News from the Network, Vol. 11, No. 13

This past week has been somewhat quiet with respect to the Just Third Way, but a number of important initiatives are moving forward, notably the project in Wayne County, Michigan.  This “slowdown” always occurs around major holidays as people divert their attention (as they should) to friends and family:

Effectiveness

José Ferrer as Cyrano (1950)

In Edmond Rostand’s “heroic comedy” Cyrano de Bergerac, the Man with the Long Nose and Longer Sword responds to (if memory serves) his friend Le Bret’s question regarding why he, Cyrano, insists on doing things his own way when with a little tact and diplomacy he could easily have fame, friends, and fortune.  We may be misquoting, but Cyrano responds with something along the lines of, “But a man does not fight merely to win!  No, sometimes better to know one fights in vain!”

A More Just Tax, II: Tax Reform

As we saw in “A More Just Tax, I: Monetary and Credit Reform,” last week’s posting on the subject of a more just tax, there are four essential steps in achieving a more just tax.  The first of these is monetary and credit reform.  This is crucial, not simply because how much someone actually pays in taxes depends on having a stable means in terms of which taxes are measured, but for a host of other reasons as well.

Eternal Vigilance

J.P. Curran

As the famed Irish attorney John Philpot Curran declared in Dublin on July 10, 1790, “The condition upon which God hath given liberty to man is eternal vigilance.”  Yes, we are aware that this is usually rendered “Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty,” and attributed to Thomas Jefferson, but there is no evidence that Jefferson said it.

The Just Third Way Hour Podcast

This week on the podcast of "The Just Third Way Hour" your host Dave Hamill interviews . . . himself!  Dave (among a great many other things; his talent just goes on and on) is/has been a truck driver.  In today's show he lets himself go a little with a "truck driver rant."  Keep in mind that this is not some media type person pretending to act like his notion of what a truck driver "really" thinks.  No, it's a truck driver who happens also to be a media type person telling you what an actual truck driver thinks.  We understood him to say he even recorded it in the cab of his own truck to ensure authenticity. . . .

News from the Network, Vol. 11, No. 12

The fluctuations in the stock market have for some time been completely divorced from the real economy in which actual people produce through their labor and their capital marketable goods and services for themselves and to trade with others so they can consume what those others have produced.  Unfortunately, academics and politicians are obsessed with the idea that “the stock market” actually means something, and manage to ignore something like Capital Homesteading that would return prices on the secondary market to realistic levels, and start to implement counterproductive trade policies instead of essential tax and monetary reforms:

Nothing is Impossible in Social Justice

Back in 1966 Dr. Norman G. Kurland, now president of the all-volunteer, interfaith Center for Economic and Social Justice (CESJ) in Arlington, Virginia was in New York City.  He was meeting with Stokely Carmichael and Ivanhoe Donaldson and explaining to them the ideas of lawyer-economist Louis O. Kelso, best known as the inventor of the Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) regarding achieving broad-based capital ownership without redistributing existing wealth.

A More Just Tax, I: Monetary and Credit Reform

We’ve been having a sporadic series of postings addressing President Trump’s proposed tariffs, starting with “The Two-Part Tariff Question” and continuing with “Is There an Alternative to Tariffs?”  At the end of the latter we concluded, “[T]here is clearly an alternative to tariffs . . . but only if you agree that the sole purpose of taxation is to fund government.  If you’re worried about other goals, however, is there a way to achieve them in a less harmful (or even beneficial) way?” and promised to look into that in the next posting in the series.

Social Justice Takes Time

“I Want It Now” seems to be the modern mantra, whether for individuals or social reformers.  The problem is that instant gratification seldom satisfies on a fundamental level, and almost never gets at the root of the problem causing what ends up being an inordinate desire.  As a result, gratifying every whim leads only to increasing demands on the part of recipients, and a diminished ability to meet those demands on the part of those charged with bestowing them.

The Just Third Way Hour Podcast

It must be getting close to the opening of baseball season, for we have a triple header this week!  On deck first we have Dr. Norman G. Kurland's second appearance on Dr. Deal Hudson's "Church and Culture" show on the Ave Maria Radio Network (an affiliate of EWTN) that was just broadcast this past weekend.  Deal and Norm talk about tax reform this time around.

