#publicpolicy — Public Fediverse posts

Broad tax reform belongs at the centre of Canada’s growth agenda
#Canada #Economy #TaxReform #EconomicGrowth #Productivity #Investment #EconomicResilience #PublicPolicy #Politics #TaxPolicy #Taxes #CRA #FiscalPolicy #The14Media
https://the-14.com/broad-tax-reform-belongs-at-the-centre-of-canadas-growth-agenda/

https://www.europesays.com/ch/129944/ No-frills city budget presented to Geneva councilors | News #Budget #Economy #Geneva #GovernmentFinances #payments #PoliticalEconomy #PublicEconomics #PublicFinance #PublicPolicy #tax

RE: https://mas.to/@thecontinent/117253179327056947

'In response to Namibia’s refusal to share its national health data, the United States will stop funding its HIV-response programme from 2027'

There's a lot of interesting material in this issue but I'm curious how many folks might believe that the Australian Gvt are not under the same pressure to surrender protected datasets on Australian populations (albeit with a different set of coercions)

#ausPol #publicPolicy

How has time spent alone changed by age over the last decade, and what does it mean for wellbeing?

Parth Pandya explores this question in a new #ResolutionFoundation spotlight, in collaborative work with the #ESRC Centre for Population Change and Connecting Generations: https://www.cpc.ac.uk/news/latest_news/?story_id=816

#YoungAdults #Loneliness #SocialChange #Demography #Population #SocialScience #Generations #Ageing #WFH #Society #PopulationChange #WorkingFromHome #PublicPolicy #LabourMarket #Wellbeing #TimeUse

RE: https://aus.social/@oscarjiminy/116966632849982993

My local library in Port Philip's always been a real pride of the community. Was designed by a bit of a rockstar architect and it's a kind of keystone community structure in the way that all libraries are but the design really embeds that dynamic in stone and glass.

This place was always, in my memory, really busy. Folks walking the shelves, sitting reading, standing reading, studying etc etc, all the things folks do in libraries.

Lately, someone decided to redesign the layout and part of that redesign was to allocate restricted areas. There is now (I would estimate) about 50% of the seating restricted and if you sit there unknowingly (signage is really minimal) you will be asked to move within about ten minutes of having sat down.

I may be cynical (it's been said before) but it strikes me as pandering to rate payers in an area with a population lousy with renters, though with the massive density developments happening here over the past 20 years I guess we're becoming a minority.

The point is (for me) that libraries can't afford to be alienating their demographic and I can say anecdotally that ever since the layout adjustments the traffic in this library has fallen off a cliff

#publicLibraries #portPhilip #publicPolicy #publicSpaces

'in twenty-five years of asking about nuclear plants, Gallup NEVER recorded opposition as high to nuclear reactions as data centers are drawing now'

#genAI #ai #polycrisis #enclosure #technology #publicPolicy

https://nathannewman.substack.com/p/anti-ai-messaging-should-be-centerpiece

Is Nepal Moving Toward a Socialism-Oriented Federal State or a Capitalist Economy? A Systems-Level Reflection on Nepal’s FY 2026/27 Budget

The Constitution of Nepal defines Nepal as a “socialism-oriented federal democratic republican state.” Multiple election cycles since the Maoist insurgency suggest that democracy has matured considerably. Political parties broadly operating within the republican democratic framework have consistently remained at the center of political competition. The most recent election, following the Gen-Z movement, arguably strengthened the foundations of the republican system. Political actors advocating a return to monarchy remained on the margins and failed to translate public unrest into electoral dominance. Historically, pro-monarchy sentiment tends to gain visibility when governments fail to deliver expected outcomes. The Gen-Z movement represented perhaps the strongest expression of dissatisfaction with the status quo political order. If the Nepali public genuinely favored restoration of monarchy, that election cycle would have provided an ideal opportunity for monarchy-supporting forces to emerge as a dominant political alternative. Instead, voters largely endorsed parties committed to republican democracy, reinforcing the democratic republican trajectory of the country. Yet another constitutional question remains unresolved: while Nepal appears committed to republican democracy, is it also moving toward becoming a socialism-oriented federal state? This article adopts a devil’s advocate perspective to examine whether the latest fiscal budget advances that constitutional aspiration or whether it reflects a different economic direction.

