This week’s news items seem oddly similar to previous weeks . . . which maybe isn’t so strange given the rising level of chaos everywhere. As you might expect (and as we hint in some of the items) we believe much of this is due to the almost total disempowerment of ordinary people throughout the world — and (as Daniel Webster said over two centuries ago), “Power naturally and necessarily follows property.” That being the case, the obvious solution to the world’s ills is to adopt the Economic Democracy Act as soon as possible:
Walter Reuther
• AI Redundancy. There is a story told of when the late Walter Reuther, then-president of the UAW, toured a recently automated Ford plant and the executive showing him around said, “You’ll have a hard time collecting union dues from those robots.” Reuther immediately replied, “You’ll have an even harder time selling them automobiles.” Block, Inc. (the diversified financial technology company) CEO Jack Dorsey doesn’t seem to have caught on to Reuther’s insight — that it doesn’t matter how great a product is or how much of it you produce if you can’t sell it, and that means you need customers with money. He made the decision to lay off 40% of his workforce at Block (and other firms are following suit), evidently not worried about what could happen if every other company did the same thing without having some means whereby the displaced workers could earn income in the future. As reported in Fortune magazine, Dorsey’s action appears to be the ultimate in short-term thinking thinly disguised as forward looking: “When they questioned how many humans would need to stay on board if the company was built today with the latest AI tools, Dorsey said, he and fellow leaders at the $41 billion fintech company landed on a headcount reduction of 40% as the magic number going forward. More than 4,000 of Block’s 10,000 employees would be affected. Cutting two in five employees is a big transition for any business — so Dorsey said they even left some headcount buffer in case they made “mistakes” in their calculations. “Which we did,” Dorsey admitted. But ultimately, the chief executive believes operating will be much easier, and he is more confident progressing as a business enabled by AI. . . . He also believes that it’s more responsible to cut staffers loose now rather than prolong the inevitable; and it’s a shared vision of AI-driven job displacement that has left many workers hand-wringing over the fate of their jobs.” The solution is simple once you know the answer, but not easy when confronted with such backward-looking planning as Dorsey’s: adopt the Economic Democracy Act (EDA). As Louis Kelso noted more than half a century ago, “If the machine wants our job, let’s buy [the machine].”
• The Job AI Can Keep. What is happening in Ukraine is starting to sound quite a bit like Terminator 3: The Rise of the Machines (2003). As reported in CNN, the Armed Forces of Ukrainian are engaging in military operations without directly risking a single human (Ukrainian) life — and the Russians are definitely getting the short end of the stick. As noted in the article, “The scene is as old as warfare itself. Two soldiers, hands in the air, surrendering and carefully following the orders barked at them by the other side. Except in this case, there were no human captors in sight. Instead, the two Russians were submitting to Ukrainian land robots and drones controlled by a pilot from the safety of a position miles away from the front line. This is the future of warfare – and it’s happening now. ‘The position was taken without a single shot being fired,’ Mykola ‘Makar’ Zinkevych, the commander of the Ukrainian unit that conducted the mission, told CNN.’” That describes what is close to the “perfect” military situation in which you get the enemy (or opponent) to do what you want without fighting. Of course, that assumes the opponent knows it and doesn’t him- or herself consider war as an extension of politics instead of its failure. To remove at least some of the causes of war, however, it is not enough just to be militarily stronger or extremely persuasive. It’s to adopt the Economic Democracy Act (EDA) so that people everywhere can become productive and live the way they want without having to take anything from anyone else.
