A number of recent events
underscore the importance of implementing Just Third Way reforms as soon as
possible in order to head off what could be some disastrous events and to
resolve a number of existing situations that appear to be without viable
solutions. Still, there are a number of
initiatives working to move forward that give a little hope that what seem to
be insurmountable problems can be dealt with in an effective and just manner:
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| William Greider |
• William Greider. It is with regret that CESJ learned of the
recent death of economic writer and journalist William Greider (1936-2019), who
included information on what we today call the Just Third Way in his
bestselling book, Secrets of the Temple: How the Federal Reserve Runs the
Country (1988). Our understanding of
commercial and central banking has greatly expanded since Greider published his
book, but his identification of the key role the Federal Reserve plays in today’s
confused and confusing financial system and challenge to mainstream political
and economic thought remain valuable, if only to focus attention on the
desperate need for reform. We do not
have to agree with the prescription to acknowledge that a disease exists.
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| William Thomas Thornton |
• Irish Brexit Effect. The stated
reasons for Great Britain to leave the European Union were concerns over
sovereignty, immigration, and the ever-popular “the economy.” Of course, there was none of these concerns
that could not be dealt with by implementing Just Third Way reforms — and still
could be — but as matters now stand, the question is what happens now, and
nowhere does that appear of more immediate concern than in the Republic of
Ireland, which is the only country in the EU that shares a border with the
United Kingdom. Great Britain is Éire’s
largest customer for agricultural products, and losing even a small share of
that market bodes ill to hit the already troubled Irish agricultural sector
very hard. Ironically, Ireland’s own
problems could in large measure be remedied by implementing Just Third Way
reforms. Even more ironically something
similar was advocated in 1848 by William Thomas Thornton (1813-1880) in his book A
Plea for Peasant Proprietors to remedy both the disaster of An Gorta
Mór (“The Great Hunger”) and centuries of British misrule of the island, and
revised in 1878 to counter the Fenian threat, but when finally partially
implemented was too little too late.
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| Edmund Burke |
• Mitt Romney Vote.
Republican Mitt Romney, the only Republican to vote against President
Trump, may be facing censure from his party and his constituency. Those in favor of such a move, however, may
want to reconsider their position.
Whether or not you agree with Romney, one of the hallmarks of a free
society is that people can express and act on their beliefs without fear of reprisal. As the English writer Evelyn Beatrice Hall characterized
Voltaire’s attitude toward someone with whom he disagreed in The Friends of
Voltaire (1906), “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the
death your right to say it.” It is even
more important that a legislator be able to act in accordance with his convictions. As the Anglo-Irish statesman Edmund Burke declared
in a speech to the Electors of Bristol on November 3, 1774, “Your
representative owes you, not his industry only, but his judgment; and he betrays,
instead of serving you, if he sacrifices it to your opinion.” Censure Romney by all means . . . if you don’t
mind teaching our leaders that it is much better and safer to do what they think
is popular than what they believe is right.
Adolf Hitler was very popular, but that didn’t make him right.
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| Deval Patrick |
• State and Local Ownership Initiatives. According to the
National Center for Employee Ownership, the Center for American Progress, a
progressive think tank, issued a report on January 20 of this year recommending
that worker ownership initiatives be promoted at the state and local
level. While it is not entirely clear
that the report is clear of what “ownership” and “private property” consist, at
least it puts expanded ownership (even if only limited to workers) on the
table. That at least gives legitimacy to
demands that a program like Capital Homesteading,
that would encourage everyone to become a capital owner, also be given serious
consideration.
• Democratic Candidate Supports Worker Ownership. Also according
to the NCEO, Deval Patrick, former governor of Massachusetts and the latest
contestant in the multi-sided duel for the Democratic presidential nomination,
is in favor of achieving “Significant Employee Ownership and Wealth Creation by
2050.” Patrick stipulates that such
ownership must come “with True Leadership, Governance, and Control.” We would suggest that if Patrick is serious,
he should consider Capital Homesteading, which would not limit expanded
ownership initiatives solely to people employed by private sector corporations.
• 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 31 different
countries and 42 states and provinces in the United States and Canada to this
blog over the past week. Most visitors are from the United States, the United
Kingdom, Spain, Canada, and India. The
most popular postings this past week in descending order were “The
Frontier Thesis,” “Social
Justice IV: The Characteristics of Social Justice,” “News
from the Network, Vol. 13, No. 5,” “The Facts
of Life,” and ““Part
I: Is the Just Third Way Communist?”
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.” Due to imprudent
language on the part of some commentators, we removed temptation and disabled
comments.
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