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Shantastic Marie

FAST FACTS: Connecting the Dots | Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives - 0 views

www.policyalternatives.ca/...fast-facts-connecting-dots

Occupy Politics Thesis CCPA inequality

shared by Shantastic Marie on 23 Feb 12 - No Cached
  • rise in attention being paid to the growing poverty and inequality in Canada
  • The Occupy movement can be credited for much of the recent attention but it is the data being released by mainstream institutions and ‘think tanks’ that have made it politically acceptable to challenge the dismal reality. Most recent is the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) report Divided We Stand: Why Inequality Keeps Rising (Dec. 2011). It shines a spotlight on the growing inequality in OECD countries, including Canada, which is shown to have income inequality above the OECD average
  • significant coming from the OECD
  • ...11 more annotations...
  • recognition that significant change is in order
  • economic policies are at the root of the problem. The report acknowledges that the policies that have given us an increasingly low-wage economy, inequitable tax policies and a shrinking social safety net are not serving us well
  • OECD appears to be realizing
  • For the OECD, this is a major shift in thinking
  • Neoliberalism was supposed to make the world a better place for us all.
  • The OECD Jobs study had a significant influence on policy reforms in Canada through the 1990s, many of which were first outlined in the Liberal government’s 1994 policy paper Agenda, Jobs and Growth. This document provided the template for a restructuring of social policy in Canada throughout the 1990s – a template that continues to guide policy today.
  • “Canada spends less on cash benefits such as unemployment benefits and family benefits than most OECD countries. Partly as a result, taxes and transfers do not reduce inequality by as much as in many other countries. Furthermore, their effect on inequality has been declining over time.”
  • “publicly provided services fulfill an important direct redistributive role” and that the scaling back of employment protection, something that the Jobs Study advocated for “ had an overall disequalizing effect.” The OECD report leaves us with hope because it demonstrates that we need to rethink neoliberal economic theory.
  • begin a process of reversing the damage done
  • As recommended by the OECD, this will require that we return to a more equitable taxation and redistribution model, and invest in education and social programs
  • latest mantra—austerity
Kevin Carr

http://www.ipi.org/ipi%5CIPIPublications.nsf/PublicationLookupFullTextPDF/7412EB9AFBB4D... - 0 views

www.ipi.org/...162-Hartman-Redistribution.pdf

report ontario money pdf progressive taxation income inequality

shared by Kevin Carr on 07 Mar 12 - No Cached
  • Kevin Carr on 07 Mar 12
     
    This report allegedly shows that progressive taxation does not decrease real income inequality.
Shantastic Marie

TheSpec - Governments have betrayed their promises to the poor - 0 views

www.thespec.com/...yed-their-promises-to-the-poor

721 politics canada

shared by Shantastic Marie on 10 Apr 12 - No Cached
  • Betrayal
  • Betrayal
  • ral governments over th
  • ...15 more annotations...
  • . It all started back in 2008 but culminated last week when social assistance rates were frozen and the Ontario Child Benefit (OC
  • Betrayal
  • ments over the last two politically unholy
  • rnments over the last two politically unholy weeks. For the nearly 90,000 people in Hamilton who live below the poverty line, the betrayal has been most stinging from the provincial Liberals. It all started back in 2008 but culminated last week when social assistance rates were frozen and the Ontario Child Benefit (OCB) was stalled by $100 a month. Back in 2008, Dalton McGuinty’s governmen
  • rnments over the last two politically unholy weeks. For the nearly 90,000 people in Hamilton who live below the poverty line, the betrayal has been most stinging from the provincial Liberals. It all started back in 2008 but culminated last week when social assistance rates were frozen and the Ontario Child Benefit (OCB) was stalled by $100 a month. Back in 2008, Dalton McGuinty’s governmen
  • Back in 2008, Dalton McGuinty’s government, through Minister of Children and Youth Services Deb Matthews, was in conversation with Ontario poverty activists about what should be done to reduce the growing depth of poverty. Setting a target to reduce poverty by 25 per cent in five years sounded doable, and academics and planners came up with concrete actions and numbers that could make it happen
  • first betrayal to the unattached adults who live in poverty and have no dependent children
  • People in poverty and those who care about them were disappointed with the announcement but we played nice anyway. We politely applauded the government for making this commitment. We said it was a good first step
  • We played nice even when yet another review of the social assistance system was announced despite the fact that Matthews had completed one just a few years before
  • Now, just months before they were to release their final report, social assistance rates are frozen
  • It is clear the Ontario government has abandoned its Poverty Reduction Strategy, leaving no hope for achieving even the minimal objective of reducing child poverty by 25 per cent in 2013
  • There’s no more time to play nice
  • At a meeting of the Roundtable for Poverty Reduction’s Social Assistance Working Group last week, the usually composed director couldn’t contain his emotion as he apologized to people on OW and ODSP around the table for continuing to build up their hopes for a government response which ended in betrayal
  • Her continued talk about “Ontario families” ignores the reality of thousands of Ontarians who do not live in family situations
  • It’s time to let her know that she must remember and act on behalf of her 90,000 Hamilton sisters and brothers in poverty
Shantastic Marie

Should there be a maximum wage? -- New Internationalist - 0 views

www.newint.org/...-wage-debate-income-inequality

Thesis MaximumWage

shared by Shantastic Marie on 05 Jun 12 - No Cached
  • maximum pay ratios within companies and across sectors to put an end to chief executives getting paid more than 250 times what cleaning staff earn
  • Greater equality: rising wage disparities are one of the key drivers of inequality. By putting a plug on both ends of the pay scale we help ensure decent living standards for all and avoid the negative consequences (eg higher crime, poorer public health) of living in a highly unequal society. The need to tame executive pay: extremely high levels of pay among executives have encouraged risk-taking behaviour (leading to the banking crisis) and have been found to hinder, not aid, the overall productivity of a company. Tackle over-consumption and debt: as social beings we constantly rate ourselves relative to others. Keeping up with the Joneses in an era of high inequality has led people to take on higher levels of debt and to over-consume at a level they and the planet cannot sustain. Beyond the costs to society, academic evidence shows that once people earn an annual wage above $80,000 their wellbeing grows by very little. Thus a maximum wage would help both business and society without damaging the wellbeing of the well-off.
  • Runaway gaps between earners can have a negative impact upon social cohesion, behaviour, health and wellbeing
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  • best pursued through social pressure on companies to state and stick to pay-ratios
  • Transparency in reporting and pressure through state procurement (as has worked well over the Living Wage in London) can get results without resort to simplistic, dogmatic and blunt legislative tools
  • excessive money rewards are actually detrimental to performance
  • Rising wage disparities are one of the key drivers of inequality. By putting a plug on both ends of the pay scale we help ensure decent living standards for all and avoid the negative consequences (higher crime, poorer public health) of living in a highly unequal society
  • Restricting pay at the top will meet further resistance because, as we all know, when money accumulates, so does power. A maximum wage would go some way to limit the influence of the very rich, enabling a stronger civil society and democracy
  • The accusation that government restrictions impinge on individual freedoms is a common argument used against any push for a fairer distribution of wealth and income. It ignores the fact that individual decisions can incur societal costs. Excessive pay at the top results in greater inequality and over-consumption that has a cost for all in society
  • A maximum wage offers us one effective way at least to rein in the wages of the rich.
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