Neil Brooks – författare

A jarring portrait of a deeply unequal Canada and how a wealth tax could rein in the destructive power wielded by today’s billionaires.In recent years, a tiny wealthy elite has pulled far ahead of all other Canadians. Amassing wealth at a faster pace than ever before — even faster than their U.S. counterparts — Canada’s billionaires are siphoning off for themselves an ever-larger share of the nation’s wealth, at the expense of the rest of us.Furthermore, they are part of a new global elite that dominates the world to a degree unimaginable even a decade ago. The super-rich have always commanded the lion’s share of resources, but they are now also driving us towards climate catastrophe, with the power to determine whether the Earth will even remain habitable.The best hope for stopping this train wreck and distributing resources more widely is a wealth tax, aimed exclusively at the super-rich. Polls show the idea is wildly popular with Canadians. Billionaires have managed to keep it off the political agenda so far, but McQuaig and Brooks argue now is the time for change.

A GLOBE AND MAIL BESTSELLERA jarring portrait of a deeply unequal Canada and how a wealth tax could rein in the destructive power wielded by today's billionaires.As the ultra-wealthy siphon off an ever-larger share of the world's wealth, they now dominate us to a degree unimaginable even a decade ago. With their voracious consumption, unbridled resource exploitation, and relentless obstruction of climate action, they are rapidly undermining democracy and destroying the very viability of the earth for human life.Their staggering power and hoarding of wealth have prompted a number of G20 nations to consider imposing a wealth tax, aimed exclusively at the super-rich. In Canada, such a tax would apply only to those with wealth above $25 million. Yet it could collect $40 billion a year funding public programs that could immensely improve the lives of millions of Canadians while clipping the wings of the super-rich.Billionaires would threaten to depart. But as they left the country that had nourished them and enabled them to grow so wildly rich, they d face a hefty exit tax on the way out.Yes, change is possible.

A GLOBE AND MAIL BESTSELLERA jarring portrait of a deeply unequal Canada and how a wealth tax could rein in the destructive power wielded by today's billionaires.As the ultra-wealthy siphon off an ever-larger share of the world's wealth, they now dominate us to a degree unimaginable even a decade ago. With their voracious consumption, unbridled resource exploitation, and relentless obstruction of climate action, they are rapidly undermining democracy and destroying the very viability of the earth for human life.Their staggering power and hoarding of wealth have prompted a number of G20 nations to consider imposing a wealth tax, aimed exclusively at the super-rich. In Canada, such a tax would apply only to those with wealth above $25 million. Yet it could collect $40 billion a year funding public programs that could immensely improve the lives of millions of Canadians while clipping the wings of the super-rich.Billionaires would threaten to depart. But as they left the country that had nourished them and enabled them to grow so wildly rich, they d face a hefty exit tax on the way out.Yes, change is possible.

In this searing and entertaining indictment of the super-rich, Linda McQuaig and Neil Brooks challenge the idea that today’s cavernous income inequality is the result of merit, and reveal how the global economic system has been hijacked by the wealthiest, with disastrous consequences for us all.The high taxes and strong social programmes of the 1950s, ‘60s and ‘70s gave us sky-high economic growth and rising equality. In recent years, however, we’ve been constantly told that taxes and government spending are bad. McQuaig and Brooks systematically debunk these claims. As their research shows, not only do lower taxes correlate with worse societal outcomes – from health to the environment – they also fail to produce economic prosperity. A daring challenge to the conventional wisdom, The Trouble with Billionaires provides the most compelling case yet for rejecting the Coalition’s mean-spirited mix of tax breaks for the rich and austerity for the rest.

As countless alterations have taken place in medicine in the twenty-first century so too have literary artists addressed new understandings of disease and pathology. Dis/ability studies, fat studies, mad studies, end-of-life studies, and critical race studies among other fields have sought to better understand what social factors lead to pathologizing certain conditions while other variations remain “normalized.” While recognizing that these scholarly approaches often speak to identities with radically different experiences of pathologization, this collection of essays is open to all critical engagements with narratives of health in order to facilitate the messiness of cross-disciplinary collaboration and interdisciplinarity. As scientific advances provide insight into a wide range of well-being issues and help extend life, it is vital that we come to question the very categories of “healthy” and “unhealthy.” This collection brings together analyses of cultural productions which probe those categorizations and suggest new psychological and philosophical understandings which will help better apply and guide the knowledge being rapidly developed within the life sciences. “Right of health” is a widely accepted human right, but in applying a right to healthcare what care and what sort of health are less universally agreed upon. The contributors share an interest in addressing who controls answers to the questions of “how do we define a healthy body and a healthy life?” and “what are the political forces that influence our definitions of health?”

Entre 1980 y 2008 los ingresos del 90% de los estadounidenses crecieron un mísero 1%, mientras que los de los grandes multimillonarios (el 0,01% de la población) crecían un 403%. Una sociedad descompensada en la parte superior de la pirámide puede parecer un paraíso de la movilidad ascendente, pero en realidad se parece más a un cementerio de sueños rotos para todos excepto para unos pocos afortunados. Las grandes fortunas del capitalista filantrópico Bill Gates, los infames hermanos Koch o el barón de la equidad privada Stephen Schwarzman son presentadas como pruebas de una meritocracia, pero más bien parecen el resultado de un sistema legal y económico diseñado para ello. Un sistema que amenaza seriamente nuestra calidad de vida y, en definitiva, el funcionamiento mismo del estado de derecho.En esta divertida acusación, McQuaig y Brooks desafían la idea de que la desigualdad de ingresos de hoy es el resultado del mérito, revelan cómo los multimillonarios han secuestrado el sistema económico global con consecuencias desastrosas para el resto de la sociedad, y exponen un atrevido rechazo a la cobarde mezcla de roturas fiscales para el rico y austeridad para el resto de la sociedad.

In this searing and entertaining indictment of the super-rich, Linda McQuaig and Neil Brooks challenge the idea that today’s cavernous income inequality is the result of merit, and reveal how the global economic system has been hijacked by the wealthiest, with disastrous consequences for us all.The high taxes and strong social programmes of the 1950s, ‘60s and ‘70s gave us sky-high economic growth and rising equality. In recent years, however, we’ve been constantly told that taxes and government spending are bad. McQuaig and Brooks systematically debunk these claims. As their research shows, not only do lower taxes correlate with worse societal outcomes – from health to the environment – they also fail to produce economic prosperity. A daring challenge to the conventional wisdom, The Trouble with Billionaires provides the most compelling case yet for rejecting the Coalition’s mean-spirited mix of tax breaks for the rich and austerity for the rest.