• The Great Hotdog Hoodwink. Back in 2011 (Tuesday, August 30, to be exact), we did a posting, “Mythbusters II: The Great Hotdog Hoodwink.” It was all about how prices were going up and amounts purchased were getting less. As we said, “We picked up a package of the kielbasa to put it in the cart, and noticed that it felt ‘funny.’ Looking closer, we discovered that the formerly 3 pound package for $4.99 was now a 2-1/2 pound package for $5.99. We decided to look at the hotdogs. The 99¢ pound package was now a $1.25 12-ounce package.” Now for another round of “Hotdog Hoodwinking” as reported recently in USA Today, “Your grocery bill keeps getting bigger, but you may not have noticed that simultaneously, some food packages are getting smaller. A new analysis by InvestorsObserver tracked the prices and package sizes of America’s most popular grocery brands from 2020 to 2026. The financial technology company found that the average family of four is now spending $741 more a year than in 2020 for the exact same groceries, and $41 of that increase is attributable to package-size decreases. It’s called shrinkflation – when brands don’t just raise prices but put less product in the same package and hope consumers won’t notice.” In other words, instead of things getting better, things seem to keep getting worse — and (as you might expect) we blame bad ideas about how the economy really works and what money is. We believe the only practicable way to correct this situation and make the world work for 100% of the people all the time (to paraphrase R. Buckminster Fuller) is to adopt the Economic Democracy Act (EDA) as soon as possible.
• Why Not Power to PEOPLE? Finally, a chance to use a pun in a good cause. It seems that the ongoing and increasingly bad energy crisis, global warming, and political manipulation of energy — especially the fossil fuels — has (again) reached epic proportions. In an increasing number of cases in the United States, local initiatives are being taken over or depth charged by political entities higher in the pecking order . . . and further from the people being affected. As reported in an article in Politico, “Climate change and the energy transition are driving a wave of state laws overriding local governments. No matter which party governs a state, city and county governments are increasingly finding themselves overpowered by statewide interests that cite economic development as justification for top-down control. Republican-controlled states have been the most energetic in preempting local energy and environmental policies. Almost every GOP-governed state has banned local governments from restricting natural gas in buildings. Others have blocked outdoor heat protections for workers and even climate goals themselves. Democratic-controlled states have become increasingly comfortable with the practice, too, overruling local control over wind and solar energy projects as well as restrictions that slow housing development.” Frankly, especially in politics, money talks (and you know what walks). That is why adopting the Economic Democracy Act (EDA) would allow the people as close as possible to the problem to do something about it, whether that is local micro energy systems or something else.
• Reuther Was Right. It’s a pretty big deal: as the global economy becomes increasingly competitive in competition with government and AI continues to make inroads on human jobs, employers are cutting once-common benefits, such as PTO — “Paid Time Off.” As reported by Business Insider, “In the latest sign of employers flexing their power, at least two high-profile names are shrinking variations of the highly popular benefit. Zoom this year reduced the number of weeks of paid parental leave it offers, while Deloitte is also planning to do the same — and more — for select groups of workers starting in January. The changes could be an early signal of a broader shift: In a tight labor market, even highly valued benefits may be on the chopping block. Workers have fewer options for job-hopping, and once a few marquee employers make bold moves, others may be inclined to follow. ‘It legitimizes that action for everybody else,’ said former Google head of human resources Laszlo Bock, who now advises startup founders.” We suppose that it could be “the latest sign of employers flexing their power” when they get away with cutting benefits to cut costs and increase profits, but is the answer to complain and demand return or even increase of the benefits . . . or to restructure the system so that workers can share in the increased profits? As Walter Reuther noted in his testimony before a joint session of Congress, “If the workers get too much, then the argument is that that triggers inflationary pressures, and the counter argument is that if they don’t get their equity, then we have a recession because of inadequate purchasing power. We believe this approach (profit sharing) is a rational approach because you cooperate in creating the abundance that makes the progress possible, and then you share that progress after the fact, and not before the fact. Profit sharing would resolve the conflict between management apprehensions and worker expectations on the basis of solid economic facts as they materialize rather than on the basis of speculation as to what the future might hold…. If the workers had definite assurance of equitable shares in the profits of the corporations that employ them, they would see less need to seek an equitable balance between their gains and soaring profits through augmented increases in basic wage rates. This would be a desirable result from the standpoint of stabilization policy because profit sharing does not increase costs. Since profits are a residual, after all costs have been met, and since their size is not determinable until after customers have paid the prices charged for the firm’s products, profit sharing as such cannot be said to have any inflationary impact upon costs and prices…. Profit sharing in the form of stock distributions to workers would help to democratize the ownership of America’s vast corporate wealth.” (Testimony before the Joint Economic Committee of Congress, February 20, 1967.) And how can this be done? By adopting the Economic Democracy Act (EDA).
