Jobs with Inequality : Financialization, Post-Democracy, and Labour Market Deregulation in Canada

__Jobs with Inequality__ provides a novel political explanation of growing inequality in Canada today.

Income inequality has skyrocketed in Canada over the past few decades. The rich have become richer, while the average household income has deteriorated and job quality has plummeted. Common explanations for these trends point to globalization, technology, or other forces largely beyond our control. But, as Jobs with Inequality shows, there is nothing inevitable about inequality. Rather, runaway inequality is the result of politics and policies - what governments have done to aid the rich and boost finance and what they have not done to uphold the interests of workers.

Drawing on new tax and income data, John Peters tells the story of how inequality is unfolding in Canada today by examining post-democracy, financialization, and labour market deregulation. Timely and novel, Jobs with Inequality explains how and why business and government have rewritten the rules of the economy to the advantage of the few, and considers why progressive efforts to reverse these trends have so regularly run aground.

"Income inequality has skyrocketed in Canada over the past decades. The rich have become richer, while the average household income has deteriorated and job quality, plummeted. Common explanations for these trends point to globalization, technology, or other forces largely beyond our control. But as Jobs with Inequality shows, there is nothing inevitable about inequality. Rather, runaway inequality is the result of politics and policies, and what governments have done to aid the rich and boost finance, and what has not done to uphold the interests of workers. Drawing on new tax and income data, John Peters tells the story of how inequality is unfolding in Canada today by examining post-democracy, financialization, and labour market deregulation. Timely and novel, the book explains how and why business and government have rewritten the rules of the economy to the advantage of the few, and considers why progressive efforts to reverse these trends have so regularly run aground."-- Provided by publisher Contents List of Figures and Tables Acknowledgments 1 Introduction Part One: Financialization and Income Inequality 2 Bringing Finance into the Labour Market Inequality Debate 3 Tracing the Rise of Financialization in Canada 4 Canada in International Context Part One Summary Part Two: Post-Democracy and Labour Market Deregulation 5 The Unequal Politics of Deregulation 6 British Columbia: Neoliberal Reform and Deregulation 7 Newfoundland and Labrador: Institutional Stasis during the Oil Boom 8 Ontario: Policy “Drift” in Canada’s Financial and Industrial Heartland 9 Conclusion: Rethinking the Political Economy of Inequality Appendices Appendix A: Data Definitions and Sources Appendix B: Interview Sources by Case Appendix C: Methods and Research Design References Index