Tag Archives: inequality
An analysis of the US economy by Robert Reich
I would encourage you to download this speech by Robert Reich. [Right-click on the link and choose “Save Link As” or “Save Target as”.] Reich’s key argument is that inequality is bad for business, and unless America can address this fundamental challenge, all of the secondary problems will be insoluble. The irony is that, in […]
The Neo-Liberal Agenda: The Effects in BC, Part 2
In my last entry, I wrote about the pernicious attempts by the BC Liberals (and other neo-liberals) to promote tax cuts on the basis of improvements in productivity. I explained that these productivity increases simply haven’t happened. This, in turn, suggests that Campbell’s tax cut agenda is bogus and self-serving. The question, then, is what […]
The Neo-Liberal Agenda in BC: Reduce, Just Don’t Shift
Aside from shifting taxation from the business sector to the middle class (like in the HST), the neo-liberal agenda seeks to reduce the overall size of government, particularly in relation to GDP. A classic example of this reduction in government can be found right here in BC. Below is a chart from the BC government’s […]
More on the Liberal budget update
Below is an interesting page (p. 144) from the BC Liberal government’s 2009 budget update. If the “devil is in the details”, then this is a great place to start. As I discussed in my September 29th entry, the Liberals are anticipating receiving less revenue from corporate income tax than post-secondary tuition. The former has […]
David Harvey: Getting to the Heart of the Matter
For all of the discussion about the causes of the latest economic meltdown, it’s mystified me why inequality has been largely ignored. The blame is almost always laid at the feet of proximate factors like negative savings rates, ponzi-like housing bubbles, exotic debt instruments, deregulation and a neo-liberal faith in the corrective nature of unbridled […]
Inequality Makes Us Ill
Across all the Western democracies, there is a consistent pattern in which outcomes worsen as inequality increases BY WILL KYMLICKA A Review of The Spirit Level: Why More Equal Societies Almost Always Do Better, by Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett, Allen Lane, 331 pages http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20090515.wbkspirit16/BNStory/globebooks/home ……………………….. Will Kymlicka, a noted Canadian scholar on politics and […]
Inequality As an Economic Problem for Capitalism
Here’s an interesting article that recognizes that inequality is not just a moral issue for bleeding heart lefties. It’s a very real problem for capitalism: too much equality might stifle innovation, but too little equality and the economic cycle will come to a grinding halt. Perhaps we should look deeper into the economic crisis, and […]