• What a Gas. When you consider that hydrogen is the most common element in the universe and the sun itself is hydrogen powered, it seems to make sense to shift to hydrogen fuel. We are not likely to run out of hydrogen anytime soon, but — as an article in Reuters asks — “How Realistic is a Hydrogen Powered Economy?” The bottom line is that if we get moving on it, it could be a reality in 20 years or so. But how to pay for it? Why not adopt the Economic Democracy Act (EDA).
• Party Like It’s 1929. As noted in an article from the Associated Press, “It seems so illogical. How can the U.S. stock market be setting records when gasoline prices are still expensive, U.S. households are feeling less confident about the economy and the war with Iran is still going? But for Wall Street, everything eventually comes back to a different, basic question: How much money are companies making? And at the moment, they're earning so much that investors are willing to pay higher prices than ever for a piece of ownership of U.S. companies.” This does seem illogical, but there’s a perfectly good reason behind it. Gargantuan amounts of money are being created by government and the private sector for speculation instead of investment in new capital and production, and the stock market is doing what it always does in such a situation, and which would happen in any market: More “demand” (i.e., money) is flooding in, and prices rise radically, just as they did in 1929. This is classic inflation: more units of currency “chasing” a limited amount of goods and services. When people begin catching on that the money they’ve been playing with has nothing behind it, there could be a gigantic crash which would dwarf that of 1929 . . . unless something is done now to put the real economy on a sound basis by adopting the Economic Democracy Act (EDA).
• The Price of Life. It’s from a website or ezine called “Upworthy,” but the fact we never heard of it means nothing — and what it is reporting means everything, at least when you’re talking about the cost of living and the promises of recent politicians to “Make America Affordable Again.” It seems that the cost of food is higher than it has ever been and there is no sign that it is going to decrease any time soon. As the article, “What’s the Average Family of Four Spending on Groceries These Days,” notes, “A recent report by GroceriesTracker found that the average American grocery bill for a family of four is about $1,430, with bills ranging from $950 to $1,760. It arrived at these numbers using the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s official food plan data, which has four tiers of grocery shoppers, ranging from “thrifty” to “liberal.” The average number chosen by GroceriesTracker reflects how much the average American family spends on the moderate tier.” It’s easy to scoff at the amounts . . . unless, of course, you have gone shopping. Ironically, the percentage of annual income spent on food has declined greatly over the past several decades. In 1960 about 17-18% of income went for food, while today it’s an average of 10.4%. That doesn’t make it any better, though, given that other costs have increased more than proportionately. Housing today is around 25-30%, while in 1960 it was around 11-16%. As for medical expenses and education, we won’t even bother to look. The plain fact is that due to the bizarre basis of the modern global economy thanks to Lord Keynes, prices keep rising and — thanks to advancing technology — labor income keeps falling in real terms. The only solution is to adopt the Economic Democracy Act (EDA).
• Didn’t See That Coming? It seems that the baffling war Trump declared on Iran is having some (additional) unintended consequences: higher tolls through the Panama Canal. As reported by the Associated Press, “Businesses have doled out up as much as $4 million to move boats through the Panama Canal with the Strait of Hormuz effectively closed, according to the Panama Canal Authority, in a move that has created a seismic shift in global trade flows. While passage through the waterway usually comes at a flat rate via reservations, companies without reservations can cross by paying an additional fee in an auction for slots, which are awarded to the highest bidder rather than waiting for days off the coast of Panama City.” This might be a nice little windfall for Panama, but it doesn’t do much to restore stability to trade or make America or anywhere else Great Again. The solution as we see it is to end all the stupid wars (we are willing to let smart wars continue if you can find any), and adopt the Economic Democracy Act (EDA).
• 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 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 (now with an imprimatur), 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., 52 or more copies) at the wholesale price, send an email to info@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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