Some of the news items this week relate directly to the Just Third Way of Economic Personalism, so we will start off with those. Otherwise, don’t expect anything too different from what has been happening and which increases the reasons for adopting the Economic Democracy Act as soon as possible:
• Getting Involved. Especially these days, when many people feel helpless when confronted with the local, national, and global situation, it’s easy just to give up and crawl back into (or under) your bed. That is why it was so encouraging this past Wednesday when CESJ got back in touch with Dev R., to explore ways of CESJ being able to take more advantage of social media, AI, and some of the other things that have people so worried. Dev sounded very positive about his ability to do something positive (which is much better than being positive about doing something negative . . .) but of course can’t be expected to do everything by himself. He can help set up a system, but it will require others actually doing the work to keep it going — and that means you. Of course, the end result we’re heading for is adoption of the Economic Democracy Act (EDA), but every step forward is a step in the right direction. We’ll keep you posted.
• Economic Personalism Task Force. We have had the idea for some time, but the recent issuance of Pope Leo XIV’s encyclical Magnifica Humanitas brought it to the fore: why not an encyclical on Economic Personalism? And a “Task Force” to teach people about Economic Personalism to prepare people for it? Yes, we know CESJ is not a Catholic or even a religious organization, but if you stop to think about it, neither is Catholic social teaching — shocking, right? No, it’s true: “Catholic” social teaching is based on the natural law, which applies to every human being of any faith, philosophy, or none. Yes, there is a lot of religious language in the social encyclicals. They are, after all, written (or at least signed off on) by the head of a major world religion, but if you read them carefully, you will notice the arguments are based on reason, that is, you should do these things not because God presumably said so, but because it’s the right thing to do. Obviously, we think adopting the Economic Democracy Act (EDA) is the right thing to do, so an encyclical on Economic Personalism would be a natural . . . as well as the equivalent from any other faith or philosophy.
• Rutgers University Launches “Employee Ownership Applied Research Lab.” Every now and then we get some news on the worker ownership front. This week we received word from Rutgers University about the launch of its Employee Ownership Applied Research Lab. As described on the site, “The Employee Ownership Research-to-Practice Hub website is designed to serve as a shared toolbox for the employee ownership field. The first initiative of the Employee Ownership Applied Research Lab at the Rutgers Institute for the Study of Employee Ownership and Profit Sharing, the Hub offers open-access resources and research insights to help practitioners and leaders build stronger employee-owned companies. It turns rigorous research on employee ownership into practical tools that strengthen businesses and expand economic opportunity for the broad working and middle classes.” Hopefully, one of the projects they will be researching will be the Economic Democracy Act (EDA).
• Nothing to See Here, Move Along. It used to be that there were lies, “darned” lies, and statistics. Now it seems to be lies, “darned” lies, and the nightly news, especially about the economy — and from the people who popularized the concept of “fake news.” As reported by ABC News, “National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett painted a rosy picture of the economy Sunday, downplaying Americans' growing pessimism about the economy amid high gas prices and rising inflation as the Iran war goes on. ‘Look at what’s happening to real wages,’ Hassett told ABC News’ ‘This Week’ co-anchor Jonathan Karl, claiming ‘really positive news’ about the economy was being ignored. ‘On balance, real incomes, real wages are going up.’ The latest report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed that wages did not increase at the same pace as inflation in April; wages were up 3.6% for the year and inflation was up 3.8%.” Despite popular belief to the contrary, you cannot create or change reality by wishing or manifesting with all your might. It would be much better if, instead of trying to fool all of the people all of the time, the current administration would simply adopt the Economic Democracy Act (EDA).
• A “Reshoring” Success . . . Sort Of. America has gotten so great again that China is looking to the United States for cheap labor for its manufacturing. No, it’s true. As reported in the Washington Post, “If all goes well, about 800 American workers will begin producing a combination clothes washer and dryer here [Louisville, Kentucky] next spring. The work, which also includes a line of front-load washers, will mark a milestone in GE Appliances’ $6.5 billion, 13-year bid to boost domestic manufacturing. This reshoring success story has drawn plaudits from the White House, even though a Chinese corporation now owns GE Appliances and its American boss complains about President Donald Trump’s tariffs.” It just strikes us as ironic that, instead of selling the company to the workers in the first place, GE was sold to China . . . which then turned around and “created jobs” for American workers who would have been much better off owning the company. Evidently the powers-that-be think it’s much better to create wage serfs providing cheap labor for foreign-owned companies than adopt the Economic Democracy Act (EDA).
• The SpaceX Trap. It is no news that the upcoming SpaceX IPO has been making us very nervous, if only because of its sheer size: it’s one of those “too big to fail” transactions that — even (or especially) if it is successful — will change the face of the financial markets forever. On top of that, it has a high probability of not living up to its hype and will likely only succeed in transferring massive amounts of cash from investors’ pockets into Elon Musk’s already bulging coffers. As reported in Yahoo! Finance, “SpaceX may be a generational business. History says IPO day can still be a terrible entry point. Across more than 9,000 operating-company initial public offerings from 1975 to 2021, 60% of returns finished flat or lower three years after the first close, while only 16% more than doubled. The average return was positive — but only because a small group of moonshots pulled it higher.” In other words, based on statistics alone, the SpaceX IPO will probably lose money for those getting in on the ground floor. In addition to that, even if people wanted to buy it from the original investors . . . where would they get the money? The IPO has the potential to drain all available liquidity out of the system, leaving nothing with which to bid up the price. As for selling your current holdings? To whom? Only Musk will have the money. It therefore has the potential to be a giant Ponzi scheme where the initial investors make out only by selling their shares to people who got their money from the originator of the scheme, then use it to buy into the scheme! It would be much better simply to 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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