Mark Holmgren's Blog
Last November I published a blog on the Edmonton CDC website and more recently repeated that posting here on Anticipate. Reading it first is, I suggest, of value to fully engage this posting. The title of this posting reflects my interest in getting language "right." Living Wage and Livable Income are not synonymous. The latter … Continue reading Livable Income IN a Livable Economy (Part Two: the Impacts of AI)
Originally posted in November 2018 on the Edmonton CDC Blog. In Edmonton, approximately 140,000 workers are identified as low income earners (earning below $16.31 per hour), according to the Edmonton Social Planning Council (source, page 79). Four in five of these workers are over the age of 20 and 60% are women. The Canadian Payroll … Continue reading Living Wage IN a Livable Economy
Cross posted - also available at http://www.edmontoncdc.org Please consider following that blog if you want to keep up to date on my work at the Edmonton Community Development Company. -------- Strong Towns is an American movement that a colleague turned me on to the other day, and it is not only a provocative movement, it … Continue reading Automobile-Centric Development and Parking Requirements
I came across an article by George Monbiot (www.monbiot.com) that appeared in the Guardian this July. In this article, Monbiot writes about James McGill Buchanan, an economist influenced by neoliberalism and deeply funded by billionaire Charles Koch, the 7th wealthiest person in the world. According to Monbiot, Buchanan was an advocate for what he called … Continue reading Democracy is dying. Time to get to work.
Banff, Alberta. Located in one of the most beautiful areas in Canada. People come from all over the world by the bus loads. There is money being made for sure. Nothing wrong with making money, right? The hotel industry does alright. I perused hotels there via Expedia and most of the rooms available were $400 … Continue reading Working yet Homeless in Banff, Alberta
Note: In addition to writing about community change and penning commentary, I am a story teller. I write fiction and spoken word. This piece is a mix of fact and fiction, often called "faction." One of my small luxuries in life is having someone come to my house weekly and clean it. I tell myself … Continue reading LIVING POOR: KAREN’S STORY
Precarious Employment is the jargon people like me use to describe the employment conditions and experiences of a growing number of workers in our country. Here is what that jargon means: Precarious employment is in effect sub-standard employment that offers low wages that typically are not enough to live on, and that does not offer … Continue reading Ending Precarious Employment – A Game-Changer Strategy
