Who needs to do something useful as long as it's a job?
• More Jobs Created! The American economy is saved! Forget about producing things like food, clothing, and shelter. The U.S. economy “cranked out” jobs in December at a “brisk pace” and wages went up! What are the workers producing? Why, income to purchase the goods and services produced by machines! Why don’t the workers produce their own goods and services themselves, or — better yet — own the machines producing the goods and services so they can get on with the task of becoming virtuous, that is, more fully human? Why not? Because Lord Keynes said you must have a job to get income to purchase goods and services instead of doing it yourself, that’s why. Don’t be an idiot. Of course, the Economic Democracy Act would enable people to own the machines doing the productive work so they could be freed to do the work of civilization, but nobody seems to think of that.
• More Flat Tax-ulence. Ron DeSantis is the latest politician to “float” the idea of a flat tax that would eliminate the IRS . . . which would, of course, be replaced with the same thing under a different name, as there must be some agency to administer the tax system. Getting rid of the income tax as it now stands won’t, as many people seem to think, get rid of the pain of paying taxes or the degree of government intrusion into the economy and people’s daily lives. Unless something is done to address the underlying problems with the system — as would be the case with the Economic Democracy Act — a flat tax would soon be manipulated to implement all the social engineering that has screwed up the current tax system and is essential to the continuance of the Keynesian system and its quasi-Chartalism.
• What Happened? We had an article link all ready to write a news item about how Janet Yellen declared the U.S. economy is going great guns, and it must have been so wildly off that the news service took it down and we can’t find it again, the link leads to something else. Since we were going to opine about how wrong she was, it seems they beat us to it, so we’ll just say adopt the Economic Democracy Act.
• Lower the Rates . . . or Not. Almost as soon as “Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond President Thomas Barkin said the central bank can lower interest rates as the economy normalizes and confidence grows about the downward path of inflation,” the Dow took a plunge. Evidently, the speculators and gamblers aren’t yet through with playing around with uncertainty in the economy . . . not that they will ever be, so why don’t we just cut to the chase and adopt the Economic Democracy Act, which would allow the market to determine interest rates, and limit government’s role in the economy, and stabilize the situation naturally?
• Consumer Debt Soars. Perhaps explaining why the news item about Yellen announcing a great economy, Yellen announced that consumer debt soared to new heights during the buildup to Christmas . . . excuse us, the Holidays . . . oh, wait, that’s offensive, too. How about during the buildup to the Season? Anyway, fueling the alleged economic boom we’re presumably enjoying at the present time is the economic downturn we can expect when the bills come in. Of course, we could forestall this sort of thing at the source and adopt the Economic Democracy Act, but nobody seems to think about that.
• Greater Reset “Book Trailers”. We have produced two ninety-second “Book Trailers” for distribution (by whoever wants to distribute them), essentially 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.
• 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.
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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