Long gone are the tents from St. James Park, but many of the underlying issues addressed by the Occupy movement are just as relevant nearly two years later.
Late last week, in a debate sponsored by the Ottawa Citizen, economists William Watson and Armine Yalnizyan weighed in on whether or not the wealthy have too much power in Canada. It proved a divisive topic, although both seem to concede that wealth alone really isn’t the problem.
For Yalnizyan, it’s a matter of the rich lacking accountability: “The problem is that, with rare exception, as their power has increased, it has not been matched by an increase in their sense of responsibility.” The tie between money and power isn’t what’s dangerous – it’s the fact that the power is unchecked. Let them run amok on their segways (does anyone actually still own one of those outside of that company that does weird tours on them in the Distillery District?), just don’t allow them to apply that same freewheeling ethoes when it comes to the economy. Yalnizyan points out that when the rich profit, only they gain, but we all feel the brunt of their losses.
Watson, however, sees things differently. For him, the Internet is the great equalizer. He believes increased transparency as seen in the Canadian government’s Lobbyist Registration website and Elections Canada’s election finance search engine have leveled the playing field – at least in some respects. “Of course, in 2013 the whole idea that anyone has power seems a little dated,” he says.
Read the full arguments here.
[via Ottawa Citizen]
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Josh Sherman is a Toronto Standard intern. You can follow him on Twitter at @joshuaxsherman.
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