Attention, all Savoyards and admirers of the Bard of Avon. Be careful how you quote or even if you quote. The degree of cultural illiteracy in the world is rising faster than the mercury in Death Valley at noon in summer. You also might want to be wary of reading books like Huckleberry Finn, Brideshead Revisited, Tarzan of the Apes, Gone With the Wind, or anything that mentions You-Know-Who or You-Know-What, so whatever you say, say nothing:
"Read Or Die"? No need to go that far, but. . . .
• CESJ’s Bookstore. Have you visited the CESJ Bookstore yet? There is a good pre-selection of books, and a rebate for CESJ members (you have to be an official member, not just with us in spirit) that applies to verified purchases for verified members . . . once we verify it. And you have to request it; it’s not automatic, sorry (blame state tax laws for making it complicated; we do NOT make retail sales, you HAVE to go to the bookstore, not us directly, although we do have certain titles available for bulk discounts if you buy direct from us.) We should mention that some of the books are also available as free download in electronic format, if you feel you can’t afford the cash right now. If you do buy some books, however, be sure to take advantage of the Amazon “Smile” program, below. It won’t cost you any more, but it will benefit CESJ.
• Monetary Priorities. Evidently it is much easier to issue trillions of dollars purely for consumption, but not one cent to make it possible for people to purchase capital, repay the loan out of future profits, then generate their own income so they no longer need a handout. Of course, making it possible for people to have an independent income also means they won’t be dependent on government to live, and won’t vote the right way. Maybe we need a new slogan to inspire people: “Trillions for investment, not one cent for bribery!” Of course, we realize that as things now stand, public assistance is essential if people are to survive, but it’s not a solution. It’s an expedient to keep us going on the way to a solution. No one can keep going forever consuming without producing.
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| Debt you can't repay, or taxes you can't collect? |
• Hobson’s Finance. President Biden’s tax proposals, succinctly stated as “soak the rich” (which will actually soak lower income people whose income and wealth is quantified in dollars, not merely measured in terms of dollars as most of the wealth of the rich is, meaning the poor and middle class who will pay the bill for the rich through price increases), presents an interesting dilemma. It's sort of a Hobson's choice (almost). Should government fund its programs by issuing new debt it can’t repay, or by levying new taxes that can’t be collected? It’s actually a question of whether you want an economic meltdown now or later. If you manage to tax people out of existence, the economy goes belly up sooner than if you issue massive quantities of debt that you can’t collect taxes to repay. Of course, you could always make it possible for people to own capital that pays for itself without a government subsidy or redistribution so the economy runs without government issuing debt, but that would mean that the politicians wouldn’t control the economy that they’re already losing control of. The only real mystery is why the politicians won’t stop cutting their own throats and ours and pass the Economic Democracy Act.
Not really to the point, but it shore looks purty.
• Colorado Bill Encourages Worker Ownership. According to the National Center for Employee Ownership (NCEO), the state of Colorado is offering tax credits to companies adopting some form of worker ownership. We disagree that something should be available only to workers and think the tax system should not be used for “social engineering,” but it’s at least a nod in the right direction. As the NCEO reports, “On June 23, Governor Polis signed into law H.B. 21-1311, a bill that makes sweeping changes to Colorado tax law, notably a provision to provide $10 million annually in tax credits over the next six years to fund the professional service costs of conversions to employee ownership. The funds could be used to convert to an ESOP, an employee ownership trust, or a worker cooperative. ESOPs can qualify for a credit equal to 50% of the conversion costs up to $50,000; cooperative and employee ownership trusts can get up to $25,000.”
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| "That's the most ridiculous I've ever hoid." |
• UK EO Day. The NCEO also reported that the United Kingdom worker ownership organization just celebrated Employee Ownership Day on June 25. The U.S. celebrates Labor Day every September. When are we going to have a Universal Ownership Day?
• Cultural Illiteracy. Not too long ago we were censured by a popular social media platform for quoting a line from Shakespeare. It was deemed inciting violence. Uh, huh. It was the line from Henry VI, Part II, Act 4, Scene 2 . . . you probably know it; items with the quote are the largest selling items in the Folger Shakespeare Library gift shop(pe). Even more pathetic, we learned from a Faithful Reader that he had almost been expelled from high school for doing a parody of the Lord High Executioner’s patter song from the G&S comic opera The Mikado, or, The Town of Titpu. It turns out that the principal was only vaguely aware of Gilbert and Sullivan, and had never heard of the Mikado, much less the humorous list of people Koko wanted on his “little list” of people to be executed if enough criminals weren’t available.
• Hortense and Her Whos. In case you’ve been wondering how you might advance the Just Third Way by introducing it to legislators at any and all levels of government, we’ve made it easy for you, with the “Hortense Hears Three Whos” initiative. Visit the explanatory website, and consider downloading the postcard to send to people in government. Don’t worry if you think they won’t be open to it, as the postcard is intended to get them to open their eyes.
• Economic Personalism Landing Page. A landing page for CESJ’s latest publication, Economic Personalism: Property, Power and Justice for Every Person, has been created and can be accessed by clicking on this link. Everyone is encouraged to visit the page and send the link out to their networks.
• Economic Personalism. When you purchase a copy of Economic Personalism: Property, Power and Justice for Every Person, be sure you post a review after you’ve read it. It is available on both Amazon and Barnes and Noble at the cover price of $10 per copy. You can also download the free copy in .pdf available from the CESJ website. If you’d like to order in bulk (i.e., ten or more copies) at the wholesale price, send an email to publications@cesj.org for details. CESJ members get a $2 rebate per copy on submission of proof of purchase. Wholesale case lots of 52 copies are available at $350, plus shipping (whole case lots ONLY). Prices are in U.S. dollars.
• Sensus Fidelium Videos, Update. CESJ’s series of videos for Sensus Fidelium are doing very well, with nearly 150,000 views in total. The latest Sensus Fidelium video is “The Political Animal.” The video is part of the series on the book, Economic Personalism. The latest completed series on “the Great Reset” can be found on the “Playlist” for the series. The previous series of sixteen videos on socialism is available by clicking on the link: “Socialism, Modernism, and the New Age,” along with some book reviews and other selected topics. For “interfaith” presentations to a Catholic audience they’ve proved to be popular, edging up to 150,000 views to date. They aren’t really “Just Third Way videos,” but they do incorporate a Just Third Way perspective. You can access the playlist for the entire series The point of the videos is to explain how socialism and socialist assumptions got such a stranglehold on the understanding of the role of the State and thus the interpretation of Catholic social teaching, and even the way non-Catholics and even non-Christians understand the roles of Church, State, and Family, and the human person’s place in society.
• 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 26 different countries and 30 states and provinces in the United States and Canada to this blog over the past week. Most visitors are from the United States, Kenya, Nigeria, Canada, and the United Kingdom. The most popular postings this past week in descending order were “JTW Podcast: Mortimer Adler Tells It like It Is,” “The Godly v. the Ungodly,” “News from the Network, Vol. 14, No. 25,” “Ronald Knox v. the Godly” and “The Purpose of Production.”
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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