Progressives and the guaranteed income debate
In the current rush to experiment with guaranteed livable incomes, let’s not forget the hard won battles to decommodify certain things we value like health care.
In the current rush to experiment with guaranteed livable incomes, let’s not forget the hard won battles to decommodify certain things we value like health care.
Will the Trudeau Government have the courage to listen to concerned Canadians and acknowledge that “free” trade and investment deals have run their course?
Turner is clear that any move in this direction should be undertaken by central banks, not by governments seizing control of the printing press, and is certainly aware of the risk of inflation if directly financed deficits get out of hand.
Viewing the TPP as a trade agreement masks its significance as a tool that will, like NAFTA, be used to challenge government regulation in the public interest. Investors from across the TPP will be able to appeal regulatory decisions before secret tribunals, giving them rights that do not exist for domestic companies under Canadian law.
Government obsessions with keeping inflation low resulted in the relatively high unemployment rates of the 1980s and 1990s. And when unemployment is high, worker bargaining power is reduced.
Balanced budgets sound appealing to many voters, but legislation to balance the books each and every year is poor economics.
It is simply not the case that younger Canadians are being heavily taxed or will be more heavily taxed down the road to pay for the modest public pensions of seniors.
We’ve seen effective campaigns around minimum wages and precarious work in the United States, sponsored in part by various unions.
Unions are democratic organizations that belong to their members. As such, they are an important voice in the democratic political process.