In Canada, if one agrees to pay someone else’s way in life, one gets to pay $7,500 less in income tax. I’m referring, of course, to the spousal deduction. If one decides to make some people and pay their way, one gets to pay $7,500 less per person in income tax. The deduction for kids. …
March 2011 archive
Mar 14 2011
Who Owns the Water?
I am intrigued by struggles over ownership of water – not so much the issue of whether or not Canada should sell its lakes, but whether or not they are Canada’s to sell. Similar struggles arise in our international deliberations over blame for air quality. What intrigues me is not that we are struggling with …
Mar 07 2011
How many specialists does it take to change a lightbulb?
Every now and then, perhaps with Hegelian predictability, there is a swing in academia toward the holistic approach, toward systems theory, if you will. In this anti-atomistic, anti-reductionist view, the essence is the process, not the structure; what’s important is not so much the thing, but the relationship between the thing and other things. I …
Mar 02 2011
What’s Wrong with Profit?
Many would say it’s simply undeserved. By any standard – be it need, ability, effort, or accomplishment/contribution. In this respect, one might be tempted to compare profit to the ridiculously high salaries of sports stars. And senators. But salary is not profit. Even if a salary is ridiculously high, it is still a salary, a …
fiction
