This week has been very busy, but mostly because we’re
preparing for upcoming events, notably the annual Rally, this year stressing “Own
or Be Owned”: if you do not own capital, you soon become owned as capital — what
they used to call “slavery” but now call “job security” and “welfare.”
One or two things have popped up on the radar, however, so
here’s the list:
• Here’s something
troubling for the American Dream, although it has certainly staved off the
“empty nest syndrome” for many people . . . who now wish they could have such
troubles. “Thirty-Somethings” are still
living at home in increasing numbers, as a
recent news report reveals. Dare we
say it? If these people had Capital Homestead
Accounts, they would only live at home with their parents because they
wanted to, not because they had to.
• Analyzing some U.S.
Census Bureau data in light of some comments made during a discussion with a
financial analyst in the U.K. earlier this week, we got a distinct sense of
“déjà vu all over again,” as Yogi Berra would say. That is, corporations are using debt
financing in preference to equity financing — and this is not a recent
development. It has been going on at an
accelerating rate for the past half-century . . . and was also noted by Judge
Peter S. Grosscup in a series of articles in the early twentieth century. Corporate ownership is being increasingly
concentrated in fewer and fewer hands, as the chart, developed from Census
Bureau data, clearly shows. Note that
debt financing of new capital formation is consistently above the zero base
line. That means debt financing is
increasing as outstanding corporate debt increases. Now note that equity financing is
consistently below the zero base line.
That means that the amount of new equity issuances (“corporate ownership”)
is more than offset by retiring of outstanding shares: net corporate ownership
is decreasing; corporate wealth is held in fewer and fewer hands.
 |
| Under Capital Homesteading we could all engage in leisure work and dress in bedsheets. |
• Earlier this week Pope
Francis made some comments that a large number of people are virtually
guaranteed to misunderstand or misinterpret, viz., “I make a heartfelt appeal that the logic of profit may not
prevail over that of solidarity and justice . . . . At the center of every
issue, especially in relation to work, there must always be the human person
and his or her dignity . . . . And the ability to have work is a question of
justice, and it is an injustice not to have work . . . . being unable to bring
bread to the table means losing one's dignity . . . . this is the crisis of our
time, especially for the young who, without work, have no prospects for the
future and may become easy prey to criminal organizations.” Now, every word Pope Francis said is true —
but here’s what people are going to get wrong.
They are going to assume that, 1) Work is the only way to gain
income. 2) Economic work for income is
the only legitimate form of work. 3)
People who do not perform economic work and yet have adequate income are
parasites, drones, and thieves. Yet if
you read carefully, Pope Francis said none of these things, nor did he imply
them. His “error” — if you even want to
call it that — was to fail to mention that finding economic work for people is
an individualistic measure, whether justice or charity. It is not social justice . . . which involves
restructuring our institutions so that everyone has the opportunity and access
to the means to take care of him- or herself and any dependents through his or
her own efforts, whether that be by economic work, capital ownership, or
both. Does that mean that people who
have an adequate income from capital don’t have to work? No. Everyone needs
to work. It is actually something of a degradation of work to link it
exclusively to subsistence; it means that we never get to the real work of
civilization and making ourselves more fully human. Rich people who do nothing are, insofar as
human dignity is concerned, in the same boat as poor people who do nothing,
although they at least don't have to worry about eating — and it’s on their own
heads if they avoid work. Neither fully develop as human beings. Of course, if you
want a system in which everyone who wants or needs economic work can find it
without artificial job creation or redistribution, you need the Just Third Way
. . . which is why we need to talk to Pope Francis.
• According
to a Reuters report, U.S. economic growth has slowed and corporate profits
have fallen. Oddly, however, the stock
market continues to soar, although there has been an increasing incidence of
“mini-crashes” that have caused a little nervousness among more conservative
gamblers, that is, investors.
• The manuscript for Prophet of Modernism has been submitted
to a publisher. We expect to hear
something very soon, as we had previously discussed the project with the
publisher, and he commented very favorably on an early draft of the book. If you simply can’t wait for the book’s
acceptance and release, however, there is nothing to stop you from reading other books with a Just Third
Way orientation.
• The first step in
the revision of CESJ’s “blueprint for change,” Capital
Homesteading for Every Citizen (2004)
has been completed, and the manuscript submitted to the CESJ core group for
comments and editing. While it does not
appear that it will be out in time for CESJ’s 30th Anniversary
Celebration next month, we may discuss the feasibility of allowing people to
purchase advance copies in bulk at a discount, both to fund the revision, and
to help generate a little “buzz” about a work that, while good before, has been
much improved by updating and the increasingly obvious fact that it presents
the only viable alternative to tried-and-failed solutions that only end by
making matters worse. If you still don’t
have the original 2004 edition — useful for comparison and historical purposes
— we expect that it will continue to be available until December 31, 2015.
• We are still ironing
out logistical difficulties in our campaign for economic justice, but hope to
have something up and running soon.
• As of this morning, we have had
visitors from 63 different countries and 44 states and provinces in the United
States and Canada to this blog over the past two months. Most visitors are from
the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Poland, and Keyna. The most
popular postings this past week were “Thomas Hobbes on Private Property,” “The
Purpose of Production,” “You Asked, Kelso Answered,” “Aristotle on Private
Property,” and “What is a Central Bank
Supposed to Do?”
Those are the happenings for this week, at least those that
we know about. If you have an
accomplishment that you think should be listed, send us a note about it at
mgreaney [at] cesj [dot] org, and we’ll see that it gets into the next
“issue.” If you have a short (250-400
word) comment on a specific posting, please enter your comments in the blog —
do not send them to us to post for you.
All comments are moderated, so we’ll see it before it goes up.
#30#