From Need to Greed: The Labor Theory of Value

       As we saw in the previous posting on this subject, the past savings assumption of today’s mainstream schools of economics and the Great Reset makes it virtually impossible for most people to be productive by owning capital.  As a rule, the past savings assumption limits access to money and credit to those who are already wealthy.

The Obtuseness of Father Brownians

In addition to writing epic poems about Lepanto (the 450^th anniversary of which is coming up next week on October 7, read all about it in this book), G.K. Chesterton wrote a series of short stories about “Father Brown” (no first name), a “priest detective,” who appears to have been the first in a more or less illustrious line of amateur clerical sleuths.

The Great Collateralization Conspiracy

      How was it that the rich were able to use the Financial Revolution top such great benefit while the rest of humanity was left behind in the dust?  By “Financial Revolution” we mean the shift in financing of new capital formation from past savings accumulated by reducing consumption, to future savings accessed by increasing production in the future.  This was made possible by the reinvention of commercial or mercantile banking in the fourteenth century, and the invention of central banking in the seventeenth century.

JTW Podcast: No Humans Need Apply

Today’s podcast is a video that asks the question that Louis Kelso answers with universal capital ownership: If robots are doing all the work, how are ordinary p[people supposed to produce something to be able to consume?  As Kelso said, “If the Machine Wants Our Jobs, Let’s Buy It” . . .

News from the Network, Vol. 14, No. 38

It’s astonishing just how many problems could easily be solved by enacting the Economic Democracy Act.  This week’s news items are definitely a case in point:

Future Savings Money

      As we saw in the previous posting on this subject, “usury” is not all profit or interest, but profit (or interest) taken when no profit (or interest) is due).  It is justified by the presumed need to accumulate savings before financing new capital formation.

A Certain Personality

      Last week — or maybe it was really early this week (when something comes in on the weekend it’s sometimes hard to tell whether it’s late Saturday or early Sunday, especially when you don’t bother to look) — we got a question from a faithful reader of this blog regarding our position on persons, particularly that part of it that defines “person” as “that which has rights.”  As Faithful Reader said,

Investment v. Speculation

In the previous posting on this subject, we pointed out a few foibles of socialism, noting especially the idea that the only legitimate way to have an income is a wage system job, which over the past century or so has been gradually displaced by the idea that people should just get an income whether or not they have jobs.

JTW Podcast: Importance of Power

      We don’t necessarily agree with everything (or at all on some points) that the speaker and his guest say, but he raises some interesting points that you might want to be thinking about.  And if you don't like this one (who does not necessarily reflect the views of this station), suggest one and send us a link; contact info on the CESJ website, http:www.cesj.org:

News from the Network, Vol. 14, No. 37

Some interesting situations this week (and every week) that could easily be resolved by enacting the Economic Democracy Act.  This should be increasingly obvious to everyone as the situations develop:

Those Whacky Socialists

      In the previous posting on this subject, we looked at the subject of usury, or (in Aristotelian philosophy) taking a profit where no profit is due.  Considering all profit or interest as “usury” is called “a hasty generalization” in logic, as doing so would violate private property.

Reply to a Relativist, Part II

      As we saw in yesterday’s posting, some people think that taxing an estate or gift is unjust by its very nature.  Others — as we found out from some vocal readers of this blog — insist that an income tax is inherently unjust, and yet others declare that all taxation is unjust.  Of course, it’s not exactly clear from the, er, thoughtful remarks we received where government is supposed to get its funding or whether we’re supposed to have government at all.  After all, if government funds itself we get a tyranny, if there is no government we get chaos.

Reply to a Relativist, Part I

The other day we got into a discussion with someone insisting that taxing gifts and inheritance is illegal, immoral, and fattening . . . or maybe just unjust.  It doesn’t really matter; this individual just kept insisting that you cannot be for justice and at the same time tax inheritance.  In addition, a few comments were made claiming that “person” doesn’t mean “that which has rights,” a somewhat problematical claim for an attorney.

JTW Podcast: Productiveness

“Human capital” is an interesting term.  The “Investopedia” website defines it as “a loose term that refers to the educational attainment, knowledge, experience, and skills of an employee.  The theory of human capital is relatively new in finance and economics. It states that companies have an incentive to seek productive human capital and to add to the human capital of their existing employees. Put another way, human capital is the concept that recognizes labor capital is not homogeneous.”

News from the Network, Vol. 14, No. 36

At the present time most people seem to be focused (at least in the economic realm) on income, rather than power.  Maybe in difficult times that’s what people tend to do, but in the end it does boil down to whether you own, or are owned.  That is why we support the Economic Democracy Act as the best alternative of which are aware to things like this:

But Is It Usury?

 

In the previous posting on this subject, we noted that the difference between interest per se and usury is that interest is a legitimate sharing of profits on some equitable basis, while usury consists of taking a profit where no profit is due.  Complicating understanding of this difference is the confusion between past savings and future savings, and the different types of money derived from each of them.

Is Interest Evil?

As we saw in the previous posting on this subject, the type of money determines its proper use.  Money that is created by reducing consumption in the past should be used for consumption in the present or the future, not to increase production.

Say’s Law and Money

In the previous posting on this subject we took a look at a fundamental error in Keynesian economics, in all of the schools of economics based on the Currency Principle, in fact.  That is the claim that production must exist before production can exist — the logical fallacy of reversing cause and effect, specifically, that you must refrain from consuming something before you can produce it.

Happy Capital Ownership Day!

 Yes, we know that most people are celebrating Labor Day today, but we think it's more important at this stage to start pushing for capital ownership.  After a;;, people produce with both capital and labor, so both should be acknowledged and encouraged

News from the Network, Vol. 14, No. 35

While the weather (at least in Northern Virginia) has taken a turn for the better, the same cannot be said about the world situation.  In our opinion, that is not going to improve other than temporarily until and unless the Economic Democracy Act is passed:

The First Principle of Economics

As we saw in the previous posting on this subject, there are short term expedients that if implemented as permanent solutions impose a condition of dependency — slavery — on the great mass of people.  This is not to say that such things as stimulus payments, redistribution, job creation, full employment, and so on, are not essential at times, but they are not the solutions that so many people seem to think.

Mandating Virtue

As we saw in the previous posting on this subject, the principal way in which people today can be fully productive members of society (and the economy) is to own capital as well as labor.  Of course, that only matters if you view all people as fully human instead of lesser beings or things to be taken care of.