News from the Network, Vol. 14, No. 17

The various communications media keep touting “the recovery” and the fantastic “economic growth” . . . and at the same time insist on the need for raising the minimum wage, family assistance, Universal Basic Income, a Great Reset, Inclusive Capitalism, Democratic Socialism, and so on, because individuals and families just aren’t making it.  Why aren’t they calling for economic personalism so that everyone can participate in growth instead of trying to figure out more creative ways of redistributing what others produce?.

The Democratic Religion

 

In the previous posting on this subject, we closed by noting that the way the “new things” of modernism and socialism developed  was far more fantastic, even shocking than was depicted in Msgr. Robert Hugh Benson’s apocalyptic science fiction satire Lord of the World published in the early twentieth century.

A New Look at R. H. Benson’s “Lord of the World”

In the previous posting on this subject, we closed by asking the question how, if socialism and modernism (which doesn’t mean modernity) are so anti-human or contrary to human nature, how on Earth did they become so popular?  Let’s begin by taking a look at a novel from the beginning of the last century that a lot of people think they know something about, but usually don’t.

A Short Treatise on Sovereignty

As we noted in the previous posting on this subject, the political doctrine that all government revenue should come only from taxation is based on the fundamental principle of the sovereignty of the human person.  Whoever pays the costs of government controls government, unless politicians can figure out a way to hide the fact of who is really paying, as is the case when the government can create money.

JTW Podcast: Louis Kelso and Harold Channer Show (No. 3)

Last week we featured another interview of Louis Kelso  on the Harold Channer Show.  This week we have another Channer-Kelso interview, but add a twist: Abraham Henry “AH” Raskin of the New York Times:

News from the Network, Vol. 14, No. 16

The stock market, of course, is soaring, having “recovered” from the concern of President Biden’s tax proposals, and the economy is again in full recovery mode . . . whatever that means.  Evidently a rising stock market is considered a leading economic indicator, when properly speaking it isn’t an indicator of anything except the price of used debt and equity.  What is really needed in this country and the world is a focus on productive activity that everyone can engage in, not fake production of gambling and speculation.

Getting Real About Money

As we saw in the previous posting on this subject, turning control of money and credit to the State does not seem to have been a good idea — ever.  In the crudest sense, it separates the people who produce from the benefits of production, mainly consumption.  This undermines the first principle of economics as stated by Adam Smith in The Wealth of Nations: “Consumption is the sole end and purpose of all production.”

The Past Savings Paradox

In the previous posting on this subject, we looked at some of the discrepancies and contradictions in Keynesian economics.  Today we take a look at what may be the single biggest problem with the economics of the architect of the New Deal.

The Economic Crimes of David Ricardo

As we closed the previous posting on this subject, we noted that David Ricardo “corrected” Adam Smith by declaring that labor alone is productive and gives value to something.  Things are not to be valued for their utility to the consumer, but in terms of what it cost in labor to produce it.

JTW Podcast: Louis Kelso and Harold Channer Show (No. 2)

Last week we featured an interview of Louis Kelso  on the Harold Channger Show.  This week we have another Channer-Kelso interview:

News from the Network, Vol. 14, No. 15

More and more, it seems as if people and policymakers are avoiding coming to grips with what is really needed in today’s world: a way that will allow most people to lead productive and virtuous lives (however they might define virtue in their particular philosophical or religious framework) without having to depend on the rich or the State to provide for or secure their every need.  Why not a world in which everyone can be productive with capital, labor, or both?

From Need to Greed

In the previous posting on this subject, we noted that usury has become so embedded in our economic thinking that it’s accepted as normal.  Paradoxically, some proposals to abolish usury are themselves usurious, e.g., the government should simply issue the money it needs and abolish taxes.  It’s accepted as normal for a government to back its own currency with its own debt and constantly change the value.

On Usury

In the previous posting on this subject, we noted that it seems to be a part of human nature that people like to be useful and engage in productive activity.  The Great Reset and similar proposals, however, appear to be far more concerned with meeting people’s material needs by any means necessary, with no attention paid to whether or people become productive and useful.

On Utility

As we saw in the previous posting on this subject, it is not enough, even in materialist terms, just to see that people have enough to ensure their material wellbeing.  Human beings also want to be useful and productive.

JTW Podcast: Louis Kelso on the Harold Channer Show

Last week we featured an interview of Dr. Robert H.A. Ashford of the University of Syracuse School of Law on binary economics.  This week we have something even better: another interview from the Harold Channer Show, but this one is with the “Father of Binary Economics,” Louis O. Kelso:

News from the Network, Vol. 14, No. 14

Most of the world seems to be spinning its wheels trying to figure out how to turn the old abnormal into the new normal, when the pandemic has revealed the cracks in the system that prevent the new normal from being any better than the old abnormal. . . .

Property, Power and Production

In the previous posting on this subject, we looked briefly at the “Great Reset” and similar proposals and contrasted them with the demands of human dignity.  The basic idea seems to be that everyone should have “enough,” and that the system should be reorganized to provide it.  As far as many people today are concerned, the main problem is how to get what people need directly into the hands of the people who need it.

The Demands of Human Dignity

All things, as Aristotle said in the beginning of the Nichomachean Ethics, seek the good.  If someone seeks evil, it is because he either has the wrong idea of what is good, or is trying to avoid a greater evil.  The former is called a badly formed conscience and must be corrected through education and example.

Financing Future Growth

We closed the previous posting on this subject by noting that while expanded capital ownership can restore Say’s Law of Markets and poke Keynesian economics and its unresolved paradoxes in the eye with a sharp stick, there was a problem.  It is itself a seeming paradox — or at least ironic — that the people who most need to become capital owners are the least likely to be able to afford it.

JTW Podcast: Robert Ashford on Binary Economics

This week we have a talk on binary economics straight from the expert’s mouth.  Dr. Ashford is not only a professor of law at Syracuse University, he is the author (with Rodney Shakespeare) of Binary Economics: the New Paradigm:

News from the Network, Vol. 14, No. 13

What may be a quantum leap in implementing a demonstration in the Just Third Way of Economic Personalism has occurred in Missouri, and can pave the way to break out of the inherently unjust and financially irresponsible Keynesian wage and welfare system.  In contrast, the guaranteed income proposals being implemented as pilot programs across the country, such as the one in Oakland, California (below) ultimately end up being ways to try and make a failed system work:

The Principle of Binary Growth

As we saw in the previous posting on this subject, the basis of a just economy is for production and consumption to be in balance.  This necessarily implies that every consumer must be a producer, and that every producer must be a consumer.  Further, every consumer should produce what he or she consumes, and every producer should consume what he or she produces.