Readers’ views We welcome your feedback.
“Engendering the city: Women and urban governance”, www.wikigender.org, October 2016 _____
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Top earners
Algorithmic improvement
The tired old defence of fat cat pay has now become so familiar that it goes largely unchallenged (“Top earners: Why did the 1% get so rich?”). “Employers seek to attract… the very best,” says Brian Keeley, repeating it verbatim, as if the astonishing pay gaps seen in today’s labour market were an inevitable consequence of a large number of firms fighting over a small number of superhuman business leaders: a simple question of supply and demand. In practice, however, this law applies only to the CEO’s mates in the boardroom. At every other level, the organisation will revert instinctively to the axiomatic rule of economics that one attempts to get as much as possible in return for as little as possible. Any analysis of income inequality must expose the disingenuous excuses of interested parties for what they are if it is to be useful.
The algorithmic society…I wonder what George Orwell would have thought about that? Artificial Intelligence can no doubt tell us the most efficient way of going from A to B; But it can’t define B for us i.e. where we want go. It is like productivity, which is nothing more than the way of getting more output for a unit of input. It doesn’t tell us what goods and services we should be producing to get to “better lives”. Ask Charlie Chaplin what Fordism did for better lives in “Modern Times”. The problem of the OECD is that economies and the technologies that drive them are means, not ends. That is what is changing the OECD ball game, indeed the global ball game. Hold your breath and look closely at the Sustainable Development
Yours faithfully, Juliet Davies
Letter to the editor on “Top earners: Why did the 1% get so rich?”, from OECD Observer No 306 Q2 2016
Disengaged youth Many of today’s economic and social problems–locally, nationally, globally–have accumulated for a long time and are the result of political and economic institutions’ stiffness, comfort-seeking, inability to (at times painfully) adapt to demands of the day. I agree with the content, but disagree with semantics of the title–we need rebels! Not violent, not apathetic and cynical, but young, caring, educated rebels who would engage with and challenge the older generation to adapt and to appreciate that the world we are building today is for their generation.
Elbay Alibayov, commenting on “We don’t need rebels, we just need to create effective policies to support young people”, from http://oecdinsights.org, posted on www. medium.com, October 2016
2
Goals (SDGs)!
Ron Gass, commenting on “There’s an algorithm for that. Or there soon will be”, http://oecdinsights.org, May 2016
Engender equality We clearly have a long way to go where equal representation is concerned in political spheres! Positive discrimination can be one short term measure albeit a contentious one. I would argue that an available route towards greater representation is to advocate and lobby that our elected leaders be feminists, if not representatives. When leadership positions arise and the pool of contenders are men, let us hold them fairly to account on their past records and future agendas to improve gender equality. The means to achieving equal representation may lie fundamentally on equal access to opportunity, but also relies on an appetite and understanding within political agendas for the social, cultural, economic and political equality of the sexes. Challenging political rhetoric on the ideals of feminism, could be one way to create the space for such an appetite to grow.
Hilary Murphy, commenting on the online discussion
To ensure gender friendly urban policy it is crucial to involve women at every level. Women’s voices often remain unheard or lost while transforming policies into action. Just by mere presence of women at top leadership level doesn’t guarantee that crucial issues related to women will be included as part of policy framework and will be translated it in the desired way. In many countries there is a quota system that ensures women’s participation in various levels of governance. Though rather than quota, the focus should be on empowerment; so that women can take up a leadership role and able to deliver as per need. […]
Usri, commenting on the online discussion “Engendering the city: Women and urban governance”, www.wikigender. org, October 2016
Twitterings Maria Vaalavuo @mjvaal So it is possible to get rich by working... #inequality #rich #top1percent @ OECDObserver https://shar.es/1wQRJo Paul Kirby @paul1kirby Remarkable how many countries use electricity bills to tax households and businesses. And how much. @OECD chart Kris Olds @GlobalHigherEd The @OECD’s Education at a Glance is now an epic tome - nothing the World Bank or UNESCO produces matches it. Amine Ouazad @amine_ouazad Good: The @OECD now sets development goals both for so called developed and developing countries. “SDGs” rather than MDGs. #economics Carrie Ballard @AtelierEnglish @OECD @OECDtax @OECD_Social @ OECDeconomy “Tax burden” is a weighted term that frames tax contribution to commons as negative and heavy.
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