The Budget Represents a Development-State Strategy

Viewed from a systems perspective, the budget rests on a coherent developmental logic. Its central objectives are to accelerate growth through productive investment, strengthen state capacity through reform and digitization, and attract domestic, diaspora, and foreign investment. The underlying diagnosis appears reasonable. Nepal’s challenge is not merely a shortage of money but low productivity, weak state capacity, fragmented development efforts, and bureaucratic friction. The budget attempts to connect infrastructure, energy, agriculture, tourism, technology, and investment into a more integrated economic architecture. Borrowing is presented not as a tool for consumption but as an instrument for productivity-enhancing investment. From this perspective, the budget is essentially a wager on state capacity. If government institutions become more effective, projects are completed on time, corruption is reduced, and investment translates into economic growth, then higher borrowing may be justified. Many countries such as South Korea and Vietnam that successfully modernized followed versions of this strategy. The budget therefore deserves credit for attempting to move the conversation beyond annual expenditures toward a broader development framework.

Is the Budget Fundamentally a Trickle-Down Strategy?

A central question is whether the budget’s theory of change resembles a form of trickle-down economics. Much of the strategy focuses on investment promotion, infrastructure expansion, digitization, regulatory reform, business facilitation, and productivity growth. The implicit assumption appears to be that economic growth will eventually spread throughout society through employment generation, enterprise creation, and broader economic opportunities. The concern is not whether growth is desirable. The concern is whether the benefits of growth will reach marginalized populations quickly and equitably enough. Critics may reasonably ask whether the budget places greater emphasis on investors, businesses, and the middle class than on direct improvements in the economic conditions of vulnerable communities. If economic gains remain concentrated among those already positioned to benefit from investment opportunities, the constitutional aspiration of a socialism-oriented state becomes harder to reconcile with actual policy outcomes.

Do Specific Policy Choices Reflect a Capitalist Rather Than Socialism-Oriented Direction?

Several policy signals raise broader questions about the state’s economic philosophy. First, taxes imposed on education and health services are likely to be passed on to consumers unless strong regulatory mechanisms prevent it. If the objective is to increase reliance on public education and public healthcare, improving the quality and competitiveness of those services may be a more effective first step than creating additional costs within private alternatives. Second, electricity consumption thresholds before tax appear low relative to the growing electrification of modern households. As families adopt induction cooking, electric vehicles, heat pumps, and other appliances, many middle-income households could exceed these thresholds. The result may unintentionally encourage continued reliance on gas, firewood, or other fossil-fuel alternatives. If the objective is to redirect electricity toward industrial use, expanding generation capacity may be more sustainable than discouraging household consumption.

Third, enthusiasm for data centers, AI, remote work, and digital services raises a deeper strategic question. Is Nepal building on its own long-term comparative advantages, or is it once again responding primarily to incentives created elsewhere? Nepal previously moved away from potentially transformative assets such as electric public transport systems, ropeways, and large-scale reservoir hydropower development, and  increasingly relied on labor export. The concern is not that digital industries are undesirable, but whether Nepal is repeating a pattern of chasing externally driven opportunities without a clearly articulated national development vision.

These examples create an impression that the budget may be nudging Nepal toward a model closer to contemporary market capitalism than toward the socialism-oriented framework envisioned by the constitution. Ironically, some parts of the capitalist Americas are currently witnessing renewed interest in democratic-socialist ideas and stronger social welfare policies, while Nepal appears to be emphasizing investment-led growth and market incentives.

