Over the past 30 years, the benefits of economic growth in Canada, the
US and much of the rest of the world, have gone increasingly to the top
one percent of the population. For the majority of families, however,
incomes have stagnated. This rise in inequality coincided with a sea
change in government policy. Beginning in the 1980s, governments in much
of the English-speaking world embarked on what has been called the
neoliberal revolution - deregulation, privatization and tax cuts, aimed
at liberating markets and stimulating the economy. The rising tide was
supposed to lift all boats, but it didn't.
Jill Eisen explores what happened.
Left Behind was originally broadcast on Ideas in January 2012 and broadcast on Ideas in the Afternoon in May 2012. The 3-part series is being re-broadcast on July 11, 18 & 25.
ResourcesLeft-Behind ParticipantsNeil Brooks, professor of tax law and policy at Osgood Hall Law School, and co-author of
The Trouble With Billionaires.
Alex Himelfarb, Director of the Glendon School of Public and International Affairs at York University and former clerk of the Privy Council.
Robert Frank, professor of economics at Cornell University and author of
The Darwin Economy: Liberty, Competition and the Common Good.
Thomas Frank, columnist for Harpers Magazine and author of
Pity the Billionaire: The Hard-Times Swindle and the Unlikely Comeback of the Right.
Anne Golden, president of The Conference Board of Canada.
James Laxer, professor of Political Science at York University and author of
Beyond The Bubble: Imagining a New Canadian Economy.
Linda McQuaig, columnist for the Toronto Star and co-author of
The Trouble With Billionaires.
Robert Reich, former US Secretary of Labor in the Clinton Administration and author of
Aftershock: The New Economy and America's Future.
William Watson, professor of economics and McGill University and columnist for The National Post and the Ottawa Citizen.
Richard Wilkinson, epidemiologist and author of
The Spirit Level: Why Equality if Better for Everyone. Related WebsitesCanadian Centre for Policy AlternativesCanadians for Tax FairnessConference Board of CanadaOccupy Toronto Note: You can find occupy web sites for cities all across Canada by typing occupy (city) in you browser.
Occupy Wall StreetThe Equality Trust
Reading List
Ehrenreich, Barbara. This Land is Their Land: Reports from a Divided Nation. Holt Paperbacks. 2009.
Frank, Robert H. The Darwin Economy: Liberty, Competition and the Common Good. Princeton Univeristy Press, 2011.
Frank, Thomas. Pity The Billionaire: The Hard-Times Swindle and the Unlikely Comeback of the Right. Metropolitan Books, 2012.
Hacker, Jacob S. and Paul Pierson. Winner - Take-All Politics: How Washington Made the Rich Richer - and Turned Its Back on the Middle Class. Simon and Schuster, 2010.
Hedges, Chris. Death of the Liberal Class. Nation Books, 2011.
Huffington, Arianna. Third World America: How Our Politicians Are Abandoning the Middle Class and Betraying the American Dream. Broadway, 2011.
Krugman, Paul. The Conscience of a Liberal. New York: W.W. Norton and Co. 2007.
Laxer, James. Beyond the Bubble: Imagining a New Canadian Economy. Between The Lines, 2009.
McQuaig, Linda and Neil Brooks. The Trouble with Billionaires. Viking Canada, 2010.
Naylor, R.T. Crass Stuggle: Greed, Glitz, and Gluttony in a Wanna-Have World. Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queens' University Press, 2011.
Reich, Robert B. Aftershock: The Next Economy and America's Future. New York. Vintage Book, 2011.
Stanford, Jim. Economics for Everyone: A Short Guide to the Economics of Capitalism. Fernwood Publishing Co. 2008.
Wilkinson, Richard, and Kate Pickett. The Spirit Level: Why Equality is Better for Everyone. Penguin Book, 2010.
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The Motorcycle is Yourself
The Enright Files - Angela Hewitt and Yuja Wang
Recognizing Grey
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