• 260 Posts
  • 1.83K Comments
Joined 3 years ago
Cake day: June 12th, 2023
  • acargitz@lemmy.catoCanada@lemmy.ca•French foreign minister suggests Canada could 'maybe ... at some point' join EU
    1·
    7 minutes ago

    Huh, my take is the exact inverse. The EU is structurally averse to external immigration in almost all its aspects, whereas we are a constitutionally multicultural settler society with a long term structural reliance on immigration.

    The recent course-correction to lower immigration levels is just that, a correction to a larger more long term direction without changing the fundamentals of that direction. We need to be able to have immigration policies that are much more open than what the Europeans can tolerate.

  • acargitz@lemmy.catoCanada@lemmy.ca•Front-Runners Emerge in the NDP Leadership Race | The Tyee
    3·
    11 hours ago

    I don’t understand where I lost you. What I meant is: what’s important here is not the amount of money. If the guy was connected to billionaires, he could have raised all that money from like 3 people. The impressive thing about the Lewis campaign is that because of the lower average donation, the overall amount is an indication of a much broader appeal. So it’s not the amount that’s impressive, it’s the broad appeal of the candidate to the NDP member base. This is compounded by the higher average donation of his opponents, which means that they appeal to fewer, more well-off donors, and still didn’t manage to out-fundraise him.

  • acargitz@lemmy.catoCanada@lemmy.ca•Front-Runners Emerge in the NDP Leadership Race | The Tyee
    1·
    21 hours ago

    Elections Canada interim campaign returns show Lewis has taken the lead in fundraising, having brought in $1.2 million from more than 10,400 contributors. Elections Canada data shows MacPherson has raised $560,000 from more than 3,800 contributors, while labour leader Rob Ashton has raised nearly $360,000 in contributions from more than 2,000 supporters. McQuail has raised more than $112,000 from over 800 contributors. Elections Canada has yet to publish Johnston’s fundraising numbers.

    Lewis’ average donation comes to 115$ per donor

    McPherson’s comes to 147$ per donor

    Ashton’s is 180$ per donor

    Mcquail’s is 140$ per donor

    So in fact the person who has raised the most, has done it for as smaller average donation per donor. That tells you something about his appeal to the electors.

    It’s not about more money, it’s about more commitment from more people.

  • acargitz@lemmy.catoCanada@lemmy.ca•Canada’s Richest 1% Nearly As Wealthy As Poorest 80%
    1·
    2 days ago

    My understanding (and I’m no economist) is that (a) some of the productivity metrics are weird, because they compare with the US which counts their idiotic for-profit healthcare sector in productivity, (b) part of the low investment is caused exactly because our capital is tied in real estate, and (c ) low investment is also a result of our god-damned oligopolies in so many key sectors of the economy. High taxes is not the only tool of course. What we need is a very aggressive policy against the wealthy. That can take the form of taxes, of improving social mobility via the welfare state, and of breaking up their cartels, i.e., their stranglehold on the economy.

  • acargitz@lemmy.catoCanada@lemmy.ca•Canada’s Richest 1% Nearly As Wealthy As Poorest 80%
    5·
    2 days ago

    Let’s tax wealth to fund quality universal basic services first. Healthcare, childcare, education, transportation, social security, elder care. Social non-market housing, public utilities for electricity, water, telecommunications/Internet. None of these are increasing inflation, because they are not part of the market.

    The idea of “nest egg” is only important as a privatised form of elder care. I couldn’t care less about the value of my house if I had a publicly guaranteed quality of life as a pensioner. I wouldn’t even care to own a house if I had strong renter protections in non-market housing (basically if renting was not equivalent to someone holding power over my life decisions).

    And of course, of course, the capture of capital in unproductive real estate is beyond stupid. Instead of feeding a real estate bubble, it should be ingested in productive sectors of the economy, like building up renewables and the green transition.

    A social democracy is just common sense.

  • acargitz@lemmy.catoEurope@feddit.org•Italy ruling tells millions with Italian roots they have lost the right to citizenship | CNNEnglish
    402·
    6 days ago

    It’s restricting access to nationality by emergency decree. Ask any European with a memory of the 20th century why that’s as classic fascist as it gets.

    Whether Italy has or doesn’t have “too loose” laws, should not be something an emergency decree should decide. It’s something that should be debated democratically, with public consultation and input from all those concerned, including of course the Diaspora because, guess what, they’re citizens. Then there should be an actual vote in parliament and the senate and if it touches on constitutional rights, it should pass the threshold of constitutional reform.

    That’s what democracies do. Fascists pass emergency decrees.