Tag Archive: inequality

Top 10 Reasons for Upper-Income Tax Increases

Jan 17, 2012
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Some feel we shouldn’t increase taxes on upper-income folks. After all, people know best how to spend their money, whereas the government will only waste it on needless activities. Well then, I humbly submit the following Top 10 list of reasons for upper-income tax increases (in descending order). #10: Ridiculous real estate. Check out Vancouver’s… View Article

Tackling inequality means rethinking upper-income tax rates

Dec 23, 2011
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2011 was the year rising inequality finally exploded into the mainstream discourse. A few year-end reading recommendations: Victoria Times-Colonist editorial writer Paul Willcocks wrote a terrific piece on the subject (you can find it here); and similarly, a group of UBC economists (including CCPA research associate David Green) authored a series on inequality for the… View Article

BC’s Top 1%: Doing fabulous, thank you

Oct 11, 2011
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Occupy Wall Street has shone new light on the growing gap between the richest 1% and the rest of us (the 99 percenters). But that’s the U.S. right? Surely, our reality is different, eh? As the occupy movement comes to Canada in the coming week, we don’t really have reason to copy these American trouble-makers,… View Article

What is a middle class income these days?

Jul 20, 2011
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Whenever we consider the pros and cons of a new policy, we want to know if it benefits or hurts the poor, the middle class and those who are better off. Often, the answer depends on how we define each of these groups. It’s said that 99% of Canadians think of themselves as middle class,… View Article

Your Brain on Capitalism

Sep 7, 2010
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At least as far back as Sokrates, people have speculated on the relationship between psychology and politics. In the 20th century, Wilhelm Reich, Erich Fromm and members of the Frankfurt School (such as Herbert Marcuse) pioneered discussion about how individual dispositions affect one’s social and political ideologies. On the other hand, social psychologists like Stanley… View Article

BC’s Urban Housing (Un)affordability

Jan 25, 2010
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A new study published today by the Frontier Institute for Public Policy finds that Vancouver has the most unaffordable urban housing market not just in Canada, but in all of Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States. This conclusion is based on a very simple, yet effective measure of housing affordability:… View Article