This year marks
the twenty-fifth anniversary of a publishing event: Curing World Poverty: The New Role of Property. A “small press bestseller,” the book is even
more relevant today than it was a quarter of a century ago. (The criteria for determining bestseller
status are admittedly flexible, and this was “pre-Amazon” sales, but back in
the day, 3-5,000 was considered a small press bestseller, and Curing World Poverty sold over 5,000
copies without remaindering.)
Because this is
the silver anniversary of an important book, CESJ is planning on releasing a
special Commemorative Edition. Except
for the correction of any typos, updating the copyright and ISBN information, and
adding a short foreword, the Commemorative Edition will be identical to the
original.
Why reissue a
book that’s twenty-five years old? How
is it still relevant? Hasn’t the world
changed so much in the last quarter century that nothing in the book even
applies today?
Yes — and no.
Yes, many of the
specific situations have changed drastically.
The global economy is more unstable, poverty is more widespread,
technology is replacing more and more people at an accelerating pace, terrorism
is up, crime is up, academic standards and incomes are down. . . .
Yes, the world is
a much more frightening place than it was twenty-five years ago.
And, no. In essence, there is really nothing different
today than twenty-five years ago, or even twenty-five hundred years ago. People still have to make a living, and even
twenty-five hundred years ago or twenty-five thousand, that meant they need
capital instruments of some kind.
Human beings are toolmakers
and users, and they need tools in order to produce what they need or want to
consume. If you don’t own tools, then
you will be dependent on those who do own tools. That’s the same whether we are talking about
a sharp stick or a rock, or an automated factory. Those who do not own are at the mercy of
those who do own.
Unfortunately, as
technology has advanced and made it possible for everyone on Earth to lead a
decent and fulfilling life, access to that technology has become increasingly
difficult, even impossible. That is,
impossible if we assume as a given that the only way that some people can have
capital is by taking it away from others . . . and then we are not respecting the
dignity and thus the rights of everyone.
It is as unjust
to declare that the rich have no right to own what they have as it is to insist
that the poor have no right to own anything.
Either everyone’s rights must be respected, or no one’s rights can be
respected. Violating even one person’s
rights, even for the best reason in the world justifies violating another
person’s rights for a reason that is not quite as good, and finally for no
reason at all. It is not acceptable that
even one innocent person’s rights be violated even to save the whole world.
So, what is to be
done? That is the question answered in Curing World Poverty, and it’s been the
same question from the dawn of history.
We think,
however, that the approach taken in the book is something that a lot of people
simply have not thought about. Once they
do, they will see the wisdom of organizing to make every child, woman, and man
into a capital owner, and leave such things as welfare, Social Security, the
Universal Basic Income, and so on, to be used as necessary — and they are
essential in the current state of society — until key institutions such as money
and credit and the tax system can be restructured into more just arrangements.
That is why CESJ
is reissuing a twenty-five year-old book. The problems it addresses are
still with us. And if we don’t want to see
them still around in another twenty-five years, it might just be time to read
through Curing World Poverty, bring it to the attention of leaders at every
level, and get busy fixing the system instead of waiting for someone else or
the State to save the world.
They haven’t done
a very good job up to now. You can
surely do better.
#30#