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| Just provoking Putin's fans and felons |
As usual, we have a number of news items that wouldn’t even be news if world leaders would get busy and adopt the Economic Democracy Act, but then we’d have to think of something else to write about:
kRobert M. Hutchins
• The Education We Need. Recently we obtained a very rare first (and only) edition of The Education We Need, a speech given by Robert Maynard Hutchins in 1947 on the state of American education. It’s astonishing how little has changed over the past seventy-five years. Not surprisingly, many of the “paradoxes” Hutchins noted in American education could be dealt with by implementing the Economic Democracy Act, while the rest might be resolved by Justice University.
It's in Illinois, NOT Missouri, people
• When Workers Gamble on Ownership. It’s the sort of story that opponents of worker ownership like to spread around. Two former employees of the “Casino Queen” gambling joint in East St. Louis are suing over the allegedly inflated value at which the operation was sold to the workers. This, of course, will be used as yet more evidence that workers are too stupid to be owners, when the real story is that capitalists used a position of greater knowledge and inside information to hoodwink the workers. Is someone who believes a thief to be held responsible for his or her credulity, or is the thief to be held responsible for gulling others?
• Inflation in Argentina. With an extremely high rate of inflation, workers in Argentina have taken to the streets to demand higher wages and more benefits. As the late Walter Reuther, then head of the United Auto Works, noted back in 1967, paying workers more as fixed costs increases prices and adds to inflation. Cutting them in on ownership keeps costs down and increases disposable income. When are workers and other labor leaders going to get the message? What we need is the Economic Democracy Act to turn as many as possible of the people into owners so that everyone can have a productive and non-inflationary source of income.
• World Economic War. As has been obvious for some time, Russia’s war against Ukraine is really against the world, as President Putin’s rants and threats have more than clear. Other fronts are now being recognized, particularly the economic one, due to the disruption in sales of Russian fossil fuels and the economic havoc the sanctions are wreaking on the global economy. Of course, all this would stop if Putin would simply call a halt to his insane war that seems only to be putting more money into his own pocket, but what about the longer term? That too can be solved fairly simply if not easily by shifting away from fossil fuels and adopting the Economic Democracy Act on a global scale.
• The Price of Humanity. Common humanity and decency have a high price tag, especially these days when a dictator like Putin can start a war pretty much on a whim, kills thousands of people, and whine that he’s being oppressed. Be that as it may, Poland has taken in millions of Ukrainian refugees from Putin’s power (and money) grab, but the financial strain is starting to show. In the short run, all countries should implement a program of mutual aid, and not just for Poland. In the longer term, of course, what is needed is the Economic Democracy Act.
• Raise Costs to Lower Prices! Yes, you heard it right. The Inflation Reduction Act is based on the principle that you can lower inflation by increasing the costs of doing business . . . thereby forcing companies either to raise prices to the consumer or go out of business. The idea that something like the Economic Democracy Act might actually solve the problem at its root doesn’t occur to them.
• Russia and the Forex Market. In an effort to overcome the effect of the sanctions imposed by countries outraged at Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Russia has become the third largest purchaser of Chinese Yuan in the world. As usual for Putin and his cronies, they fail to see that getting away from other reserve currencies is not the problem. If they want to avoid the results of the sanctions, the best way is to stop the genocidal war they started and keep purusing long after it has become obvious that it is as pointless as it is criminal. Then, if Russia really wants to put its economy on a sound footing, it can adopt the Economic Democracy Act.
• Spanish Henge Fun? No, you read that right. For the fourth time in a century, water levels in the Iberian Peninsula have fallen so low that the “Spanish Stone Henge” is visible, and tourists and locals can have the fun of viewing the 7,000-year old structure. This is this week’s news item that has nothing to do with the Economic Democracy Act . . . or does it? . . .
• Bitcoin Bottoms Out. Not really, but the sudden drop in the so-called “value” of the Bitcoin crypto currency has shaken all the “investors” who thought they had something that was worth something instead of a “virtual commodity” with no actual value. The only real solution to this is the monetary and tax reform package in the Economic Democracy Act.
• Did the Stock Market Misinterpret the Federal Reserve? Or did one group of gamblers swindle another group of gamblers? Why should the central bank of the United States and the central gambling casino of the world have anything to say about the economy? One is only supposed to ensure a stable and uniform asset-backed reserve currency, while the other is a second hand shoppe for used debt and equity. Neither one should be involved in decisions about who is allowed to own or produce. It’s long past the time when we should adopt the Economic Democracy Act.
• Greater Reset “Book Trailers”. We have produced two ninety-second “Book Trailers” for distribution (by whoever wants to distribute them), essentially a minute and a half commercials for The Greater Reset. There are two versions of the videos, one for “general audiences” and the other for “Catholic audiences”. Take your pick.
• 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 24 different countries and 31 states, provinces, and territories in the United States and Canada to this blog over the past week. Most visitors are from the United States, Canada, India, Italy, and Brazil. The most popular postings this past week in descending order were “News from the Network, Vol. 15, No. 30,” “Did C.S. Lewis Approve of Socialism?” “Economic Independence,” “JTW Podcast: Robert Hutchins and John Dewy, Part I,” and “What to Do About Taiwan.”
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 and intemperate language on the part of some commentators, we removed temptation and disabled comments.
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