The Real Debate may not Socialism Versus Capitalism

As the world is witnessing a renewed interest in democratic-socialist ideas and stronger social welfare, the deeper issue may not be whether Nepal is becoming socialist or capitalist country. The more important question is whether the assumptions underpinning the strategy prove correct. Several unintended consequences deserve attention. First, the key question is whether Nepal can finally convert borrowing into productive assets rather than accumulating debt without generating sufficient returns. Second, growth alone does not guarantee broad-based prosperity. The strategy assumes that gains from investment will spread through jobs, enterprise creation, and economic opportunity reaching marginalized communities. History suggests this outcome is possible but far from automatic. Third concern is about governance. The budget assumes improvements in administrative efficiency, project execution, corruption control, bureaucratic coordination, and institutional discipline. If these governance preconditions fail, borrowing could become another source of fiscal stress and public resentment rather than a catalyst for development. Fourth, the budget contains numerous concepts—corridors, processing, digitization, investment facilitation, infrastructure, tourism, and energy. Yet the overarching economic vision remains somewhat implicit. It is unclear whether these initiatives are components of a strategic coherent national development strategy or simply a collection of individually attractive policies held together by optimism rather than a clearly articulated economic vision. The assumption appears to be that combining these fragments will naturally produce prosperity, which deserves scrutiny.

The fifth concerns Nepal’s long-term development challenge. For more than four decades, billions of rupees have been invested in expanding road access into hill and mountain districts. While connectivity improved significantly, many districts continue to experience population decline as young people migrate to cities or overseas employment. Agricultural land is increasingly abandoned, wildlife pressures have intensified, and local economic opportunities remain limited. This experience suggests that infrastructure alone does not guarantee development. The more fundamental challenge may be employment generation, entrepreneurship, agricultural modernization, and innovation. A clearer budgetary focus on urban and rural entrepreneurship could potentially provide a more direct response to youth migration. Finance, training, vocational education, pilot programs, market access, digital economy initiatives, grants, loans, mentoring, and long-term support mechanisms could then function as supporting pillars around that central objective.

Finally, Nepal’s strategic location between India and China remains an underdeveloped dimension of national economic planning. The bridge-economy concept appears indirectly through investments in connectivity, energy, logistics, and regional development, but it remains insufficiently explicit. Positioning Nepal within the evolving economic geography of Asia may ultimately prove as important as any individual budget allocation.

Concluding, the budget reflects a serious attempt to accelerate growth, strengthen state capacity, and attract productive investment. Those objectives are difficult to oppose. However, important questions remain: are some policy choices moving Nepal closer to a market-capitalist model and trickle down economy than to a socialism-oriented nation; is there a sufficiently explicit economic vision connecting the many initiatives contained in the budget; can Nepal finally overcome its historic weakness in execution?The ultimate test will not be the size of the budget, the ambition of the plans, or the sophistication of the theories behind them. It will be whether the strategy creates productive employment, broad-based opportunity, stronger institutions, and a development pathway that keeps young Nepali invested in the country’s future. Efficiency can accelerate development. But democratic legitimacy, social inclusion, and long-term national purpose ultimately determine whether development becomes sustainable.

Note: This article is inspired by the article “New Team, New Budget: Nepal’s Big Development Bet [Part 1: Big Budget. Big Dreams. Big Assumptions.” published by Dr. Alok Bohora in his Substack website “Nepal Unplugged”. I was acknowledged in his successive article for contributing to the discussion. This article combines my thoughts together my synthesis of above mentioned article.

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Canadians not confident public service is prepared for the future
#Canada #Politics #PublicService #Government #Economy #PublicPolicy #MarkCarney #StateCapacity #PublicTrust #CivilService #Governance #Taxpayers #Trade #Leadership #Federal #Populism
https://the-14.com/canadians-not-confident-public-service-is-prepared-for-the-future/

This new book explains why your elderly parents’ retirement home, the nursery where you drop your children, or the company that pipes water into your kitchen is taken over by an increasingly intricate and deregulated industry.

If a private equity fund is "buying something using a lot a debt, [then] all of that debt is loaded onto the company that the private equity fund has acquired."
"Private equity has moved into care homes, housing, water, nurseries and other essential services."
"We have the power for it to be done otherwise."

