An Unimportant Shift in Meaning

In the previous posting on this subject we looked at the fundamental assumption of socialism: that people have a right to what they need.  In the modern age this has largely displaced the traditional assumption that people have a right to the means to acquire what they need.

Just Third Way for Local Government

In this week’s podcast we bring you a special guest, Chris Dardzinski from Lincoln Park, Michigan, where he is an Economist, local politician, and Just Third Way activist. He talks about how to organize for change right where you live, including efforts to implement the concept of Capital Homesteading locally.

News from the Network, Vol. 12, No. 52

It’s time again for our annual news roundup, the first part of which we posted last week, and the second part today.  Again, there is such a volume of material that for once we decided to forgo illustrations:

How to Have Your Cake and Eat It

In case you haven’t noticed, there is something of a split in modern society.  On the one hand are those who believe that you only deserve what you work for, and if you don’t have something, it’s because you didn’t work for it.  You are lazy, shiftless, and worthless.

Merry Christmas!

If you're visiting this blog today . . . why?  As long as you stopped by, however, kick off your shoes, sit back, and have a glass of hot mulled cider or whatever you want.

“Good Upon ’Change”

This is the time of year when people give each other the Dickens in the numberless readings and dramatic adaptations of A Christmas Carol, that is, as well as all the parodies, spoofs, rip-offs, and cartoons.  A personal favorite among the later comes from the old New Yorker/Saturday Review of Literature cartoon series by the late Burr Shafer (1899-1965), “Through History With J. Wesley Smith,” known as “History’s Greatest Wrong-Guesser.”

An Oldie But a Goodie

A while back the talk was about Louis Kelso's "Second Income Plan."  The principles are the same as those of the Capital Homestead Act, and some people might wonder why we continued to develop the concept.  View these videos and judge for yourself.  We think we've come a long way, but you will see that decades ago Kelso was already centuries ahead of where we are now:

News from the Network, Vol. 12, No. 51

It’s time again for our annual news roundup, the first part of which we will post today, and the second part next week.  There is such a volume of material that for once we decided to forgo illustrations:

A Tale of Two Machines, I: The Cotton Gin

Many people are aware that advancing technology has an effect on society and individual behavior.  From the displacement of human labor from the production process to video game or social media addiction, technology often seems to benefit only a relatively small number of people at the expense of everyone else.

Guest Blog: Is Capitalism a Moral System?

A short time ago, someone “accused” CESJ of promoting capitalism as a moral system, linking us with Father Robert A. Sirico of the Acton Institute.  This was presumably due to the fact that both capitalists and adherents of the Just Third Way support the institution of private property . . . but that’s about as far as it goes, as today’s Guest Blogger, Dr. Norman G. Kurland, president of the Center for Economic and Social Justice (CESJ) explains in this slightly edited version of his response:

What They Should Have Read

It’s that time of year when various publications, online and off, come out with their lists of “best books of 2019,” some of which the people who said they read them might actually have done so.  A lot of the lists, however, sound more like books you leave on view so people will be impressed that you (presumably) read them than something they actually wanted to read.  And what better way to put hoi polloi in their places than to be asked for a list of books that you thought were the best?

The Challenge with Russell Williams

Yes, we know that today is Beethoven's Birthday, but we were unable to round up either Beethoven or Schroeder for an interview.  Instead, today we have a segment of the show, The Challenge, with your host, the Rev. Russell Williams, who presents the Just Third Way in a nutshell:

News from the Network, Vol. 12, No. 50

It’s a little unclear about the details, but the Integrity Marketing Group, LLC, an insurance company, has declared it has an “Employee Ownership Plan” that gives “meaningful ownership” to its 750 employees.  The ownership structure and definition of “meaningful ownership” were not given, nor how the workers participate in share ownership, dividends, voting, or anything else — or the reaction of existing owners/shareholders.  Since the program was not described as an “Employee STOCK Ownership Plan,” the “ownership” could be like that of the “Scott Bader Commonwealth” that is “owned” by people with no defined ownership stake, i.e., not actual ownership as that is understood in law.  In other news:

The Decline and Fall of Reason

For the last couple of postings, “More on Fulton Sheen” and “Fulton Sheen and the Idea of Ideas,” we’ve been looking into the bruhaha (ha, ha, ha!) over the announced delay in the “beatification” of the late Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen.

Fulton Sheen and the Idea of Ideas

Yesterday, in the previous posting on this subject, we looked at one of the most important things the late Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen addressed in his work: the fact that God created human beings, not humanity.  We also noted that most people would be completely baffled by this distinction, not able to see the difference between the actuality of a child, woman, and man created by God, and the ideas of children, women, and men created by human beings.

More On Fulton Sheen

Yesterday was the fortieth anniversary of the death of Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen.  As some of our readers might be aware, Sheen (whom the Catholic Church considers “Venerable,” or two steps away from canonization or official recognition as a saint, as people in Heaven are called) was scheduled for “beatification” later this month.  As a “beatus” or “blessed,” Sheen would have been one stop away from official recognition as a saint.

JTW Vlogcast: Dave Hamill at the Lincoln Memorial

We're so used to hearing the voice of Dave Hamill, host of the Just Third Way podcast, that we might forget he's a real person and not just a disembodied Spirit of Change coming over the internet.  In today's podcast we decided to give everyone a treat and let them see Dave's smiling face as he gives a talk in 2013 in front of the Lincoln Memorial:

News from the Network, Vol. 12, No. 49

We just got a notice from a religious watchdog group that we usually ignore as it tends to go as far in favor of religion as anti-religious counterparts do against it.  This time, however, they might have had a point: a push by certain anti-religious groups during the Christmas Season to convince people that freedom of religion is the single greatest threat to freedom that exists seems to be a little over the top.

College Versus Childcare

A think tank that shall remain nameless recently presented a study, the point of which was that free childcare is more important than free college.  At first glance this seems like heresy.  For around half a century at least, the constant mantra in the United States was to study hard, get into a good college and you’ll get a good job.  That is, assuming that there are any jobs to get, but that’s another issue. . . .

Capital Homesteading and Social Security

It’s amazing the stories people will tell when they have no idea what they are talking about.  For example, for years we’ve been hearing that the goal of the Just Third Way is to abolish wages (which are presumably absolutely secure) and force all workers to live on profit sharing alone.

Are the Computers Taking Over?

According to Ray Kurzweil and generations of science fiction writers, the human race is in a great deal of trouble.  In books and films he has warned of a coming “technological singularity.”  That is a hypothetical future point in time when technological growth becomes uncontrollable and irreversible, resulting in incomprehensible changes to civilization.

JTW Vlogcast: Why We Need Justice University (and Capital Homesteading)

According to Dr. Noriko H. Arai, in most countries today (although she was focusing primarily on Japan), students memorize vast amounts of data — which any computer can do better, e.g., “Watson” on the “Jeopardy Challenge” — but often fail to understand meaning, that is, they do not really comprehend what they “learn” in any meaningful sense.