Monday, November 09, 2015

Monday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material to start your week.

- Branko Milanovic writes about the connection between concentration of wealth and income inequality, making the argument that broader ownership of capital itself may make for an important means of levelling the economic playing field.

- But of course, the current trend is in just the opposite direction, as Tom Parkin writes about the public losses that result when governments insist on privatizing our collective assets.

- Paul Krugman examines the continuing effects of needless austerity in the U.S. And Lindsey Cook writes that even Republican presidential candidates are seeing a need to question increasing inequality - though of course that doesn't mean they're about to stop pushing policies designed to make it worse.

- Julian Robinson reports on new research showing the gap in income between the lucky few who grow up in privilege and the people who don't. Simon Wren-Lewis notes that as many grounds of discrimination have rightly been taken off the table as a basis for exclusion, connections within elite social networks remain a significant barrier.

- Finally, the Association of Ontario Health Centres calls for paid sick days to ensure that precarious workers in particular aren't forced to put themselves and others at risk in order to stay afloat financially. And Joe Fiorito offers a (modest) story as to the limited opportunities facing the precariat.

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