News from the Network, Vol. 10, No. 39

This week’s news notes give a graphic illustration of the universal applicability of the Just Third Way principles and even specific vehicles for expanding ownership in ways that avoid putting the burden on current taxpayers by raising taxes, or future taxpayers by incurring a burden of (more) debt.  Of course, we refer primarily to Puerto Rico, but there is also the Virgin Islands, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Florida, and even the city of Detroit, Michigan:

Project Economic Justice: Ideological Framework

As we noted yesterday, we will be posting the original “strategy paper” that led to the Presidential Task Force on Project Economic Justice, “Project Economic Justice:A Beachhead for Regional Infrastructural Reform,” to be followed by President Reagan’s speech to the Task Force.  Today we post Part I of the paper in its entirety:

Project Economic Justice: Origins

Hurricane Maria wreaked what the news services are calling unprecedented devastation on Puerto Rico and other islands in the Caribbean, and for once it is not the usual media hype and hyperbole.  Agriculture, infrastructure, and anything else you care to name is in ruins.  Added to what happened already in the Virgin Islands, the situation in Cuba, Venezuela, etc., etc., etc., and a virtually endless catalogue of catastrophe, as soon as the politicians stop wringing their hands and trying to find someone to blame, there is going to be the need for a comprehensive plan to rebuild not just Puerto Rico, but the entire region.

What, Exactly, Is “Infallibility”?

Bear with us, if you don’t mind.  This really does have something to do with the Just Third Way and Capital Homesteading.  In addition to the three principles of economic justice (Participative Justice, Distributive Justice, and Social Justice), and binary economics, the Just Third Way depends a great deal on the natural law applications found in Catholic social teaching.

The First . . . Homesteader?

Everybody knows — or should know — that Abraham Lincoln was the one who put through the first Homestead Act in 1862 . . . right?

News from the Network, Vol. 10, No. 38

What with Trump and Kim Jong Un “exchanging insults,” earthquakes in Mexico, hurricanes in Puerto Rico, Texas, and Florida, it doesn’t seem as if there is very much good news to report from anywhere.  Still, we’ve managed to round up a few items that might help make your day a little brighter, or at least bearable:

The Rise of Socialism

In theory, there is no reason why anyone with a financially feasible capital project cannot participate in the process of money creation by entering into a contract.  In practice, however, money creation is reserved to those who are already wealthy.  This is because they control collateral, the universal means for securing against financial risk.

Philosophies at War

In 1943 at the height of the Second World War, Fulton J. Sheen (1895-1979) published Philosophies at War.  The book gave Sheen’s perspective on the real source of the conflict.  A thematic follow-up to such earlier works as Religion Without God (1928), and Freedom Under God (1940), the work is not well known, and is very rare.

Greece on the Skids

It has been a while since Greece was in the news, but that doesn’t mean the situation there is any better . . . it just means that other things are more immediate, and more bright and shiny to catch the eye of the media.  The problem, however, is still with us — and by “with us,” we’re implying that the problem Greece faces right now is what is down the road for everybody once we’re too far gone down the path laid out for us by Keynesian economics.

Is Education the Answer?

When some says that something or other is the answer, we always have the impulse to say, “What is the question?”  If you aren’t asking the right question, frankly, any answer will do, just as if you don’t know where you’re going, any road will get you there.  Fortunately, today’s question was asking why governments are reacting to widespread unemployment and the disappearance of many jobs by advocating more education.

News from the Network, Vol. 10, No. 37

What with the surge in natural disasters, news on the Just Third Way front has slowed somewhat.  Still, there are a number of things that have been happening that suggest things may eventually be turning from the wrong way, to the Just Third Way:

Stimulus and the Global Financial Crisis

Every now and then we get some questions or comments to which we can respond.  Oh, we don’t mean like the troll who, in response to our comment about how it’s better that government should go to the people for its money rather than the other way around, shrieked that there should be no government at all, that it’s a thief, that anarchy is the only ethical system!!!!!!!

Social Justice and the American Red Cross

As the result of what are perceived as inadequacies in the disaster relief efforts of the American Red Cross (ARC), some authorities are urging people not to contribute to the organization.  Granted that serious mistakes have been made, and that this writer has personal reasons for not contributing to the ARC, attempting to undermine the institution is itself a serious error, and the antithesis of social justice.

A Taxing Problem: Production and Consumption

We’ve covered quite a bit on why a consumption tax might not be the best way to go in this short series.  We have one more reason, and it might not be one that occurs to most people simply because it is highly technical and gets into economic and financial theory.

A Taxing Problem: Own or Be Owned

We were going to talk about how a consumption tax distorts consumption patters today, but we might get to that tomorrow.  This is the good part about being “the Boss of the Blog.”  You can change your mind at the last minute and still not get fired or anything. . . .

News from the Network, Vol. 10, No. 36

While most people are quite properly focused on the remarkable series of natural disasters that have occurred over the past week — the “law of the urgent over the important” — we have been able to make some progress in advancing the solution to more manageable problems, such as war and the economy:

A Taxing Problem: It’s STILL Regressive

Yesterday we looked at the problem of a consumption tax from the perspective of “rule of law.”  We decided (we did; we don’t know what you decided) that a consumption tax when it relies on people proving they spent as much as they did on consumption in order to get their exemption, is contrary to a sound philosophy of law that we call “rule of law.”

A Taxing Problem: Rule of Law

Abolishing the income tax sounds great at first glance.  Nobody likes to pay taxes anyway, and all the expletive deleted recordkeeping, penalties, interest, weird requirements, etc., etc., etc., only add insult to injury.  So why not have a national consumption tax of some kind instead of an income tax?  The regulatory burden would be much less, and everybody’s life would be much simpler, wouldn’t it?

Universal Basic Income

There has been a lot of discussion recently about the UBI, the “Universal Basic Income,” by means of which every citizen . . . or maybe every person . . . or perhaps just those whom the government bureaucracy likes . . . or whatever, would receive enough cash to meet their needs adequately . . . or maybe just basic subsistence . . . or maybe something else, depending on who makes the decisions.

Happy Capital for Labor Day!

This past Friday, September 1, 2017, we read the “Labor Day Statement 2017” of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops by Most Reverend Frank J. Dewane, Bishop of Venice, Chairman of the Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, September 4, 2017.  It’s dated today, but it was released last week . . . possibly to give its author a running start to get out of town ahead of angry mobs of the unemployed.

News from the Network, Vol. 10, No. 35

There is quite a bit going on this week, especially given the advances the Just Third Way is making in the media, what with the phenomenal increase in the audience for The Just Third Way Hour.  Although we have not yet received verifiable figures as to that audience size, there are already initiatives underway to leverage it to help get the word out: