Our 18th year

This personal blog is now in its 18th year. Financial contributions from readers keep the lights on and I thank individuals who provide support. If you judge IN-SIGHTS to be worthwhile, please contribute by clicking above on “Note to Readers.”

Housing – a wealth extraction tool

With commodification of housing in Canada, homes are treated as investment assets, not just shelter. Investor-led speculation has led to soaring prices, rental increases, and rising homelessness. Housing has been turned into a wealth-extraction tool, impacting low-income families and essential workers most severely…

Housing affordability

Patrick Condon is a Professor at the University of British Columbia. With UBC law student Thomas Kroeker, he authored The 50 Year Vancouver Experience on Housing Affordability with Adding Housing Density. The paper is republished here with Prof. Condon’s permission.

AI exploitation

This video illustrates how AI is used to spread disinformation. YouTube (Google), Facebook, TikTok, and other social media sites facilitate the publication of falsehoods. It’s all about generating money from increased online traffic. Outrageous and obviously untrue statements are recognizable examples of clickbait.

Cost reductions = quality of healthcare reductions

“Over the past 40 years, many health-care systems that were once publicly owned or financed have moved towards privatising their services, primarily through outsourcing to the private sector. But what has the impact been of privatisation on the quality of care? A key aim of this transition is to improve quality of care through increased market competition along with the benefits of a more flexible and patient-centred private sector.

“However, concerns have been raised that these reforms could result in worse care, in part because it is easier to reduce costs than increase quality of health care.”

Lancet Public Health 2024; 9: e199–206.
Department of Social Policy
and Intervention, University of
Oxford, Oxford, UK
(B Goodair MSc, A Reeves PhD)

Returning soon

I have not been active at IN-SIGHTS for a while, but I intend to resume. Wife Gwen and I have done a little travelling recently, including days in Amsterdam and three weeks in France. During recent months, we have also been involved in home renovations, a task that consumes time, energy, and money…

Outrage

Fareed Khan describes himself as a “human rights and anti-hate activist, fighting for justice for the oppressed and persecuted.” He has written and commented extensively about these issues. Khan’s Substack account expresses his barely contained outrage about human rights topics. Some examples:

Words come back to bite

Cole Bennett correctly wrote that Kirk’s murder will not advance any of the causes he opposed. Violence against leaders is most often a consequence of damaged trust in political and social systems. It is perpetrated by isolated and disenfranchised people who live outside the rules of society. Kirk’s organization had plenty of those, so the immediate future is a dangerous time for moderate American political figures.

Jackassery in Alberta

Alberta Conservatives recently declared that publications their supporters consider inappropriate should be removed from schools. A government order specified that students should not be exposed to sexual content. Among other things, there was to be no written mention of masturbation. Danielle Smith’s government fears that teenagers might discover and engage in the practice if it is mentioned in reading material…