The other day actor/economist/monotone Ben Stein published a short article on the financial crisis. Since we agree with just about everything he said (except for the fact that he strangely omitted any reference to our proposed solutions), we thought we'd send him a note, reproduced here. Please feel free to track down his contact information and send your own missive. (We did NOT include the "donate" button in our e-mail to Mr. Stein.)
Dear Mr. Stein:
Thank you for your article on the current run of financial fiascoes. I hope that more people pay attention to you than have been listening to us for the past year and more.
In light of that hopefully not ephemeral hope, I think it would be of great mutual benefit if you were to investigate the work of our "Center for Economic and Social Justice," ("CESJ"), a good introduction to which can be found on the web site, www.cesj.org, while running commentary can be found on our blog. Our "Just Third Way" consists of four essential "pillars" that we believe provide the foundation for an economically (and thus politically) just social order:
1. Limited economic role for the State,
2. Free and open markets,
3. Restoration of the rights of private property, particularly in corporate equity, and
4. Widespread direct ownership of the means of production.
Dr. Norman G. Kurland, president of CESJ, is a graduate of the Law and Economics program at the University of Chicago. Previously active in the Civil Rights movement, as Washington Counsel for Louis O. Kelso (inventor of the ESOP, or Employee Stock Ownership Plan, and co-author with Mortimer J. Adler of The Capitalist Manifesto, 1958 and The New Capitalists: How to Free Economic Growth from the Slavery of Savings, 1961), Dr. Kurland was instrumental in persuading the late Senator Russell Long of Louisiana to champion the enabling legislation for the ESOP in 1973. Dr. Kurland later served as Deputy Chairman for the Presidential Task Force on Project Economic Justice under President Reagan, the goal of which was to counter Marxism in Central America and the Caribbean Basin by implementing Kelso's ideas.
Our immediate, short term (partial) solution to the current situation is to implement the "Homeowners' Equity Corporation," or "HEC." Rather than go into it here, I invite you to follow the link. Our long term solution is Capital Homesteading for Every Citizen, ditto. More information about CESJ can be found on the web site. I invite you to look over the material and, if you have any questions or comments, give Dr. Kurland a call.
Donations to CESJ are tax deductible in the United States under IRC § 501(c)(3):
THE Global Justice Movement Website
This is the "Global Justice Movement" (dot org) we refer to in the title of this blog.
