Tag Archives: neo-liberal

Reflections on the Social Studies Conference

On Oct. 21 I attended the annual conference held by the BC Social Studies Teachers’ Association. Given how touchy everyone is about Pro-D, I thought I should mention that I spent my time wisely! The theme of this year’s conference was a familiar one – “21st century learning”. In the sessions I attended, the tone […]

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Exploring Direct Instruction

One of the deepest tensions in modern education is between “student centered learning” and “teacher centered learning”. I’m interested in exploring more about this topic, and today I will set the framework for my exploration. The student centered or “minimally guided” approach is characterized as self-paced and interactive, and aims to replace “lectures with active […]

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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 […]

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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 […]

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Recognition of a Keynesian Moment

I rarely take a lead editorial from the Vancouver Sun seriously. This Canwest/Postmedia corporate entity is at the center of right-wing propaganda in BC, and is representative of the very conservative outlook from Canada’s media generally. Nevertheless, today’s editorial provides a sobering analysis of the American economy and its implications for Canada. It’s also a […]

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More on the neo-liberal agenda

One of the truisms of neo-classical economics is that tax cuts for those already wealthy and powerful will “trickle down” to the middle and lower class. In other words, making rich people richer will eventually make everyone richer. One of the most popular versions of this theory is the corporate income tax cut, which supposedly […]

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A Review of John Gray’s False Dawn

John Gray’s popular critique of globalization and laissez-faire capitalism, False Dawn*, was originally published in 1998. It has enjoyed a resurgence as a “prophetic” account of our current global economic problems, but I think the book is better viewed as an incomplete analysis, and one that is riven with contradictions and equivocations. Gray’s clearest and […]

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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 […]

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