regina bypass.

- Finally, Brian Hill points out that Canada's immigration system imposes unreasonable barriers to family reunification, including by failing to classify the parents of child refugees as "family members".

Saturday Morning Links

Assorted content for your weekend reading.

- Alex Himelfarb warns about the dangers of participating in Donald Trump's race to the bottom for public revenues - and the importance of highlighting the value of collective funding for social priorities:

Sure, our tax revenues as a share of the overall economy are lower than they’ve been in over five decades. Yes, government expenditures are lower than they have been since the days before we had public pensions, medicare and mass education. But more tax cuts are still offered up as the best—or even the only—option.

The failure of decades of tax-cutting to yield the promised increases in innovation and productivity has not constrained the willingness of some political parties and governments to treat ever-deeper cuts, especially for businesses and the rich, as indisputably good economic policy. If past cuts didn’t have quite the effect they were meant to, they say, perhaps the cuts just weren’t deep enough. Failed economic ideas don’t die easily.

Clearly, Canadian politicians cannot ignore the implications of tax cuts or other major economic policy changes in the United States. But they would be wise to ask what our neighbour may be giving up with these latest cuts, and where our comparative advantage might really lie. We oughtn’t to assume the benefits of tax cuts or to ignore their costs.
...
Tax cuts never pay for themselves. Invariably, they have real costs: public services are squeezed and opportunities to improve government programs lost, with the consequences falling most heavily on the most disadvantaged and vulnerable, and on future generations who of course don’t get to vote.

Ironically, as we weaken government and undermine public services, as wait times go up while access goes down and out-of-pocket costs rise, we increasingly question just what our taxes are buying. Austerity is self-perpetuating.
...
 Decades of austerity, during which we have been asked to view ourselves as primarily taxpayers and consumers rather than as citizens pursuing some common good, have no doubt reshaped our collective view of taxes. So long as taxes are viewed as a burden, or worse, a punishment, rather than as how we operationalize the common good, austerity will continue to blunt the political imagination and limit our sense of what’s possible.

Sociologist Zygmunt Bauman, who died just over a year ago, spent the latter part of his career documenting the decline of the collective, the loss of trust in one another and in our governments, the loss of confidence that we can together shape the future. He worried that our collective action problems—those things we can solve only together—have never been more challenging, but that our collective toolkit has been severely weakened by decades of austerity. Rethinking taxes, which are, after all, how we pay for those things we do together because we could never do them at all or as well on our own, will be essential to rebuilding the collective.

We cannot hope even to begin to achieve a just transition to a green economy, or to provide a measure of economic security in an increasingly precarious world, or to reverse growing inequality and persistent poverty if we don’t reconnect taxes to the common good.

- Frances Coppola challenges the mindset that would sacrifice human well-being in the pursuit of balanced government budgets. And Mathew Snow writes about the problems with reliance on the charity of the obscenely wealthy rather than a fair system of social revenue.

- Sophie Hardach examines Thomas Piketty's latest work on the reversal in political orientation based on education. And Branko Milanovic discusses the ongoing (and indeed increasing) relevance of Karl Marx' analysis of capitalism.

- Andrew Nikiforuk observes that government revenues from fossil fuels and other natural resources have been drying up over a period of decades. Stephen Leahy estimates the climate costs of a Trans Mountain expansion at $8.7 billion - without factoring in the added emissions from the end use of any fuel shipped through the pipeline. And Tom Rand notes that the Trans Mountain debate is highlighting the need for everybody to contribute to emission reductions, rather than demanding special dispensations based on the ongoing choice to prioritize oil over other economic options.

- Finally, Edgardo Sepulveda studies the public costs of decades of privatization and politicization of Ontario's power system.