One of the signature messages of Ryan Meili’s work in activism and politics has been the concept of upstream thinking – described in extremely brief form here: To imagine a different approach, it’s helpful to start with a classic public health parable: Imagine you’re standing on the edge of a
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Accidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Kate Andrias notes that governments can ensure better jobs for everybody by fostering collective bargaining strength. – John Favini writes that cooperation is deeply embedded in our biology – contrary to the spin that we naturally seek and require competition. – Marc
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Joanne Light and Cathy Orlando point out that we don’t have any more time to waste in reining in a climate breakdown in progress. And Justin Ling writes that we should be far more concerned about Canada’s massive and increasing deficit in
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – David Sirota interviews Thomas Frank about the U.S. Democrats’ obsession with educational achievement as a cure-all – and their consequent loss of touch with the large numbers of citizens suffering from economic policies which left them behind: Sirota: What do you think
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Assorted content to start your week.- Upstream offers a summary of the Canadian Institute for Health Information’s latest report, with particular emphasis on growing inequality in health metrics due to social factors despite increased funding into the …
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Hadrian Mertins-Kirkwood highlights how the Trans-Pacific Partnership will do little but strengthen the hand of the corporate sector against citizens. Duncan Cameron notes that even in the face of a full-court press for ever more stringent corporate controls, there’s plenty of well-justified
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Afternoon Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Edward Keenan weighs in on the role a basic income could play in a job market marked by increasingly precarious work: I am an enthusiastic supporter of better workplace protections and wages. I have a good, unionized, stable job. I like it. But
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
Assorted content for your Sunday reading. – Pierre Beaulne discusses the inequality-related problems and solutions brought into the spotlight by Thomas Piketty, and notes that they can’t simply be swept under the rug: When all is said and done, the capitalist globalization has boosted economic growth for a certain time,
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Kathleen Geier discusses the U.S.’ culture of overwork and its human toll: There is abundant evidence that long working hours is incredibly dangerous from a public health perspective. Fatigued or sleep-deprived workers who drive or operate heavy machinery are an obvious menace to
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Joseph Stiglitz offers his suggestions (PDF) for a tax system which would encourage both growth and equality: Tax reform…offers a path toward both resolving budgetary impasses and making the kinds of public investments that will strengthen the fundamentals of the economy. The most
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Bill Moyers interviews Richard Wolff about inequality – featuring Wolff’s observation that anybody trying to justify inequality as an inevitable byproduct of unregulated markets manages only to make those markets indefensible: Bill Moyers: When you say that there’s no economic argument that people
Continue readingOPSEU Diablogue: Thinking upstream — new institute invites us to think differently about health and politics
Dr. Ryan Meili has received considerable attention for his short 2012 book A Healthy Society: How a Focus on Health can Revive Canadian Democracy. Little did we know that the book would become a manifesto for a new institute dedicated … Continue reading →
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Leading the evidence
Paul MacLeod’s post-mortem of Nova Scotia’s election campaign is well worth a read. But following up on Kevin Milligan’s astute point, I’ll point out how one of the main factors in the outcome looks to hint at partisan politics taking yet another turn for the worse – even as it
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Andrew Jackson discusses why attacks on Old Age Security – including the Fraser Institute’s calls for increased clawbacks – serve no useful purpose: The principled argument for not clawing back OAS benefits is that all seniors should be entitled to a bare-bones public
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Afternoon Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Matt Taibbi discusses how public pension funds are being looted for the benefit of a few well-connected banksters: Hedge funds have good reason to want to keep their fees hidden: They’re insanely expensive. The typical fee structure for private hedge-fund management is
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – The CP reports on Suzanne Legault’s much-needed warning about the Cons’ secrecy in government: In a closed-door session with dozens of bureaucrats Thursday, Suzanne Legault cited a series of novel measures she says are damaging an already tottering system. “I am seeing signs
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