Union Bug Blog
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Apr 22, 2020 -
Work Life: Austerity, the economy and COVID-19...Manitoba Government creating, not solving problems
The lack of support and cuts [from the Manitoba Government] are in stark contrast to the way other provinces are responding. The Manitoba response is the opposite of what standard economic theory would suggest in a recession. Maintaining government employment and spending supports the overall “aggregate demand” for goods and services. This demand creates sales for businesses and supports jobs. Economists statistically quantify these effects with multipliers reflecting how $1 in spending in the economy leads to more than $1 in economic activity, because that spending is revenue for someone else, and in turn stimulates more spending/revenues, etc. The opposite is also true, with spending cuts having negative ripple effects throughout the economy. This is a big part of the reason the Government of Canada has come up with several programs to flow money to Canadians during this crisis.
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Jan 09, 2020 -
Taking Stock of Manitoba's Social Housing Plan
The Manitoba government has made it quite clear– its intention is to greatly reduce its public housing portfolio and look to the private sector to fill the gap. Experiences elsewhere give housing advocates good reason to be concerned. In the absence of robust subsidies and income support, the private sector has demonstrated an inability to supply safe, well-maintained housing at the affordable threshold of less that 30 per cent of total before-tax household income. The reality that there are currently 7000 households on the Manitoba Housing waitlist reinforces the need for more social housing units.
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Mar 10, 2008 -
The Economy is Soaring High, So Why Aren't Wages?
A recent column in the Winnipeg Free Press argued that divisions in Canadian society no longer run across language or religious lines, but rather economic ones. Today, Canada is divided by where people live, how much education they have, and the amount of money they make. And things are not getting better for working class Manitobans, just as they aren’t across the rest of the country.