News from the Network, Vol. 11, No. 11

One of the most interesting developments in the Just Third Way in 2018 is the number of media outlets that seem to be opening up.  Paradoxically, some of these have resulted from the success of a new book, Ten Battles Every Catholic Should Know, in which the Just Third Way is only a minor “sub-theme” of the book.  People reading or hearing about the book, however, often get interested in the reason a Certified Public Accountant would write a history book, and start looking into the Just Third Way.  Plus, there are a number of initiatives going on throughout the world that might start some positive things happening:

Is There an Alternative to Tariffs?

In yesterday’s posting, “The Two-Part Tariff Question,” we took a look at the question of whether President Trump actually has the power to impose a tariff.  A tariff, after all, is a tax, and under the U.S. Constitution the taxing power is reserved to the people through their representatives in Congress.  Obviously, we are not experts in Constitutional law, but it seems to us the issue ought to be raised.

The Two-Part Tariff Question

In last week’s news items we looked at President Trump’s tariff proposals from a constitutional point of view.  Not that we’re experts in constitutional law, but we ran our understanding past someone who was a student of William Winslow Crosskey (1894-1968), and he (the student, not necessarily Crosskey) agreed with us.

The Right Way: Social

Last week we looked at the “wrong” way to go about “doing” social justice.  That is, you do not organize with other people and work with each other to fix the broken institutions of the common good.  Instead, you bull on through, trying to go it alone, and ending up accomplishing nothing because you tried to “attack a social evil with only individual means,” as CESJ co-founder Father William J. Ferree, S.M., Ph.D. put it.

The Just Third Way Hour Podcast

We have a "double header" this week.  On deck first we have Dr. Norman G. Kurland's appearance on Dr. Deal Hudson's "Church and Culture" show on the Ave Maria Radio Network (an affiliate of EWTN) that was just broadcast this past weekend.  Deal and Norm talk about the sort of reforms needed to our financial system to get the country — and the world — back on track.  And do we have to say how much more interesting it is to listen to people who actually know what they are talking about?

News from the Network, Vol. 11, No. 10

At the top of the Just Third Way news this week is Dr. Norman Kurland’s interview with Dr. Deal Hudson on the “Church and Culture” radio show on the Ave Maria Radio Network, an affiliate of EWTN.  Even if you’re not Catholic or other Christian you will find the interview both entertaining and instructive.  In other news, we take a “legal layman’s” view of President Trump’s tariff proposal:

“Only By Members of Groups”

In yesterday’s posting we might have given the impression of a vision of social justice not connected with actual people.  That is, we might have given that impression if the posting wasn’t read in context as part of a series on the “laws and characteristics of social justice” as analyzed by CESJ co-founder Father William J. Ferree, S.M., Ph.D.  In particular it is essential to keep in mind the fourth “law” of social justice, that every individual is directly responsible not only for his or her own personal welfare, but for the common good as a whole, i.e., to acquire the "virtue" or habit of being just in his or her interactions with other persons but also to acquire the social virtue of how to address injustices effectively in his or her institutions or "social habits or tools" when they fail to perform more justly for the benefit of every one of their members, i.e., the "common good".

The Characteristics of Social Justice

So far in our discussions on social justice in this brief series we’ve looked at the “laws” of social justice, at least those CESJ co-founder Father William J. Ferree, S.M., Ph.D. discerned in his work and described in his pamphlet, Introduction to Social Justice (1948).  Of course, the laws of social justice are not human statutes, like the speed limit or how to file your taxes.  Such things can be changed as expedient to fit human needs, and even abolished completely if enough people were to demand it.

All Vital Interests Should Be Organized

We come today to the seventh and final “law” of social justice: “All vital interests should be organized.”  This “law” is another application of the principle that seems first to have been articulated by Aristotle that man is by nature a “political animal,” that is, existing and subsisting within organized groups he called the pólis, hence, “political.”

The Just Third Way Hour Podcast

Host Dave Hamill comes to you this week from a new website for the podcast, a change that we believe will make these learning tools even more effective and enjoyable:

News from the Network, Vol. 11, No. 09

This has been a busy week for the Just Third Way.  A number of glitches popped up but were dealt with, but more important, we have made some significant contacts and engaged in some very effective outreach.  It shows what can be done with a modicum of effort if members of the network take the time to reach out to those in their own networks:

The Formation of Capital

As we saw yesterday, there is a virtually unlimited commercial and industrial frontier that can replace the land frontier and give every child, woman, and man the opportunity to become an owner of productive assets and achieve a level of capital self-sufficiency.  The only question is how to do it . . . and it wouldn’t be through government handouts or programs like the New Deal.