Why It’s Not Distributism

A little backstory.  A few years ago, we were asked to prepare an explanation of what we mean by “the Just Third Way of Economic Personalism.”  Even though we are an interfaith group, the request came from an official at the Vatican (not the pope or anyone you know).  We wrote the explanation based on universal principles of natural law applicable to all “natural” faiths and philosophies (mostly based on or compatible with Aristotelian philosophy).

JTW Podcast: Presocratic Philosophy, Part II

This week, “Professor Dave Explains” continues his talk on Greek philosophers before Socrates.  It’s a little abrupt, since Part I was the first half of the lecture and this is the second half, but that’s not really anything to worry about.  So, let’s get down and funky with the Presocratics:

News from the Network, Vol. 17, No. 49

As the year draws to a close, we see increasing numbers of reasons for somebody somewhere to adopt the Economic Democracy Act and lead the way for the rest of the world:

What is the Federal Reserve For, Exactly?

George Will’s November 30, 2024, column asked the question as to what, exactly, is the purpose of the Federal Reserve System.  This is a reasonable concern, especially given the way governments throughout the world have been using their central banks to spend money like drunken sailors on leave.  Unfortunately, although Will pontificated for 750 words or so, it was evident that, while he clearly intended the title of his column to be rhetorical, he himself has no realistic idea of the role or function of a central bank, much less any bank other than a bank of deposit.

JTW Podcast: Presocratic Philosophy, Part I

This week, “Professor Dave Explains” about Greek philosophers before Socrates.  It’s pretty rapid fire, but still informative and (up to a point) entertaining.  As before, personally, we find the use of “BCE” instead of “BC” is annoying, but we’re big enough to let that pass . . . for now:

News from the Network, Vol. 17, No. 48

A lot of news items this week and consequently a lot of arguments to adopt the Economic Democracy Act, so we’ll get right into it:

Union Solidarista Guatemalteca y Costa Rica

It’s not so much a buzzword nowadays, but “solidarity” is still an important concept, and one that often doesn’t mean what people think it does.  To define what we mean by solidarity, we begin with the thought of Pope Saint John Paul II (Karol Józef Wojtyła, 1920-2005, elected 1978).

JTW Podcast: East Asian and Indian Early Philosophical Thought

Here is an additional take on the history of philosophy and logic from “Professor Dave Explains.”  We’re most interested in Aristotelian philosophy, but knowing something about other systems is useful as well.  Personally, the use of “BCE” instead of “BC” is annoying, but so what:

News from the Network, Vol. 17, No. 47

Trump and the economy are the Big News this week . . . and since he isn’t really saying anything different than anyone else, we still need to adopt the Economic Democracy Act:

Some Comments on Social Credit

In China, the social credit system (SCS) is a national reputation system that rates the trustworthiness of individuals, businesses, and government entities.  The idea is to regulate social behavior and ensure compliance with laws and regulations.  The SCS assigns a score to each entity, with higher scores leading to more benefits and lower scores leading to more penalties.  High scores can lead to tax breaks, jumping the public housing queue, and easier access to credit.  Low scores can lead to denial of licenses and permits, exclusion from booking flights or high-speed train tickets, and restricted access to public services . . . all based on some bureaucrat’s idea of how good a person you are.  It’s a fun and easy way to have your life ruined.

JTW Podcast: Introduction to Philosophy and Logic

Here is an interesting take on philosophy and logic from “Professor Dave Explains.”  Logic is a tool to help us think about knowledge, while philosophy is knowledge about knowledge . . . it’s not that bad (or bad at all), as you will see from this short video:

News from the Network, Vol. 17, No. 46

 Economic and social insecurity is increasing at an increasing rate these days.  Ironically, a lot of this could probably be eliminated by the Economic Democracy Act:

Who REALLY Owns the Federal Reserve?

On paper, the Federal Reserve System, the central bank of the United States, is owned by its member banks.  Member banks are required to purchase a special form of preferred stock paying a minimal dividend but carrying a meaningless vote.  This is not, however, true ownership.  As Louis O. Kelso once pointed out, control means ownership in all codes of law, and as we will see below, the federal government, while it does have “legal title” to the Federal Reserve System, controls it by having the president of the United States appoint the Chairman of the Board of Governors, and by receiving all revenue in excess of what is expended in operations.

JTW Podcast: Four Possibilities to Prove Reality is Real

This week’s podcast deal with reality and the existence of God, a question relevant to every faith and philosophy.  Again, if there is no God, then there is no absolute standard and there are no rules to live by and no moral law to follow; anyone can do anything he wants — might makes right.  And why is that important?  Because if there are no absolutes and right is whatever the strongest says it is, then the Just Third Way is nonsense:

News from the Network, Vol. 17, No. 45

Everyone is obsessing about the results of the U.S. election this week, but life goes on (and on, and on, and on).  Regardless how it would have turned out, in our opinion the only thing that will Make America Great Again is to make AMERICANS (or any other nationalities) great again, and that means adopting the Economic Democracy Act:

Why “Binary”?

Occasionally, someone thinks he (or she) has come up with a brilliant criticism of the Just Third Way of Economic Personalism by pointing out “binary economics” is not a good way of describing the ideas of Louis O. Kelso which form the primary economic theory of the Just Third Way.  The critic takes a brief look and sees Kelso divided the factors of production into labor and capital instead of labor, land, and capital, and assumes it is the whole of Kelso’s thought, which is ultra-simplistic.

JTW Podcast: The Case for God

This week’s podcast deals with the case for the existence of God.  Why is this important?  Because as Dostoyevsky had Ivan Karamazov in The Brothers Karamazov (1880) claim, if God does not exist, then everything is permitted.  If there is no God, then there is no absolute standard and there are no rules to live by and no moral law to follow; anyone can do anything he wants — might makes right.  And why is that important?  Because if there are no absolutes and right is whatever the strongest says it is, then the Just Third Way is nonsense:

News from the Network, Vol. 17, No. 44

As the United States gets closer to the upcoming election, it becomes increasingly obvious from this week’s news items none of the candidates are looking at the economy in any realistic way.  What is a realistic way?  The program in the Economic Democracy Act:

The Pecuniary Advantage

Last week we noted what makes the rich different is not more money (although that certainly doesn’t hurt . . .) but access to money creation.  Access to money and credit determines who can acquire and possess capital, which is what makes people rich, not mere money.

JTW Podcast: Aquinas v. Kant

This week’s podcast is still about “Natural Theology,” but don’t worry — this is just basic philosophical concepts underpinning the theory of natural law from which the Just Third Way of Economic Personalism is derived.  Why is this important if the Just Third Way is not a religion?  Because consistent with the philosophy of Aristotle, the Just Third Way assumes as a given that there are absolutes, which necessarily implies the existence of God.  Again, don’t worry: the only thing we can tell from natural reason about the existence of God and the natural law is that it exists . . . which segues into Emmanuel Kant and his Critique of Pure Reason (1781):

News from the Network, Vol. 17, No. 43

There seems to be more of a focus on financial problems associated with retirement . . . something which (as we’ve commented previously) might need a little bit of rethinking.  There are other news items, of course, notably the notice about the Free Nations of Post-Russia Forum event in Ottawa, Canada, but still many problems might be resolved or reduced in magnitude by adopting the Economic Democracy Act:

Is the Proletarian Condition “Normal”?

Last week we looked at the question whether the rich, as F. Scott Fitzgerald claimed, are different.  We concluded that today the rich are, indeed, different . . . but not as human beings.  Rather, what makes the rich different these days is access to money and credit which enables them to buy advanced technology which can and usually does outproduce human labor at a quantum level.

JTW Podcast: Natural Theology, Part II

This continues last week’s podcast on “Natural Theology”, which is what can be discerned by reason about God, so is applicable across the board to people of all faiths and philosophies, Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Pagan, or what have you.  Today Sproul covers what G.K. Chesterton called "the Double Mind of Man," the idea something can be both true and false at the same time.  Here is what R.C. Sproul had to say on the subject:

News from the Network, Vol. 17, No. 42

The news items this week approach the surreal, with items contradicting each other, and others simply not making sense.  As usual, many of these problems could either be resolved or made much less worrisome by adopting the Economic Democracy Act: