Do you want to give us something more positive to report than the same sort of thing we go with week after week? Then adopt the Economic Democracy Act. You’ll be amazed at how good things can be when people have access to the opportunity and means to do as they should instead of being forced to go along with things like this:
3 . . . 5, what's the difference?
• The Three Horsemen of the Apocalypse? If we are to believe opponents (and proponents) of the Great Reset promoted by Klaus Schwab and the World Economic Forum, the three signs of the end of the world are with us: War, Famine and “Davos Man.” Davos, of course, is the site of the World Economic Forum, participants in which are threatening disaster unless the WEF can implement the Great Reset . . . and opponents of which are threatening disaster if it is implemented. No one seems to be addressing a way of fixing the immense problems faced by the world today except by doing what is against fundamental human nature (the Great Reset), or by staying with the failed systems of the past, whatever you want to call them; their name is Legion No one is even considering the Economic Democracy Act, by means of which a number of problems would solve themselves — and do it by allowing everyone to participate in the creation of wealth instead redistributing what already belongs to others.
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| Not quite the way it works. |
• Why Does a Country Need to “Attract Investment”? We suppose there are a number of good reasons — more or less — why a country would adopt English as a language for business (although what’s the matter with Latin? Did you know that almost all our financial terms are Latin in origin? Capital comes from caput, the head of a cow, cattle being the most widespread form of wealth in the ancient world; pecuniary comes from pecus, an archaic Latin word for cattle; debit = debere; credit = creditare; money = monetas; and so on’ even auditor is taken direct from Latin, the listener, audire, to hear), as Ukraine is considering, but “attracting investment” is not a valid one. In fact, “attracting investment” is one of the dumbest reasons for doing anything, if by “investment” we mean “financing.” Acquiring productive technology is quite another matter, but even there, if a country can’t put it into production and pay for it within a reasonable period of time, it should not do so, any more than a single individual or a company invest in something that doesn’t pay for itself out of its own future profits. As described in the Economic Democracy Act, anything that is financially feasible can be self-financing within a country, and foreign investment — in the sense of financial capital is completely unnecessary, even a danger to a country’s sovereignty, and that’s something Ukraine doesn’t need right now. Or ever.
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| King Pyrrhus of Epirus, losing by winning. |
• When War Fatigue Hits. Apparently, this is the Age of Fatigue. The world is suffering from work fatigue, food fatigue, entertainment fatigue, you name it. Now the world faces the specter of “war fatigue,” and the danger that the non-Russian-aligned countries will get tired of the slaughter, cut off military aid, fold up their tents, and go away, leaving Ukraine to its fate. Putin, in fact, may be counting on just that, as fewer and fewer people are taking seriously his threats of total annihilation of anyone or anything that opposes his imperial will. Of course, few people were taking Hitler seriously even after Germany stomped into the Sudetenland and were hoping for world peace if Der Führer was allowed to take what he wanted. The issue becomes what to do about “war fatigue” — and it’s not to give Putin what he wants so he’s not “humiliated” or to let the string of Russian Pyrrhic victories continue, since Putin is willing to let thousands, if not millions die to gain his ends . . .whatever they are at the moment. (Okay, it was King Pyrrhus of Epirus after “winning” the Battles of Heraclea and Asculum against the Romans in 280 B.C. in which he lost a third of his army, including most of his elite troops and his officer corps (sound familiar?) is reported to have said, “If we are victorious in one more battle with the Romans, we shall be utterly ruined.”) Admittedly, a spectacular victory and headlong retreat of Putin’s army might do the trick, but even better would be the Economic Democracy Act. Having a plan in place to finance the rebuilding of Ukraine without having to go to the well of international funds (which is running dry, anyway), would do more to rouse people and inspire them to provide Ukraine with what it needs to win the war quickly and get back to building a better country and world if others follow suit and adopt the EDA — even Russia. Russia? Yes. If people are so worried about “humiliating” Putin, don’t be. Just offer the Russian people a better alternative than what they’ve had even under Putin at his best, and the only humiliation anyone need worry about is Putin’s disgrace for being called to book for war crimes and crimes against humanity. And that of the people outside Russia who supported Putin in his goal of world conquest.
• Pay Gap Increases. One of the perils of being locked into the wage system is that when the vast majority of workers own no capital, they are powerless against those who own or — increasingly these days — control property. As Benjamin Watkins Leigh noted more than two centuries ago, power and property cannot be separated for long. When push comes to shove, either owners (or those who control the owners) will take over power, or those in power will take over property. We should therefore not be surprised when workers, who have neither power nor property except what those with power and property choose to give them are finding that the pay gap between propertyless workers and CEOs who control property is increasing exponentially. Is the answer to limit the size of the gap by law? Hardly . . . legislators want to get those cushy jobs in the private sector when they’re out of politics. The real answer is to empower all citizens, not just workers, with ownership of capital, and for that we need the Economic Democracy Act.
• They’ve Only Just Begun . . . It’s interesting to see how Putin’s word games play out in different arenas. For example, it’s not a war, it’s a “special military operation.” Tens of thousands of Russian troops are not dead, they’re “missing.” It’s not imposing Putin’s iron-fisted and jackbooted control, it’s “denazification” and “demilitarization.” It’s not the Third Reich, it’s the “Russky Mir.” And so on. The latest of Putin’s “re-editing” of the dictionary is insisting that they’re not defaulting on their sovereign debt, and that everything is just peachy-keeno. Well, it would be if Russia caught on to Putin, got rid of him, and adopted the Economic Democracy Act.
• Putin’s Blood Money. Putin has ordered that the families of Russian National Guardsmen killed in Ukraine be paid 5 million Rubles, or about US $81,500 . . . which raises some interesting prospects. Does the money go to the families of the men who were killed, or just to the families of those who are officially acknowledged as killed? What if someone is listed as “missing,” which is the standard euphemism for “killed, but we’re hiding the body”? Why only National Guardsmen? When some people get money and others don’t, do complainers go to prison or are they fined? If everybody gets money and people start realizing just how many have died, what happens to those asking questions? As for the mere money, if Ukrainian figures are accurate, and Russians killed in action amount to around 32,000 as of today, the price tag will be around US 2.6 billion. What about other casualties, which are usually between two to four times the number of killed in action? Do they get half the amount for managing to survive? Tack on another potential US 5.2 billion. This could get expensive.
• Boris Johnson and the Economy. You can like what a fellow is doing in one area without liking him or the other things he does. We can, for example, admire Hitler and Putin for being kind to dogs, while despising both of them as sociopathic tyrants. Boris Johnson, of course, is not in their class, and we can admire his stand on Ukraine, while at the same time thinking he’s dead wrong on a number of things — such as his belief that any economic instability from the war in Ukraine will abate over time. No, Mr. Johnson, it’s going to get worse, much worse, until the world goes with the Economic Democracy Act and weans itself off of fossil fuels.
• The Greater Reset. CESJ’s new book by members of CESJ’s core group, The Greater Reset: Reclaiming Personal Sovereignty Under Natural Law is, of course, available from the publisher, TAN Books, an imprint of Saint Benedict Press, and has already gotten a top review on that website. It can also be obtained from Barnes and Noble, as well as Amazon, or by special order from your local “bricks and mortar” bookstore. The Greater Reset is the only book of which we’re aware on “the Great Reset” that presents an alternative instead of simply warning of the dangers inherent in a proposal that is contrary to natural law. It describes reality, rather than a Keynesian fantasy world. Please note that The Greater Reset is NOT a CESJ publication as such, and enquiries about quantity discounts and wholesale orders for resale must be sent to the publisher, Saint Benedict Press, NOT to CESJ.
• Help Joe Walk Again for Economic Justice. Just a reminder, if you haven’t already done so, to visit the GoFundMe campaign and consider making a contribution and spreading word out among your social media networks. It’s off to a good start, but it’s still just a start.
• 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 over 155,000 total views. The latest Sensus Fidelium video is “The Five Levers of Change.” 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 persons 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 28 different countries and 28 states, provinces, and territories in the United States and Canada to this blog over the past week. Most visitors are from the United States, Philippines, Ireland, India, and the United Kingdom. The most popular postings this past week in descending order were “JTW Podcast: The Catholic Conversation on The Greater Reset,” “Social Justice, IV: The Characteristics of Social Justice,” “News from the Network, Vol. 15, No. 20,” “Is Putin an Anomaly?” and “Sticking to Your Guns: Rights and Wrongs.”
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 well 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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