Hettie O’Brien: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAJKiVQZaks via @oscarjiminy

#mortality #publicHealth #housing #publicServices #retirement #careHomes #hospital #expansion #development #LBO #privateFinance #finance #privateFinance #privateEquity #capitalism #publicPolicy #assets #England #Wales #Scotland #privateSector #UK #Britain #Blackstone #property #realEstate #buildToRent #Macquarie #childCare #careIndustry #taxBreaks #pensions #extraction

Children’s privacy is now critical infrastructure in the AI era
#AI #Tech #ChildPrivacy #DigitalRights #AIRegulation #DataProtection #PublicPolicy #CanadaPolicy #EdTech #UNICEF #OECD #CyberSafety #PrivacyLaw #Media #Culture #Privacy #Education #Social
https://the-14.com/childrens-privacy-is-now-critical-infrastructure-in-the-ai-era/

A quotation from Adlai Stevenson

The government must be the trustee for the little man because no one else will be. The powerful can usually help themselves — and frequently do.

Adlai Stevenson (1900–1965) American diplomat, statesman
Speech (1955-10-29), “The Crisis in Agriculture,” Democratic Rally, Duluth, Minnesota

More about this quote: wist.info/stevenson-adlai-ewin…

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #adlaistevenson #commonman #commonpeople #generalwelfare #government #hoipolloi #littleguy #littlepeople #power #powerful #publicpolicy #selfaggrandizement #trustee #populism

A quotation from Mark Twain

Laws are coldly reasoned out and established upon what the lawmakers believe to be a basis of right. But customs are not. Customs are not enacted, they grow gradually up, imperceptibly and unconsciously, like an oak from its seed. In the fullness of their strength they can stand up straight in front of a world of argument and reasoning and yield not an inch.

Mark Twain (1835-1910) American writer [pseud. of Samuel Clemens]
Essay (1906), “The Gorky Incident,” Letters from the Earth (c. 1909; pub. 1962) [ed. DeVoto (1939)]

More about this quote: wist.info/twain-mark/84113/

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #marktwain #twain #thegorkyincident #custom #irrationality #law #morality #penalty #publicopinion #publicpolicy #punishment #rationality #scandal #socialconventions #taboo #tradition #transgression

⚠️📚 TOP 7 Best-Selling Books in Political Corruption & Misconduct

If you study:
✔️ Political Science
✔️ Public Policy
✔️ Law
✔️ Government & Ethics

Inside this niche, readers want to understand:
— corruption in political systems
— abuse of public power
— ethics and accountability
— scandals, institutions, and governance

📩 DM “POLITICS” for lower-cost academic access and study guidance.

#PoliticalScience #PublicPolicy #LawStudents #GovernmentStudies #StudySmarter #DiGiBOKA #DigitalLearning

Home ownership is a false promise in Canada
#Canada #Housing #HomeOwnership #Renters #Economy #HousingCrisis #Inequality #PublicPolicy #UrbanStudies #Montreal #Quebec #AffordableHousing #TenantsRights #HousingJustice #SocialPolicy #RealEstate #Property
https://the-14.com/home-ownership-is-a-false-promise-in-canada/

What does it really mean to build a career in #SocialJustice?

From #MacroSocialWork and #CommunityOrganizing to #PublicPolicy and #LegalAdvocacy, there’s no single road to systemic change. Each path offers unique trade-offs in impact, access, and sustainability.

My latest article breaks down the four most effective professional routes to drive justice at scale, and helps you find the one that aligns with your values.

https://themacrolens.com/2025/10/22/career-in-social-justice/

#SystemsChange #SocialWork #Nonprofit #Advocacy

After #AAG2025 Conference in #Detroit, glad being in #WashingtonDC invited by #ProjectLiberty & #DRC at
@Georgetown_UP McCourt School of #PublicPolicy today to launched the latest #policy report on #DataCooperatives I contributed to among other experts: https://www.projectliberty.io/news/how-can-data-cooperatives-help-build-a-fair-data-economy/

#DataCooperatives:

#Video
@stanfordlaw @fulbrightscientific5 in #California: https://youtube.com/watch?v=mTT0tCix43E

