A great deal of outreach was done
this past week, with letters, telephone calls, and emails being sent to a
number of possible contacts. It is
becoming increasingly clear that without the Just Third Way the world will have
a difficult time turning aside from the path it is currently on and
establishing a system that will give each person the chance for a more just and
humane future. With that in mind —
• Arkansas Wants Highest Minimum Wage. The state of Arkansas recently
announced that it wants to have the highest minimum wage in the United
States. From a Just Third Way
perspective, it might be better to go for the highest minimum income in the
United States, but that would entail widespread ownership, which means sharing
power. One thing the minimum wage does
that widespread ownership does not is ensure that whoever has power remains in
power, with as many other people dependent on him or her as possible.
 |
| Yes, it's one world, but. . . . |
• Global Economy Slowing Down?
Today’s Wall Street Journal
opined that the global economy was slowing down, although the growth in the
United States was masking this for most people.
Of course, when “they” say that the global economy is slowing down or
that the U.S. is experiencing economic growth, it means in the aggregate, which
in turn means that it isn’t real unless it affects you personally. Also, despite the numbers, few people realize
that the so-called growth in the U.S. has been fueled by government debt
instead of private sector future savings, meaning that eventually the U.S.
taxpayer will have to pick up the tab.
• McGill University Conference.
Norman Kurland’s presentation to a group at McGill University went very
well, with participants and audience pleased with the result. About a dozen or so people tuned in on the
internet, and the presentation came across very clear. During the question and answer period a
number of insightful questions were asked which, although they did not
demonstrate a complete understanding of the Just Third Way, indicated a
willingness to listen and dialogue on the ideas.
• Catholic Internet TV (CITV). One of the participants
tuning in to Norman Kurland’s talk at McGill was Stephen DeVol of Catholic
Internet TV, a project of the Catholic Worker Movement. Steve expressed great interest in having Norm
record a session for broadcast on CITV, with the result that a taping is
scheduled for next week before Thanksgiving.
• Please Don’t Throw Me in the Briar Patch Dept. A leading Chinese venture
capitalist is threatening
to “scale back” investment in the United States. Kai-Fu Lee, former president of Google China
says that if relations continue to deteriorate between China and the U.S., he
would begin reducing investment. That is
very welcome news to anyone who understands the science of finance and the
dangers of relying on foreign investment capital to run an economy. The Federal Reserve System was established primarily
to provide the U.S. economy with sufficient liquidity to keep the economy
running smoothly. If it were to be used
to finance private sector investment instead of monetizing government deficits,
there would be no need for foreign investment at all, and the U.S. could start
paying down its debt. By adding Louis
Kelso’s “Expanded Ownership Revolution” and turning every child, woman, and man
into a capital owner, making dividends tax deductible at the corporate level, paying
out all earnings, and financing growth using commercial bank credit backed up
by the Federal Reserve (and, of course, forcing government to live within its
means by imposing a balanced budget), there would be sufficient consumer demand
to establish and maintain full employment.
Further, the U.S. would again become a net exporter as widespread
ownership encouraged greater efficiency and profitability. China threatening to cut back on investment
in the U.S.? Please do.
• Short Instructional Videos. CESJ is exploring putting
together proposals for a number of short videos of three to five minutes in
length to explain some of the details of the Big Picture in brief so that
people can take the Just Third Way a little bit at a time. Once we have the proposal fleshed out a
little more, we will take it to a number of foundations that give grants for
such things.
• CESJ and Just Third Way Publications. Development of the
revived newsletter for CESJ is proceeding apace, while the revision of Capital
Homesteading for Every Citizen is still in process. Three manuscripts on Just Third Way subjects
have been submitted to another publisher, with three more in process. We are currently exploring the possibility of
getting a “name” or two to do forewords in order to help with the marketing and
sales of these ideas. The "John Henry Newman and the Act of Social Justice" project is also still in process..
• Shop online and support CESJ’s work! Did you know that by making
your purchases through the Amazon Smile
program, Amazon will make a contribution to CESJ? Here’s how: First, go to https://smile.amazon.com/. Next, sign in to your Amazon account. (If you don’t have an account with Amazon,
you can create one by clicking on the tiny little link below the “Sign in using
our secure server” button.) Once you have
signed into your account, you need to select CESJ as your charity — and you
have to be careful to do it exactly this way: in the
space provided for “Or select your own charitable organization” type “Center for Economic and Social Justice
Arlington.” If you type anything
else, you will either get no results or more than you want to sift through. Once you’ve typed (or copied and pasted) “Center for Economic and Social Justice
Arlington” into the space provided, hit “Select” — and you will be taken to
the Amazon shopping site, all ready to go.
• Blog Readership. We have had visitors from 40 different
countries and 47 states and provinces in the United States and Canada to this
blog over the past week. Most visitors are from the United States, Iraq, Jamaica,
India, and the United Kingdom. The most
popular postings this past week in descending order were “Christianity
versus the Democratic Religion,” “Why
NOT Capitalism?” “Financing
Made Easy(er),” “News
from the Network, Vol. 11, No. 45,” and “Thomas
Hobbes on Private Property.”
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#