Ontario government launches free online textbook portal for students
http://mobilesyrup.com/2017/06/07/ontario-government-launches-free-online-open-textbook-portal-post-secondary-students/?utm_content=bufferd4857&utm_medium=social&utm_source=plus.google.com&utm_campaign=buffer
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These days, most textbooks are obsolete and outdated before the program is over. My wife kept all of her college textbooks, and outside of ONE that she still occasionally references, they couldn't even be re-sold to the next year's class, because they were different again. This is a good move. More schools need to move to this model - right from grade school.
ReplyDeleteI still have "Co-dependency in Giraffes" from my animal psych major days.
ReplyDeleteSeriously, this move by Ontario sounds great!
ReplyDeleteBrian Arbenz Yeah, except, interestingly? Coincidentally? All of the Ontario government's big spending promises are MAGICALLY happening going into an election year. Reality check ... they're trying to buy votes. See the minimum wage hike of almost 23% hitting January 1st for details.
ReplyDeleteGovernments often do that. It's not necessarily a bad thing of it helps voters over a longer term.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I just wish some of them would start these big plans on their FIRST term instead of their last ... so they can be held accountable for policies, instead of saddling whoever comes next with the problems they create.
ReplyDeleteI'm not necessarily against the min wage hike - but I'm VERY against the way they are implementing it. Going from 11.40 to 14/hr in one fell swoop (6 months before the election) with the final $1/hr hike the following year. That's a really tough pill to swallow for a lot of struggling small businesses. That hike should have been a multi-year phase-in. Pure vote purchase - affecting about 30% of all workers in Ontario ... also meaning that 20% who WERE earning above minimum wage will now once again be min wage earners. That's a big chunk of people just foist downward into the lowest income earner category. I really hope it doesn't cost people their jobs ... or drive some hyper-inflation to adjust for the extra cost to businesses.
I was talking in general, from a decidedly outside perspective. I live in the U.S., where moon landings happened, artificial hearts were implanted and nuclear bombs were built, but virtually nobody can afford a meaningful education any longer. The United States is over.
ReplyDeleteIt's funny how when minimum wage increases jobs don't actually go away. Latest to verify is Seattle and Alberta doesn't seem to be hurting from raising it. It is more staggered though. Few people actually earn minimum wage.
ReplyDeleteYes, reality just isn't conforming to Ayn Rand's writings! It must be flawed.
ReplyDeleteI don't believe Seattle to be a valid test case. The scope of the wage is limited to one city, not even the whole state.
ReplyDeleteAlberta is at least taking four years to roll theirs out - a reasonable approach. If Ontario was taking the same approach, I wouldn't be so against it. It's not the amount that irks me so much as the way they're doing it AND the convenient just-before-the-next-election timing of it all.
Ontario and Alberta are both mentioned in this article from a couple of days ago - https://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/rob-commentary/high-minimum-wages-have-minimum-benefit/article35207408/
I guess we'll see. Seattle is a reasonable test case as it is more expensive to do business and live in a city. The article you cited says wages should be adjusted according to areas So Seattle is legit as a test case.
ReplyDeleteThe sky is always falling according to businesses. When no smoking came in Vancouver but not surrounding areas, businesses insisted they would fails as everyone fled to the suburbs. It didn't happen.
Louisville, Ky. has the lowest cost of living of any metro area on the North American continent, perhaps the world. You would not believe the cost of a one-bedroom apartment, gasoline, food and electric heat here. So naturally, we have no problem with low wages, right? Wrong. Very wrong. Homelessness is surging for lack of affordable housing and because of job skills that matched the 1950s plentiful factory jobs around here, but which make a person unemployable today. Throw in the lack of access to preventive medicine, which is rampant here, and Louisville's 80 percent is in the hole and getting worse. Eighty percent is the figure being used for Americans who have no future due to today's scant opportunities and political exclusion.
ReplyDeleteCass Morrison Different wages by local cost of living isn't a horrible idea. I'd love to see how that works.
ReplyDeleteI have friends who own a local business, and employ a handful of people outside of themselves. They are already worried about what it is going to do to their bottom line. The money to pay people (plus benefits, etc) has to come from somewhere. They have options of raising prices, or reducing staffing levels. Otherwise, things just aren't sustainable. It's small businesses that are going to get hurt the most. The ones who don't have huge operating budgets, big profit margins, and hundreds of employees. I feel for the small shops who employ one or two people, and will have to consider if they can continue to - or if they'll have to reduce the hours they can offer to remain profitable.
I really hope I'm wrong, the cost of everything stays exactly the same, and everyone earning less than $15/hour suddenly finds themselves flush with cash. But I'm not going to hold my breath waiting for that day to come.
In Alberta they lowered small business tax which is only fair.
ReplyDeleteAs for flush for cash. Meet monthly expenses without having to rely on roommates would be nice.