#Publication via #SmartCities
:
https://mdpi.com/2624-6511/4/3/62

#Publication via
@EU_Commission
https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC122644

The Dana Career Network in Neuroscience & Society is launching the “NeuroX 101 Series” featuring panels with experts in emerging NeuroX fields, such as Neuroarchitecture and Neuroscience and Public Policy. Learn more and register for upcoming events at https://neuroxcareers.org/events/ #neurosociety #careernetwork #neuroarchitecture #publicpolicy #neurocareers #neuroscience

The Dana Career Network in Neuroscience & Society is launching the “NeuroX 101 Series” featuring panels with experts in emerging NeuroX fields, such as Neuroarchitecture and Neuroscience and Public Policy. Learn more and register for upcoming events at https://neuroxcareers.org/events/ #neurosociety #careernetwork #neuroarchitecture #publicpolicy #neurocareers #neuroscience

The Dana Career Network in Neuroscience & Society is launching the “NeuroX 101 Series” featuring panels with experts in emerging NeuroX fields, such as Neuroarchitecture and Neuroscience and Public Policy. Learn more and register for upcoming events at https://neuroxcareers.org/events/ #neurosociety #careernetwork #neuroarchitecture #publicpolicy #neurocareers #neuroscience

The Dana Career Network in Neuroscience & Society is launching the “NeuroX 101 Series” featuring panels with experts in emerging NeuroX fields, such as Neuroarchitecture and Neuroscience and Public Policy. Learn more and register for upcoming events at https://neuroxcareers.org/events/ #neurosociety #careernetwork #neuroarchitecture #publicpolicy #neurocareers #neuroscience

The Dana Career Network in Neuroscience & Society is launching the “NeuroX 101 Series” featuring panels with experts in emerging NeuroX fields, such as Neuroarchitecture and Neuroscience and Public Policy. Learn more and register for upcoming events at https://neuroxcareers.org/events/ #neurosociety #careernetwork #neuroarchitecture #publicpolicy #neurocareers #neuroscience

Supply management and the business activities of Ontario meat processors

Rita Hansen Sterne
Erna van Duren

#Management #SupplyManagement #MeatIndustry #InternationalTrade #ValueChains #PublicPolicy #CanAg

#OpenScholarship from CFS

#Read all you want! #OpenAccess
#Share generously! #KnowledgeSharing
#Grow your understanding of #Food
#Repeat

https://canadianfoodstudies.uwaterloo.ca/index.php/cfs/article/view/290/318

Interests post for searches:

#Adoptee #Queer #SexWorkIsWork #MutualAid #ACAB #Climate #Trees #Solidarity #Leftist #PublicPolicy #UrbanPlanning #UrbanForest #CovidIsNotOver #DisabilityAlly #TransRights #Privacy #AbortionIsHealthcare #Unionize #Accessibility #ADHD #AuDHD #FOSS #LinuxNewbie #SciFi #Exoplanets #Synesthesia #Shipwreck #StarTrek #Stargate #DoctorWho #Futurama #GhostFiles #Skyrim #MassEffect #RPG #RustyLake #Cats

Here’s an excerpt of a map I reconstructed from the text of The Nitopadesha. I’ve published it under Creative Commons and you can download the full version from my website https://nitinpai.in/book

(Order the book on Amazon https://www.amazon.in/dp/0143459767)

#PublicPolicy #India #constitutionalism #democracy #citizenship #books

Interests post (updated):

#Adoptee #Queer #SexWorkIsWork #MutualAid #ACAB #Climate #Trees #Solidarity #Leftist #GIS #Geoinformatics #PublicPolicy #UrbanPlanning #UrbanForest #CovidIsNotOver #DisabilityAlly #TransRights #Privacy #AbortionIsHealthcare #Unionize #Accessibility #ADHD #AuDHD #FOSS #LinuxNewbie #SciFi #Exoplanets #Synesthesia #Shipwreck #StarTrek #Stargate #DoctorWho #Futurama #GhostFiles #Skyrim #MassEffect #RPG #RustyLake #Cats